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Grow controller? (DIY)

M

medi-useA

Thanks for the reply mulletsoda


:)

Heff...not stolen....liberated....;)
muA
 

Hephaestus

Member
Nope... Stolen... Thieved... Taken - but given credit to original source... as intended...

You can actually reread the thread and find every little part posted here... With credit given to original source...
 
M

medi-useA

It's the credit given th@ changes it from stolen to open source!

@least th@'s the way I think! :)

hehehe

muA
 

Hephaestus

Member
I agree, when you put something open source, then the world is welcome to help themselves... However - at the same time - credit should be given to those who did contribute...

I like the way the menu system is setup on the reefprojects controller - few changes I plan to make, but the basics are there... I'm keeping with a lot of the same overall principles of that project - but making adjustments to make it a little more usefull to a wider range of people...
 

Hephaestus

Member
Ok... Had a thought run through my head today... And how the heck do you search this one and find a real answer not 100,000 posts on hermies...

Is there a color of light that wont cause hermies? Thinking for LCD backlights, lit switches etc - all those handy dandy items that you like to see lit up - but would rather not cause a plant to hermie if per chance there was a light leak...
 

Mulletsoda

Member
Green. I use green lights all the time. From a 23 w CFL with green plastic over it to LED boards and strips. Green light is not absorbed (instead it's reflected back) by chlorophyll, that's why plants look green to our eyes. I wouldn't try to get your room super lit up or anything, but if you just stick with 'just-enough' light to be able to see around, you'll be fine.

I use the thumb of one candle. Even if it's white, a candle is supposedly dim enough to not trigger the photosynthetic reaction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/15-LED-Green-Fl...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2eaa06ad4b
<~ Just got one of these, it's going into the flower room this week.

I made this myself, works great :
flashlight.jpg


Here's a look at my current code : http://mulletsoda.chickenkiller.com/VegRoomWStruc.pde

I'd like to hear if you've got any thoughts, I wrote this from scratch and am WAY out of practice. I tried to write it in a way that adding more outputs would be simple.
 

Hephaestus

Member
More thinking about backlights; lighted switches etc - things that'll be in the vicinity - that we don't want to cause problems....

Thanks :) Had a feeling it was green or yellow but couldn't seem to find a thread...
 

Hephaestus

Member
Ok here's my question of the day :)

Trying to find... Illuminated SPST switch (green) - light needs to be independant of switch position - and 5vdc...

Anyone seen something that fits the bill?
 
M

medi-useA

Here's wh@ I got with a search....I'm still unsure, but wh@ you are after may be on one of these sites...

However, here is one th@ might be of use later on...

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7

Hope there's something in there!

muA
 

Mulletsoda

Member
What about instead of independently lit switches, a backlight? Mount a dim green LED pointing towards the panel? Would that be simpler? LEDs next to the switches/buttons?
 

Hephaestus

Member
Possibly - Thought of it, just wasn't thrilled by the prospect :) I like simple... Want the light to come on when controller is sending power that way - switch to be a manual override - if it's off - the 110v/ (220-240/whatever euro's and aussies use) doesn't flow...
 

Hephaestus

Member
Might as well move this over here :)

You'll see something coming on LEDs sooner than later... Figured out some of the basic principles on driving / monitoring LEDs from the arduino... Almost where I want to be with it but that's a discussion for the other thread :biggrin: Got a few luxeon rebels I've been playing with, can ramp em up/down, adjust If and Vmax on the fly... Pop the leads off (simulating blown bulb) and the arduino automatically compensates to accomodate and save that string...

LEDGirl gets props from me :) But it only takes a quick look at the datasheets to understand - typical luxeons put out way more lumens than the LEDs she's using...

Rant off - on to :smokeit:

luxeons are a bit more expensive though aren't they?...th@ may be why LEDGirl's decided on wh@ she did.

She's put together a good package with her lamps...got to give her kudos for th@.
And she's put her $$where her mouth is.

regarding LED's,a question...answer @some other time, but...are you talking about building an LED array and controlling it with the Aduino, or just controlling an already built LED array?

muA

Luxeons are a bit more expensive initially; but cheaper when you work out the lumens/$ - but as I said... Give her props for putting em on the market.

Right now since I have the parts to do it, I've been playing with it... Could control either - prebuilt array or a homebuilt array. However there's very few prebuilt arrays you'd probably want to do it with... Let me put it this way - intention is to allow you to plug in a arseload of these (http://www.luxeonstar.com/premounted-rebel-red-leds-on-a-20mm-tristar-base-255-lm-p-631.php ) and have them up and running in less than 5 minutes (including time to warm up the soldering iron). One Star, 255 lumens- 10$ (and you can find em cheaper regularly on dealextreme). Arduino handles the brains, monitors the voltage and current (and probably temp) and makes sure you're not going to burn em up...

Still working on the full redesign of the base growshield, still don't have my damn chip I need... But that will get resolved soon, got a bug hunk of double sided PCB and some bits n pieces to etch my own, so some progress should be made here before too long...
 
M

medi-useA

LED discussion here th@ you might be interested in...but you probably know wh@there already:)

I did not know 45W LED's existed!

muA
muA
 

Hephaestus

Member
There's a ton of big LEDs on the close horizon... Been hearing about this 1" square that's supposed to be 100w and equivalent to a street light for about 5 years now...

Still waiting to see it :D

:joint:
 

Mulletsoda

Member
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=13564&pictureid=297251

There's a quick update pic of what I've got my arduino doing at the moment, figured you guys might be interested. I have a worklight in there that is just a strip of green LEDs mounted so they illuminate the floor, helps if I forgot the pH/EC meters. There are two buttons, one to toggle the worklight, the other to toggle the pump mode. I still haven't settled on a CO2 or pH probe, though it looks like I'm going to build them both, too.

Air temp and
Rez temp should be self explanatory

Pump1 : Status: TimeLeft

Worklight : Status
Day/Night ## Minutes remaining
 

Hephaestus

Member
Sweet - what is that a 24 x 8 screen?

I had one similar to these show up this week:
DE-LM016_1.jpg

(search on ebay for verdant lcd) mine was a lot more than 7$ :cuss:

Got a bunch of stuff in - still not the one chip I need to finish things up...

Still trying to find a green illuminated DPDT switch, where the illumination isn't based on switch position, capable of 120v but illuminated off 5vdc.

Mullet - you'll find circuits linked for ph and ec/tds in this thread somewheres :) Google will find you a CO2 monitor from a hacked CO monitor - cost you 1/10th of a commercial CO2 sensor...
 

Mulletsoda

Member
Yes, exactly! 8x24, only cost me $25. There's a guy on ebay who sells them. I've read your entire thread, I've got all the pH and EC probes bookmarked. The CO2 I'm getting from Futurlec, only $20 plus asst extras (couple op-amps and resistors). Just don't know how to arraign them yet. Here's my code if you're interested, I wrote a library to deal with that LCD, makes things much easier. http://code.google.com/p/atmega328growcontroller/

Not sure on your switch there, seems like you're asking for a bit much out of a switch. They're normally illuminated by the current fed them. Otherwise, some stiff wire, a single LED and some hot glue might do ya.
 

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