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Author Topic: Monitoring my hydroponics  (Read 15095 times)

Mike

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Monitoring my hydroponics
« on: May 20, 2020, 10:17:04 AM »
Decided to geek out this year and keep data on my hydroponics.  Since the beginning I've been measuring how much water and nutrients I've been adding.  I've also set it up to track the harvest weights of the tomatoes (which hasn't started yet).

Due to some power loss during the rain storms in April I hooked up a Raspberry PI to log every 5 minutes and put it on the same circuit.  That way if the power went out I'd know (by it not being responsive) and when (because of the log).

Last week I decided to step it up and add some sensors.  Ended up buying some water proof temperature probes and building a simple circuit to have them read by the Raspberry PI.  I've got a humidity sensor as well but it is causing a major voltage drop that kills the Pi so am waiting for the new Raspberry PI 4 to arrive and will try again with that.   I've also got a pH probe coming that I'll put in the tomato set up.

I have a simple webserver running on the Pi that serves up the data as a HTML table for the last 100 readings and a CSV export of all of them.  I then set up port forwarding on my router so that I can use the IMPORTDATA function in Google Sheet to load and graph the sensor data.

Interesting thing is that the tower has 20 plants (mostly herbs but some flowers) and the box has two tomato plants.  The tomatoes are out drinking the tower by a lot.

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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2020, 11:59:59 AM »
I think I need to put my air probe in a protected case as it is kind of swingy and I think it is because it does get some sun.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2020, 09:33:07 PM »
Added a pH sensor to the tomato box today.  After letting it settle it was reading 7.5 which is higher than I want it.  So added some acid the the thing swung around for a couple of hours as it got mixed in.  Settling in just over 6.5 so will probably add a bit more later.  I'll add a graph in a few days once I have more readings on it.

I was going to take some pictures of the setup by I'm honestly a little embarrassed in how much my (limited) soldering skills have degraded.  And, I'm not quite happy with the setup.  I have jumpers going to a solder breadboard.  I think the next thing I'll do is make a HAT for the Raspberry Pi and get a different enclosure (the current one is really tight).  And made some surface solder mats for some of the cables so I can attach cable connectors.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2020, 09:40:57 AM »
I find the modern solders and fluxes to be pretty awful.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2020, 01:17:32 PM »
I'm pretty confident when I say that the quality of the solder is not to blame.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2020, 06:02:22 AM »
HA!  I have enough old school supplies to keep me in business personally for decades to come.  Heck. I really don't solder much anymore and it is a skill that needs practice.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2020, 10:11:22 AM »
Well, then maybe I'll send you the PCBs for soldering once I get them printed ;)
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2020, 10:14:07 AM »
So, going through a heat wave right now.  And every time I add water it raises the pH (while water is neutral pH I have a feeling my water might be a bit basic [/snap]) so it has been a struggle to keep the pH where I want it.  But, it also reduces the water temperature which is good.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2020, 08:29:22 PM »
Getting a lot of water loss from my tomato box now.  The water is being sprayed on the lid and traveling along it to drip out.  Getting an air pump and air stone and going to replace the pump with that.

One the PCB front I'm debating whether to get the current board printed or go to version 2.



Looking to put another EZO port on there so I can either hook up a second pH probe or a different type of probe.  And going surface mount for some things.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2020, 08:21:32 AM »
What else would you like to add?
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2020, 10:33:23 AM »
The nice thing about those EZO boards is that you can put a bunch of different probes and control boards on them and they are still the same interface.  Also learning how much hydroponics is a engineers dream. So much you can measure and account for if you want.

So for future expansion I'd add another of those.  I've already got additional 1-wire connections.

Priced it out and a 2 layer board is insanely cheap.  So may just get this one printed and work on V2 later.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #11 on: June 01, 2020, 08:58:39 PM »
Well, now I've bought a EC probe.  But, didn't do the fully isolated daughter board.  And I think I'll go with that for both in the future.  Saves a lot of room.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2020, 08:59:35 PM »
And all that I just found this: https://www.atlas-scientific.com/kits/wi-fi-hydroponics-kit/

Not cheap but probably cheaper than what I've spent so far.  Oh well, need some hobby I guess
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #13 on: June 04, 2020, 12:02:09 AM »
I'm finishing up version two.  Going with a 4 layer board to make life easier.  I put version 1 p for review on reddit and got some feedback to add some decoupling capacitors to the EEPROM but I honestly have no idea how to size those and I don't feel like doing a ton of math for this hobby project.
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Mike

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Re: Monitoring my hydroponics
« Reply #14 on: June 05, 2020, 12:12:04 AM »
Going with the 4 layer version 2 using through-hole only.  The surface mount stuff was hurting my brain too much.

Order placed to print it.  $7 for 5 boards (only need 1 but min order is 5) and then like $30 for the shipping.
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