Yes, of course you did.I decided to hang my temp/humidity sensor in a 3D printed case using a 3D printed clip.
Nice work.
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Yes, of course you did.I decided to hang my temp/humidity sensor in a 3D printed case using a 3D printed clip.
I would've just put a note on the outside of the tent door reminding me to turn off the override, lol!
Your way is a much better long term solution though, especially with your automated system.
Do you think Vivosun would be interested in something like this for their growhub system?
Maybe @LKABudMan would be able to give you some input on that? He's using the growhub system now.Lol, and I did that for a time but what really started rustling my jimmies was when I'm in there inspecting, feeding, whatever and the exhaust fan comes on, then in 5 mins goes off, and the humidifier comes on. Then I had to go find a device to turn it off and get back to what I was doing. That's when I knew it was time to figure out how to automate my automations, heh.
As for Vivosun, that's a good question. I don't know what their system can do and if a door sensor would add to or just complicate their stuff. Maybe I'll look into it more and reach out to them.
Tent Update - It's a long one
This post has nothing to do with the plants so feel free to skip it! This is only to document my technical efforts to automate the grow tent as much as I possibly can. If you're interested, sweet! Stick around for this update. Otherwise I'll see you in the next post!
As a recap I'm using my own server to host a system called Home Assistant. I use this throughout my home to control LED lights, my ac/furnace, wifi plugs, etc etc. I'm also using it in the grow tent. Currently my lights, humidifier, and exhaust fan are being controlled by Home Assistant.
The temp and humidity is checked every 1 minute and if humidity falls below my range, the humidifier turns on. Once it reached the max, it turns off. Every hour, on the hour, the exhaust fan runs for 5 minutes to cycle the air in the tent. It also overrides the humidifier (if it's running) so I'm not running them both at the same time.
This system has been wonderful and a really hands off way to keep an ideal environment. However, I have developed a problem that needs solved: tent state when the door is open. Right now I have a button I press on a dashboard (reachable via laptop, phone, or tablet) that puts the tent in "override mode" meaning the humidifier doesn't run. Why run the humidifier with the door open? It does nothing, all the humidity exits via the door. So I override the automation (manually) by pressing a button. What's the issue here? Sometimes I'm so high I forget to turn the override button off. Okay okay, it happens so frequently I need a solution.
Secondly, the exhaust fan uses my override button to control the humidifier. This means that 5 minutes after the top of every hour the override button is automatically turned off and the readings on the environment continue. And since the door was open, it needs humidity, so the humidifier always turns on right after the air is cycled. This includes when the tent is open. I hope I've made it clear: I hit a button on a dashboard to tell the tent "stop automating things". When I'm done in there, I forget to hit the button again to tell it to take over the environment for me. Not only this, but when the exhaust fan automation runs it resets that override button. So if I'm in the tent at 5 minutes passed the hour (which does happen) the humidifier kicks on.
Then I have to stop what I'm doing, find my phone/tablet or go to my laptop and override the system again to turn it off. I'm entirely too lazy for this (which is why I always forget to turn the override off in the first place) so here's my solution.
Front view:
Rear view:
The idea is to sense when the tent door is open. I thought a good bit on 'how' am I going to sense this? I could do a magnet and a reed switch (think window or door sensor) but there's nothing to attach the magnet to based on the construction of my particular tent. A microswitch is out of the question because the tent walls and door are not rigid enough to rig something to the zipper itself. So I concluded distance is going to be the best way to accomplish this, and I can do that with an HC-SR4 ultrasonic sensor. This board has two sonic cylinders on the front, one which pulses ultrasounds and the other which is to receive them after the signal is bounced off of something. This gives us distance to objects. This particular sensor can only sense a maximum of 2 meters away (in my testing I couldn't even get that, but don't need it...more on this in a sec).
Originally I thought of a small case to hang at the back of the tent, but in this 3'x3' tent, there's too much going on in between the door and the location of the sensor (light hangers mostly for now, but when the plants get big everything will be in the way) so I thought hmm, why not place it 'close' to the door to indicate a closed state. You see this sensor has a 'max' of 6' so when you try to take a reading beyond the sensor's timeout value it comes back as 'unknown'. This is super simple to setup in home assistant so as to say "If the distance of this sensor is 0.1m or less, the tent door is closed, control the environmentals" and then we also have "If the distance of this sensor is unknown, the tent door is open, stop controlling the environmentals.
Great, we have the sensor, now we need a wifi board and there's a plethora of them on the internet that utilize the ESP framework. I happen to have a shit ton of D1 Minis (ESP8266) laying around so the sensor is plugged into that, and then that's plugged into the wall. That's all the wiring needed.
Alrighty after spending some time designing and measuring, and 4.5 hours of printing later, we have this:
I needed a way to install the bracket without removing the tent wall/ceiling (and also to be able to print without supports) so the tube connectors were made to be installed with a single screw. Anywhere you see a screw I've installed a knurled threaded brass sleeve for it to screw in to. These are simple to install by getting them lined up and using a hot soldering iron to heat the sleeve, which then melts the plastic a bit allowing the sleeve to be installed. Once the plastic is cooled the brass doesn't move at all and leaves me with a solid mounting point to screw in to.
This bracket puts the sensor an inch below the zipper line and an inch away from the door when the door is closed. The sensor takes its reading every 2 seconds (which is configurable) so I have a near-immediate response when I open the door and if the humidifier is on or I'm currently in an air cycle it'll pause those states and not resume them again until the door is closed.
Whew, this was a long one! But I know when I was just learning about all this stuff googling was the only way to learn. So I want to provide walls of details to try to answer any initial questions or provide inspiration so anyone can get something like this set up! Is it needed? Absolutely not, but it's fun to put together and now I have a hands-off way of detecting when the tent door is open. It's literally only for my laziness, but that's a good excuse in my book to put in the effort!
So it's inside the tent. . That would be the issues. Take one outside tent one inside to make the difference up. Cause of air flow when u open the tent changes cause all outside air rushes in. I had to do same thing. I have heat outside the tent for room temp and rh factors. I couldn't keep mine right. Till I figured out what works. Lost four plants for mold I processTent Update - It's a long one
This post has nothing to do with the plants so feel free to skip it! This is only to document my technical efforts to automate the grow tent as much as I possibly can. If you're interested, sweet! Stick around for this update. Otherwise I'll see you in the next post!
As a recap I'm using my own server to host a system called Home Assistant. I use this throughout my home to control LED lights, my ac/furnace, wifi plugs, etc etc. I'm also using it in the grow tent. Currently my lights, humidifier, and exhaust fan are being controlled by Home Assistant.
The temp and humidity is checked every 1 minute and if humidity falls below my range, the humidifier turns on. Once it reached the max, it turns off. Every hour, on the hour, the exhaust fan runs for 5 minutes to cycle the air in the tent. It also overrides the humidifier (if it's running) so I'm not running them both at the same time.
This system has been wonderful and a really hands off way to keep an ideal environment. However, I have developed a problem that needs solved: tent state when the door is open. Right now I have a button I press on a dashboard (reachable via laptop, phone, or tablet) that puts the tent in "override mode" meaning the humidifier doesn't run. Why run the humidifier with the door open? It does nothing, all the humidity exits via the door. So I override the automation (manually) by pressing a button. What's the issue here? Sometimes I'm so high I forget to turn the override button off. Okay okay, it happens so frequently I need a solution.
Secondly, the exhaust fan uses my override button to control the humidifier. This means that 5 minutes after the top of every hour the override button is automatically turned off and the readings on the environment continue. And since the door was open, it needs humidity, so the humidifier always turns on right after the air is cycled. This includes when the tent is open. I hope I've made it clear: I hit a button on a dashboard to tell the tent "stop automating things". When I'm done in there, I forget to hit the button again to tell it to take over the environment for me. Not only this, but when the exhaust fan automation runs it resets that override button. So if I'm in the tent at 5 minutes passed the hour (which does happen) the humidifier kicks on.
Then I have to stop what I'm doing, find my phone/tablet or go to my laptop and override the system again to turn it off. I'm entirely too lazy for this (which is why I always forget to turn the override off in the first place) so here's my solution.
Front view:
Rear view:
The idea is to sense when the tent door is open. I thought a good bit on 'how' am I going to sense this? I could do a magnet and a reed switch (think window or door sensor) but there's nothing to attach the magnet to based on the construction of my particular tent. A microswitch is out of the question because the tent walls and door are not rigid enough to rig something to the zipper itself. So I concluded distance is going to be the best way to accomplish this, and I can do that with an HC-SR4 ultrasonic sensor. This board has two sonic cylinders on the front, one which pulses ultrasounds and the other which is to receive them after the signal is bounced off of something. This gives us distance to objects. This particular sensor can only sense a maximum of 2 meters away (in my testing I couldn't even get that, but don't need it...more on this in a sec).
Originally I thought of a small case to hang at the back of the tent, but in this 3'x3' tent, there's too much going on in between the door and the location of the sensor (light hangers mostly for now, but when the plants get big everything will be in the way) so I thought hmm, why not place it 'close' to the door to indicate a closed state. You see this sensor has a 'max' of 6' so when you try to take a reading beyond the sensor's timeout value it comes back as 'unknown'. This is super simple to setup in home assistant so as to say "If the distance of this sensor is 0.1m or less, the tent door is closed, control the environmentals" and then we also have "If the distance of this sensor is unknown, the tent door is open, stop controlling the environmentals.
Great, we have the sensor, now we need a wifi board and there's a plethora of them on the internet that utilize the ESP framework. I happen to have a shit ton of D1 Minis (ESP8266) laying around so the sensor is plugged into that, and then that's plugged into the wall. That's all the wiring needed.
Alrighty after spending some time designing and measuring, and 4.5 hours of printing later, we have this:
I needed a way to install the bracket without removing the tent wall/ceiling (and also to be able to print without supports) so the tube connectors were made to be installed with a single screw. Anywhere you see a screw I've installed a knurled threaded brass sleeve for it to screw in to. These are simple to install by getting them lined up and using a hot soldering iron to heat the sleeve, which then melts the plastic a bit allowing the sleeve to be installed. Once the plastic is cooled the brass doesn't move at all and leaves me with a solid mounting point to screw in to.
This bracket puts the sensor an inch below the zipper line and an inch away from the door when the door is closed. The sensor takes its reading every 2 seconds (which is configurable) so I have a near-immediate response when I open the door and if the humidifier is on or I'm currently in an air cycle it'll pause those states and not resume them again until the door is closed.
Whew, this was a long one! But I know when I was just learning about all this stuff googling was the only way to learn. So I want to provide walls of details to try to answer any initial questions or provide inspiration so anyone can get something like this set up! Is it needed? Absolutely not, but it's fun to put together and now I have a hands-off way of detecting when the tent door is open. It's literally only for my laziness, but that's a good excuse in my book to put in the effort!
So it's inside the tent. . That would be the issues. Take one outside tent one inside to make the difference up. Cause of air flow when u open the tent changes cause all outside air rushes in. I had to do same thing. I have heat outside the tent for room temp and rh factors. I couldn't keep mine right. Till I figured out what works. Lost four plants for mold I process
Your automation is BADASS!! I love your bracket!!
I just breadboarded an automation to monitor temperature, humidity, LUX and soil moisture. I send the data to the cloud where I can monitor it. I am testing a water valve and flow sensor to automatically water when I am away. This would be a great addition to a SIP setup (Maybe in the future for me). I am embarrassed to post these photos because I am in the early stages.
I send the data to io.adafruit.com. I built dashboards to monitor the data. You get 30 datapoints/min for free.
I would love to exchange ideas and tech on this!!
I was just saying you will find a way. Not so many words. Just moving something to a certain spot can improve that.Hey 7! I'm not exactly sure what you mean. My goal was to turn the exhaust fan and the humidifier off when the tent door is open, and I wanted it to happen automatically. The environment is perfect when the tent door is closed: 76*F (could be warmer, admittedly, so not 'perfect' eh?) and maintains humidity between 65% and 75%. When the door is open and the humidifier is on, all the humid air goes into the room. So no point in running the humidifier with the door open. I don't mind that the humidity leaves the tent because it only takes 3-4 minutes to go from 53% to 80%.
I do know what you mean about controlling the outside-the-tent environment though and that's not possible for me right now. Heating or humidifying the room it's in would increase electrical costs considerably. Creating the door sensor was literally for my own shear laziness, I promise! Lol.
First off. What you have with the buttons and sensors and graphs is awesome! If I can ever get my hands on a Pi zero I would love to add a camera. I swear I am buying as many as I can!! I am not interested in hosting all my data in house. I travel a lot and I want my data accessible from anywhere. I am not a big journaling kind of guy so I don't document my stuff.Hey Urban and welcome to my journal! I appreciate your kind words about the setup, thank you!
You should never be embarrassed by prototypes! That's all I want to see, really. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time, it's good to see what others are up to so everyone can build on it together and come out on top. That's what it's all about!
Your setup looks really good! I'm really liking all the nodes. Do you have a journal or anything where you've detailed what you have going on?
I'm all about exchanging ideas and thoughts and is the exact reason I spend the time chronicling what I'm doing on the tech side of things. So I do have some questions:
1. Battery voltage: What is handling that? Your MCU looks to be an ESP32, but all of the ESP32s I have don't have the JST connector there for the battery. But because it's plugged directly in, does that MCU have voltage logic onboard? I mean it has to, right? That's really cool and something I've been looking more into lately: battery powered nodes. The one thing I don't want to add is a whole separate voltage controller. So whatever MCU that is, and if it has onboard battery handling, is exactly what I've been looking for.
2. What is the red board below your temp/humidity sensor?
3. What is the board to the left on your breadboard? Has G, Y, G, B, R wiring plugged into it.
4. Tell me more about your soil sensor if you don't mind! Two years ago I looked all over for a way to monitor moisture gradient within a soil bed outdoors. Most of the soil moisture sensors that look like the one you have are only about 2" long, and only measures even less of the gradient. What model is yours, and how deep does it go?
That should be a good start. Have you thought of keeping all your data in-house? You could use a raspberry pi running home assistant to receive all of your sensor values and view them on a dashboard. Here's the most up-dated iteration of mine:
As you can see I need to refill my humidifier, which I'll do after this post. But that's the power of home assistant: not only are you monitoring your setup but it'll also automatically react to things based on the sensor values. You also have an unlimited amount of data points per minute as well. Something to look into!
I am not interested in hosting all my data in house. I travel a lot and I want my data accessible from anywhere.
I am going to do some reading on Home Assistant. That looks like a potential game changer to me.
What I am running is an Adafruit HUZZAH32
The small board on the left is the soil sensor it is a resistive type.
The red board is a MOSFET power module. I am going to use that to activate a solenoid on my water valve.
I installed the docker version on my chromebook. I am trying to figure out how I can get my sensors detected.Definitely check it out. Home Assistant can be accessed remotely, they even have their own app! I believe some port forwarding is involved, I wouldn't know as mine is not opened to the world. So when I leave my network I can't access the HA app anymore. But, with port forwarding (I think?) and a setting you can make it so you have to log in with a user and pass to access via web browser or app anywhere in the world.
Thanks for this! I might have to pick a few up and give them a try. I like the idea of powering it with a bigger battery and using the small lipo as a backup, that's cool.
Yeah see I'm just not sure how well something like that would really work in a 5g bucket. I want to know what the moisture level is through the entire column of media, not just the first few inches. If I had a normal soil grow I could use it...and maybe I could set something up because the alaskan purple is actually going into a 1 gallon pot, so I could use it there. Nice. Thanks for the link!
All of that sounds super cool and would definitely be helpful in a SIP. Just need a reservoir. Definitely let me know what you come up with on the flow meter you're working on. I've thought about ways of monitoring water level in the res, and even thought of tracking weight at one point. A flow meter would definitely solve the input volume problem, just need a reliable way to know for sure the res is empty.
I installed the docker version on my chromebook. I am trying to figure out how I can get my sensors detected.
Agreed with the soil monitor. I figure I will plot the data for a few weeks and see if there is any value. It is like a 2 buck investment.
A water sensor like this would be perfect for a SIP setup. 12" eTape Liquid Level Sensor + extras
Just a quick update. I got my esp32 connected to Home Assistant. It required a little work. I had to install ESPHome. I guess you can't install addons in the Docker version. I re-flashed my device with the wifi info. The config is all YAML. So far so good. Thanks for turning me on to HA!!!!Feel free to PM me if you need any help! I used the docker version in my Unraid server for quite a while when I first started. I found (at the time, around a year ago) the container wasn't being maintained and had a bunch of supervisor issues at one point. That's when I switched everything to a virtual machine within Unraid and it's been running like clock work ever since.
That eTape definitely wasn't around when I was looking at soil moisture monitoring a few years ago, that's a game changer with SIP for sure! Thanks for the link! I'm definitely going to order some and give it a shot. They can go in the next cycle and we can see how they work.
Just a quick update. I got my esp32 connected to Home Assistant. It required a little work. I had to install ESPHome. I guess you can't install addons in the Docker version. I re-flashed my device with the wifi info. The config is all YAML. So far so good. Thanks for turning me on to HA!!!!