First Grow

heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
caexx said:
Just something down to road to be aware. Not sure if this is your first time using a tent but you may end up having temp / humidity issues as the plants get bigger. Do you have ac in the room and a fire extinguisher? Fire balls?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up.

- Yes, I do have AC. The tent sees an average air temp of 75-76 when I am home AC on, and 81 when I leave the house on a hot summer day and leave the AC off. It gets to around 77% RH inside the tent when I get home from work.

I can add-in a smoke detector that activates the water pump and sprays water inside the tent. That way, when I am not home and if the tent catches on fire I am safe. To be extra safe, I will look into the price of the fire extinguisher balls see if I can find one under $50. I look around online and saw a vast price fluctuation.


Heads up: If you buy Capacitive Soil Moisture sensors, many of them are built poorly and there are vast QC issues at the moment. For some reason I was getting bad readings from my moisture sensors inside my seedling Blue Gelato soil. After troubleshooting, checking wire terminations, and ensuring my wiring was correct, I researched online and found out that soil moisture sensors are often faulty due to manufacturers not ensuring to include either a) the voltage regulator b) not using the right timer chip and cheaping out, or c) not drilling the PCB correctly where the resistors are.


I had 5 new sensors from my last order, and found two that work well. Now that I got my soil moisture sensors calibrated I can relax and just fill the water bucket once every 2 weeks, and the automated system takes care of the rest. My lights are on a scheduler, including my two fans. I run my grow light (Mars Hydro TS600W) 10:30pm to 4:30pm daily and same for the clip-on circulation fan. The inline fan is also on it's own schedule.

This video explains why soil moisture sensors often sold for R Pis or Arduinos fail - Link Below

Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensors *Why 82% faulty* and How To Buy Good Ones!
 
C

caexx

Member
heydiddlydoo said:
Thanks for the heads up.

- Yes, I do have AC. The tent sees an average air temp of 75-76 when I am home AC on, and 81 when I leave the house on a hot summer day and leave the AC off. It gets to around 77% RH inside the tent when I get home from work.

I can add-in a smoke detector that activates the water pump and sprays water inside the tent. That way, when I am not home and if the tent catches on fire I am safe. To be extra safe, I will look into the price of the fire extinguisher balls see if I can find one under $50. I look around online and saw a vast price fluctuation.


Heads up: If you buy Capacitive Soil Moisture sensors, many of them are built poorly and there are vast QC issues at the moment. For some reason I was getting bad readings from my moisture sensors inside my seedling Blue Gelato soil. After troubleshooting, checking wire terminations, and ensuring my wiring was correct, I researched online and found out that soil moisture sensors are often faulty due to manufacturers not ensuring to include either a) the voltage regulator b) not using the right timer chip and cheaping out, or c) not drilling the PCB correctly where the resistors are.


I had 5 new sensors from my last order, and found two that work well. Now that I got my soil moisture sensors calibrated I can relax and just fill the water bucket once every 2 weeks, and the automated system takes care of the rest. My lights are on a scheduler, including my two fans. I run my grow light (Mars Hydro TS600W) 10:30pm to 4:30pm daily and same for the clip-on circulation fan. The inline fan is also on it's own schedule.

This video explains why soil moisture sensors often sold for R Pis or Arduinos fail - Link Below

Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensors *Why 82% faulty* and How To Buy Good Ones!
Click to expand...
It is pretty clear you have your bases covered. You are not a fool or a regular hobbyist but professional in your approach. Looking forward to seeing your grows. Gonna follow too.
 
Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Put those grow bags up on some kind of riser - it will eliminate soggy bottoms and help aerate ( which is why it is a breathable fabric bag ) .

Also no need to treat those plants like a science experiment - keep things simple. That medium in your bags is plenty to sustain growth for many weeks alone - without adding anything.

Always let the host medium do the initial work.
Plant will acclimate and root out without dumping unnecessary things into it. There no need to fully saturate containers ( young seedling ) until plant is growing out. Keep watering to just around seedling.

Example : Plastic crate ( riser )

IMG_5590.jpeg

GL :bigjoint:
 
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heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
Budzbuddha said:
Put those grow bags up on some kind of riser - it will eliminate soggy bottoms and help aerate ( which is why it is a breathable fabric bag ) .

Also no need to treat those plants like a science experiment - keep things simple. That medium in your bags is plenty to sustain growth for many weeks alone - without adding anything.

Always let the host medium do the initial work.
Plant will acclimate and root out without dumping unnecessary things into it. There no need to fully saturate containers ( young seedling ) until plant is growing out. Keep watering to just around seedling.

GL
Click to expand...
a) plant bags sit on risers * not visible in photo
b) too late; already mixed ocean forest and some happy frog
c) thanks will keep in mind ;
 
heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
Budzbuddha said:
Also - Both soils are buffered so Tap water ( city ) can be used without drama.

Treat it like a houseplant.
Click to expand...
Thanks friend.
I fill my water container and let it sit ; chlorine, should evaporate out. I’m so happy to see thek
Budzbuddha said:
Also - Both soils are buffered so Tap water ( city ) can be used without drama.

Treat it like a houseplant.
Click to expand...
IMG_0672.jpeg

^ Blue Gelato

IMG_0673.jpeg
OG Kush^
IMG_0674.jpeg

Plant stands I got shown below the pot


- The way watering works is I fill my 5 gal bucket with water. When the soil moisture sensor reads low moisture, my water pump turns on and a solenoid allows water only into the plant that needs it. Each pot has a dedicated normally closed 12v dc solenoid plumbed to it.

I tuned my code to sensor feedback and the moisture level is accurate now. It took some testing and debugging. I’m happy to say it’s a low maintenance grow project.

I honestly have been wanting to grow since I was in HS as a teenager but could not living with parents.

I started reading since I was 15-16 years old. Now that I’m almost 30 I get to live my dream.

Exciting to see them grow so fast and strong
 
C

caexx

Member
You got a lot of good going.. if I can suggest somehow moving the drippers or whatever away from the stem of the plant to encourage root growth. Lots of water near the roots and they won't grow to search for it. And you want a huge root system.
 
amneziaHaze

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
those humidity senor thingies that you stick in the ground will rust in a month from acids... when i made an automatic system i made it tell me when to water until one day it said water me just water me that day i flooded my house XD.you can break 2 pencils and get the graphite it works better
 
heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
amneziaHaze said:
those humidity senor thingies that you stick in the ground will rust in a month from acids... when i made an automatic system i made it tell me when to water until one day it said water me just water me that day i flooded my house XD.you can break 2 pencils and get the graphite it works better
Click to expand...
Hey bud, you make a valid point, and you're right. Do you by any chance remember if your sensors were "resistive-based?" The ones I used are "capacitive" meaning inside soil, they can't corrode. It's a perk or "upgrade" as opposed to the cheaper resistive-based sensors. Anyways, thanks for sharing, I look forward to engaging with my fellow growers weekly! #HappyGrow #HappyLife
 
heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
caexx said:
You got a lot of good going.. if I can suggest somehow moving the drippers or whatever away from the stem of the plant to encourage root growth. Lots of water near the roots and they won't grow to search for it. And you want a huge root system.
Click to expand...
Hi bud, thanks for sharing, and your advice. As a new grower, I appreciate your feedback!

- I relocated them more towards the outer edge of the pot.

#NedsGrow #HappyGrow :D
 
heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
Coming from a mech. eng. background, I must admit, failure modes are often key in design.
What are failure modes? We sit together in a team and come up with all the ways a device may potentially fail.

Failure Modes​
- Water pump relay gets "stuck" closed - pumping water when it should be off, flooding the tent
Resolution: Solenoid valves are installed using Y-branch adapter, and are normally closed. So even if the pump is ON, it's dead-headed against closed valves, and will most likely burn out.

- Any of the 6 devices wired into my relays are now permanently ON due to failed relay stuck closed. What does stuck closed mean? The coil may fail (the coil needs to receive a voltage excitation to pull the contacts closed), OR, the contacts "weld" shut together due to high current.
Resolution: Move failed device to new relay (I have 8 channels), 6 being used, 2 free. Easy fix. Upgrade relay board to solid state relays (higher quality and more cycle times)

- Over-watering and plant death
Resolution: The code I wrote checks for soil moisture level, and only allows the water pump to run 2 seconds. It's a very elementary logic. "Water 2 sec" - Read Sensor - If Good, Do Nothing - If Not, Water Again. If wet = 2500 and dry = 500, (analog sensor values from 0-3.3v) , then if between 2500-500, do nothing. Below 500, water. Above 2500, do nothing.

- Loss of Wi-Fi Connection - Internet or Power Outage
Resolution: Power outages last 4-8 hours in my locality due to storms - not a major deal. Wi-Fi - Even without Wi-Fi, the micro-controller has instructions. The only drawback is I won't be able to read data on my cloud platform.

- Flooding from plant
Resolution: Put a safety float switch in my tent that "rises" if water level pushes it up, opening my circuit and shutting off water pump

- Solenoid failure
Resolution: These 12v dc solenoids were purchased from AliExpress for about 5 bucks each. I can buy more to keep on hand, or upgrade the two to a different vendor with better QC. So far, even in beta testing, they survived. I've been experimenting with my electrical components for months before starting the grow to ensure stability.


All of this is valid, and I plan to make minor part upgrades/clean up/continuous improvement along the way.

What am I going to do if the sensor feedback loop for watering does not accurately water the plants?
Solution: Easy, I can put the water pump on a automated schedule. Make it simple, " water once a day at this time, for this duration."
That would eliminate soil moisture sensor input being a requirement to activate the pump, and I can simply re-purpose the sensors as read-outs..

Here is a snip of the cloud platform I use Arduino Cloud

Snip.png
 
heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
*Added WebCam*
- Remote monitoring when I go out of town for 2 days. $10 was what I paid for the camera (ESP32-CAM).

cam.png

*Moved grow light control to mechanical timer*

timer.jpg
-Grow light relay would sometimes "stick" closed - leaving my light on for extended periods when it was supposed to be OFF. Decided it would be more reliable to use a mechanical timer.

Only thing being controlled by my Arduino is: clip on fan (110v), and Vivosun exhaust fan (runs for 10 min at the start of each hour).

Happy growing!
 
heydiddlydoo

heydiddlydoo

Active Member
amneziaHaze said:
yea you never know when will a leaf grow in to it.

and ty for the capacitive soil meter i didnt know they existed,long time since i played with the arduino
Click to expand...
No problem! Arduino is a fun way to build something from scratch. It's good if you know basic AC/DC circuits, controls wiring, and the Arduino IDE for coding. If you are looking for a middle-ground solution (no coding, but still some hands-on/plug N play), I found this Energizer smart outlet which would work well for a "DIY piece - it -together" grow tent project.

This outlet connects to a free cloud app from Energizer, and the outlets are relays. -->> Energizer Smart Outlets - Lowes

You could really save a ton of $ piecing together a kit as opposed to buying an AC infinity kit. If you look on AliExpress.com you will find cheap grow tents for a fraction of the price of what Vivosun sells. For example, I paid like $50 for my 3x3x6ft tent ; brand is GreenHut.

Happy Growing! :weed:
 
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