The Coralux, sold by RapidLed is an Arduino used for light control. It seems to lack the ability to control a relay, unless you dedicate a channel to one.
odam2k
Well-Known Member
I just googled it, and it looks like it just outputs PWM to a PWM LED Controller...
It does do some pretty cool stuff, providing realistic lighting for an aquarium, including the ability to enter coordinates, and it will emulate sunrise/sunset for that location... and lightning, etc... not much use for us though...
We threw some ideas around on another thread, and when I can find time, I'll see if I can get something working using an arduino and a relay...
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- #83
Today is 82 in our area according to google. My attic temperature is almost 100 degrees. I turned the temperature dial down a little so that the a/c turns off the compressor but keeps the fan on before it gets so cold that my arduino turns off the a/c. You can see in the graph where I circled, that is where I turned the temperature knob down. It maintains a much more constant temperature. This is the hottest day so far. My humidifier is on medium setting and it can't keep up with what the a/c is removing. I guess this is part of the learning process, I will have to fine tune my setup differently for different seasons.
The attic temperature refers to a sensor near my tents. The outdoor sensor is near a vent but the air mixes with the attic air so it's not very accurate. I plan to install ducting to that vent to pull in cooler air to keep the attic area cooler.
The attic temperature refers to a sensor near my tents. The outdoor sensor is near a vent but the air mixes with the attic air so it's not very accurate. I plan to install ducting to that vent to pull in cooler air to keep the attic area cooler.
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- #84
Yesterday was a learning experience. The outdoor temperature was 82. The attic hit 101 and with the a/c going continuously my tent got up to 83. I would say that I'm not ready for summer yet. My attic space was 20 degrees warmer than the outside. I'm going to see if I can circulate some cooler air into my area of the attic with a fan. My goal would be to bring the attic vs outside difference hopefully to just 10 degrees. I also have some some 4 layer ducting and single aluminum layer ducting. The aluminum felt cold to the touch so I think I think I will convert it all to 4 layer or maybe even insulated. My ducting T's felt very cold to the touch and had condensation. I use T's because my air tent only has 3 ducting ports, I use one for in, 1 for out and 1 for exhaust to the attic. If I can find a tent with 5 ports that fits I can eliminate the T's. There are no 5 port tents where the depth is only 20 inches (fits between attic 2x4 trellis). I might consider getting a 24 inch depth tent and modifying it to use my short polls to make it work.
I think my goal would be to maintain 75 in the tent with lights on while the outside is 95. On the days it does get over 100 I'm willing to accept the tent going to 85.
I think my goal would be to maintain 75 in the tent with lights on while the outside is 95. On the days it does get over 100 I'm willing to accept the tent going to 85.
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- #85
I took over one the roof air ports, there are a couple in my area of the attic, I attached a duct to it using cardboard and duct tape. The duct is connected to an inline fan that turns on if the temperature is over 67 in the attic. This will draw in air from the air port and blow to the back of my corner, right next to the A/C exhaust.
So far it has been working well, the attic temperature seems to be 10 degrees above the outside air instead of 20 degrees. The outdoor temperature, according to google is 83 right now. My air intake is reporting 89 degrees (I put the sensor in the duct) and my attic temperature, near the tents is 93. I feel like these are similar conditions when the attic was at 101 before I added this new fan. The A/C is currently not having a problem maintaining 75 degrees
I ordered a 5 duct port 2x2.5 ft tent for the air mixing tent. This should allow me to reduce the amount of ducting and get rid of the two duct T's I have right now. At 24 inches deep this should be a challenge since the top left corner of the tent will need to fit between 2 2x4's that are 22 inches apart. The hardest part of this operation will be that once I start it, I can't stop until it is done otherwise my grow won't survive very well in the attic which has 40 degree temperature swings during the day.
Seems like there is always the next thing to upgrade.
So far it has been working well, the attic temperature seems to be 10 degrees above the outside air instead of 20 degrees. The outdoor temperature, according to google is 83 right now. My air intake is reporting 89 degrees (I put the sensor in the duct) and my attic temperature, near the tents is 93. I feel like these are similar conditions when the attic was at 101 before I added this new fan. The A/C is currently not having a problem maintaining 75 degrees
I ordered a 5 duct port 2x2.5 ft tent for the air mixing tent. This should allow me to reduce the amount of ducting and get rid of the two duct T's I have right now. At 24 inches deep this should be a challenge since the top left corner of the tent will need to fit between 2 2x4's that are 22 inches apart. The hardest part of this operation will be that once I start it, I can't stop until it is done otherwise my grow won't survive very well in the attic which has 40 degree temperature swings during the day.
Seems like there is always the next thing to upgrade.
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- #86
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- #87
It got up to 96 inside the attic yesterday, the outdoor temperature was probably about 87. At this point the A/C ran continuously and was able to maintain a temperature of 75. I circled the flat part of the tent temperature. It stayed flat because the A/C wasn't turning on an off. This should be a good metric for me to keep in mind in the future as I modify my system to help it with the hot summer that is fast approaching.
96 in my max attic temperature where I can keep my temperature at 75 in the tents.
96 in my max attic temperature where I can keep my temperature at 75 in the tents.
odam2k
Well-Known Member
You're doing a great job, I'm sure you'll be comforted when you are away
Can you access this while you are away to keep an eye on things?
Can you access this while you are away to keep an eye on things?
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- #89
You're doing a great job, I'm sure you'll be comforted when you are away
Can you access this while you are away to keep an eye on things?
I use my own local Blynk Server. When I'm away from home, I use OpenVPN on my phone to connect to my home network then the Blynk app can find my local server without exposing the local server to the internet. OpenVPN and ssh are the only ports I open on my network to the outside.
With the VPN I can also see the camera feeds in the tents without exposing those camera to the internet. I like checking those too because I have a standalone temperature/humidity monitor the camera can see. I like to verify that the arduino sensors are in sync with the monitor.
odam2k
Well-Known Member
What are you using for your graphs, they look like they are a full computer screen.... Is it pulling the data from your database?
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- #91
It is Graphana. It is a service that renders graphs in a browser. My arudino's write sensor data to the server every 5 minutes and that is stored in mysql. Graphan queries mysql directly.
odam2k
Well-Known Member
I set it up, it functions, and can access my data... It's nowhere near as intuitive as Blynk, that's for sure... I watched the beginners guide to setting up a dashboard video they offer, but it's for an older version...
I'll keep playing, I like the way it looks...
Sorry, back to YOUR project now...
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- #93
I saw another record heat day
It was 79 in the tent and the attic was 102. So the a/c was not able to keep up.
Putting the fan in the attic to better help bring in cooler outside air definitely helped. Now on to phase 2. I have the new tent to replace my current air mixing tent. The new tent has 5 ports which will allow me to reducing the amount of ducting. The new tent is 1680D instead of 600D for material. I wonder if they will help at all for insulation. To make the tent loose 2 inches in depth on the left side I hope I will be able to use bars from my current tent. I'm also trying to think of ways to handle my a/c unit without cutting a hole in the side of the tent.
After that is done I will see if it made a difference. If it is not enough to bring down temperatures, I'm also trying to think of ways to insulate the tents from the attic. I could surround them in fiber board, but I'm not sure if that would do much if I can't figure an easy way to handle the door, I don't really want to build little rooms out of plywood and add weather sealed doors. So far for my attic grow I have not made any changes to the attic itself, I could tear down my entire operation in less than an hour and it would look like I was never there. When the kids are off to college I'm definitely moving this to the garage
It was 79 in the tent and the attic was 102. So the a/c was not able to keep up.
Putting the fan in the attic to better help bring in cooler outside air definitely helped. Now on to phase 2. I have the new tent to replace my current air mixing tent. The new tent has 5 ports which will allow me to reducing the amount of ducting. The new tent is 1680D instead of 600D for material. I wonder if they will help at all for insulation. To make the tent loose 2 inches in depth on the left side I hope I will be able to use bars from my current tent. I'm also trying to think of ways to handle my a/c unit without cutting a hole in the side of the tent.
After that is done I will see if it made a difference. If it is not enough to bring down temperatures, I'm also trying to think of ways to insulate the tents from the attic. I could surround them in fiber board, but I'm not sure if that would do much if I can't figure an easy way to handle the door, I don't really want to build little rooms out of plywood and add weather sealed doors. So far for my attic grow I have not made any changes to the attic itself, I could tear down my entire operation in less than an hour and it would look like I was never there. When the kids are off to college I'm definitely moving this to the garage
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- #94
I'm at week 6 of flowering and thought I would just show a random shot of my flower tent. It is a bit cramped in there with 3 plants. I'm already trying to figure out if I can put a 3x3 tent in there instead of the 36x20 inch tent I have now. It would involve modifying the tent because of the angle of the roof at that spot. I guess we will see how my air tent modifications go first. From left to right, White Widow, Pineapple Chunk and Blue Mystic. I did some topping, but that was all for training, maybe in future grows I will get more adventurous and try LST.
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- #95
I've been experimenting with time lapse. I have taken 1700 pictures of the last week at 5 minute intervals. Unfortunately the camera is attached to the tent pole, so every time I go into the tent it bumps the camera lot. I have taken a lot of the shakes out with software, but so far I haven't found anything to remove the shakes completely. This is days 9 to 18. The last couple of days it has really taken off.
DrewT
Well-Known Member
Hugin - Panorama photo stitcher, specifically align_image_stack? What software you using? Cool gif!
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- #97
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- #98
I manually cropped the image, about 90 frames, then I fed it into Hugin. I feel that this one is more stable, but it was kind of a pain to make. I think the problem is how much my camera moves. I'm pretty sure a real camera on a tripod would work much better. It also doesn't help that I picked up the pot a few times and didn't get it back down in the exact same spot.
I manually cropped the image, about 90 frames, then I fed it into Hugin. I feel that this one is more stable, but it was kind of a pain to make. I think the problem is how much my camera moves. I'm pretty sure a real camera on a tripod would work much better. It also doesn't help that I picked up the pot a few times and didn't get it back down in the exact same spot.
It's very close. Sometimes we need to take the attitude that close is good enough. That was one of the hardest things for me to learn. I'm close to being a perfectionist.
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- #100
Yeah, sometimes I think it is a fine line between having OCD and just believing, if you are going to do something you should do it well
