Micro Adventures with Mr. Sparkle

[IgmarBudman]

Speaking of LCD's, my PC growbox sits next to my real desktop, I connected an LCD to the arduino and have it setting on the desk, programmed the computer power button to turn the LED in the LCD off so if someone was here it doesnt look connected to anything, but then I wired the arduino to the usb plug on the case and cut the power wire on the usb cable so I could power it off the barrel connector. Now I run the arduino to Excel and can display all the grow box info in Excel realtime as well as send commands back. Much better way to do it and stealthy as well.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Speaking of LCD's, my PC growbox sits next to my real desktop, I connected an LCD to the arduino and have it setting on the desk, programmed the computer power button to turn the LED in the LCD off so if someone was here it doesnt look connected to anything, but then I wired the arduino to the usb plug on the case and cut the power wire on the usb cable so I could power it off the barrel connector. Now I run the arduino to Excel and can display all the grow box info in Excel realtime as well as send commands back. Much better way to do it and stealthy as well.

definitely, i originally wanted to hook up the arduinos to the usb ports specifically for the stealth factor then just use a male to male usb cord for updates and data purposes, but i never got around to it.

 

[ReikoX]

Oh I got the reference but never mentioned it.

I'm getting up to speed with my Arduino. I made my own ART-DNe cycle timer. It supports day/night/both modes and on/off time limits mimic the ART-DNe settings. It's a simple circuit with a photoresistor, 10k resistor, and a relay.

I'm just using the internal clock for now, but I ordered a "datalogging" shield with a real time clock and an SD card. I also ordered some soil sensors, relays, and temp/humidity sensors to play with. I think im going to setup a mini ebb and flow system for the yogurt cup challenge.

Coding up a menu system can be a lot of work if you've never done it before. I spend a lot of time at work on user interfaces. I didn't like the idea of reprogramming the board to change settings though. It's just bad programming and doesn't sit well with me. I settled on a configuration file on the SD card.

 

[ice-cream]

Micro grows goes Mega tech
I love this thread

 

[GastroGrower]

Oh I got the reference but never mentioned it.

I'm getting up to speed with my Arduino. I made my own ART-DNe cycle timer. It supports day/night/both modes and on/off time limits mimic the ART-DNe settings. It's a simple circuit with a photoresistor, 10k resistor, and a relay.

I'm just using the internal clock for now, but I ordered a "datalogging" shield with a real time clock and an SD card. I also ordered some soil sensors, relays, and temp/humidity sensors to play with. I think im going to setup a mini ebb and flow system for the yogurt cup challenge.

Coding up a menu system can be a lot of work if you've never done it before. I spend a lot of time at work on user interfaces. I didn't like the idea of reprogramming the board to change settings though. It's just bad programming and doesn't sit well with me. I settled on a configuration file on the SD card.

Hey ReikoX - would love to see more details on how you end up setting all this up. I've thought about try an automated ebb and flow system for a small mother tent.

 

[sillyhead123]

Love this thread, Turns out my seeds are c99 strain also. It is such a lanky long stem strain lol. First time growing something other than an indica strain. Now just got to sex it Mines been vegging for 4 weeks, so you can imagine the height.

 

[Tbonegrower]

Hope all is well in your world!

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Hope all is well in your world!

all is well just didn't update last week, so here's an update, i should make a new thread to stream line things for new people to this thread as were at post 288 now.

Started to get ready for the next cycle, so i cleaned out my soil bin and hydrated and rinsed a brick of coco coir, i added 1-2tbsps of dolomite lime per 4L/Gal of mix just for its cal-mag content and for some pH stabilizing purposes, and it will be set aside till we need it, which will cause it to slightly mature, ill mix it occasionally over the next couple weeks.

Also thinking about making up some more fabric pots but i'm gonna try a different style with a combination of two fabrics "got the idea from a root system video i was watching done by Carl Whitcomb on tree transplants specifically" but the bottom of the pot will be the current fabric, and the walls being more impervious but breathable fabric that doesn't wick. The Idea being that the bottom will still wick up the nutrient water that is bottom fed, but at the same time with the different walls, it will keep the coco a tad wetter with less wall evaporation of water, and also create a more impervious wall for the roots but still breathable to be able to air prune right at the surface, Or at least that's the idea for us to check out. They will probably end up being about 8.5cm x 10cm tall.

On to the boxes

Bogan: Filled the res today its now on straight maxi bloom at a lighter 1.3ec, rearranged a few things and removed 3 of the C99xDark Devils, still no signs of flower, but kept the two with purple tones in Bogan which look like they carry a bit more of the auto gene structure wise in how they are growing, just did some minor LST today on them just to prevent them from being too tall when they hit stretch mode, they will get transferred to the other case if they don't show flowers once they re fill back out from some defoliation i had to do to keep the 5 of them from becoming a mess. The two will enjoy the extra space now.

The F2 Dark Devils are sporting some different variations, the one on the front left is the best, the others have their issues for this style of growing or aren't as nice structure wise, so i dusted a couple small bud sites at the lower back of the plant with some pollen from the round that created these seeds, we will see if we get some seeds off this plant, the others are filling out as well but i don't like them as much as the front left plant, we have 3 to 4 weeks to go with them.

Ashla: Shes finishing out, filled the res as well running straight Maxibloom at 1.3ec as we were running a tad too hot in this case at 1.5ec previously, so the AK48's have some tip burn due to this and their early on root rot issue, but gave them a flush of straight water not that its needed or changes anything now but we will be chopping them in a day and a bit and one maybe in 4 days as it needs a bit more time by what its showing, The Lemon Kush in the center is filling out nicely, and the 2 Bahia Black Heads on the right are doing their thing, the ones too tall but whatever, also threw over the 2 smaller healthier C99xDarkDevil Plants, the third one i tossed, we will see what they do with the extra space and 12/12 cycle, being a trial run with them im not concerned with having any product at the end, i just want to see how they grow and how the mix of the two is gonna turn out, and if its worth pursuing.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Chopped the AK48's today, their quite dense, and decent for all the issue they ran into with the root rot and nute burn which you can see in the pic, some of my worst grown in awhile, oh well time to move on.

 

[Tbonegrower]

Looking promising. I think you're being too hard on the AKs. They don't look THAT bad...

 

[jonhova]

Chopped the AK48's today, their quite dense, and decent for all the issue they ran into with the root rot and nute burn which you can see in the pic, some of my worst grown in awhile, oh well time to move on.

View Image

Mr Sparkle can you explain your photo shoot process? It looks superb.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Looking promising. I think you're being too hard on the AKs. They don't look THAT bad...

Yeah i might be, after trimming everything looked pretty decent, they're currently curing in a jar and are pretty much in cure range after exposing all the bud to air overnight, but i left a small bud out to dry a little bit quicker and to try later tonight possibly so we will see how they turn out.

Mr Sparkle can you explain your photo shoot process? It looks superb.

Pretty simple, just a piece of black non reflective cloth a bit away from the back of the plants, in my case some black velour, felt or whatever you can find would work, doesn't even have to be black, it's just good for color contrast.
Then i just have a single over head light shining on them, which in my case is a 8w cool white led bulb in a desk lamp, which partially causes my photos to be a tad bluer than they actually are but its pretty close, bulbs in the 4000k-5000k range are ideal in my opinion, and then i just have to set the exposure setting on my phone down to not cause the photos to be washed out, and take a bunch of photos and select the one that's the best and you have a pretty good photo, you can do the odd post processing afterwards if you want, i do a little but really all i do is auto color, contrasts, tone, with photoshop and play with the levels a bit if needed, just to make the pictures look the most accurate i can, takes usually about 10sec a photo, but its a step that isn't really necessary.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Update:

Bogan: Is packed out decently as you can see, could of fit another plant or two in there but we know for next time, were at about 2-3 weeks left.

Ashla: Moving along, not the best, also the Lemon Kush Flopped over right under one of the LED's and the top bud got all burnt, shitty but the rest of it is all good, another week or two before it comes down.

Also been playing around with some new pots ill post some pics later, also gonna be trying some tests with straight coco, the stuff i have is a bit more fine than i would like so its compacting a bit too much for my liking but im gonna try running it as is anyways

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

So the AK48 buds are pretty much good to go for a long cure, as in they're good to consume from this point out, yielded a bit over 21g off the 3 plants in the small pots

Here's a pic of the top of the pint jar they are stored in currently

Also here's a quick shot of the new pots ill be trying out, the plan if they work better is to run 8 and 10 of them respectfully, they still use the same fabric as the old pots for the bottom, but now have a nylon woven sidewall, for better water retention by wicking less and not as breathable in comparison, they are about 60% bigger volume wise than my old small pots, but they have about 0.56L of actual usable space. I made 8 of them to give them a go, and started a couple random floor seeds with the plant to dissect the roots a month or so into growing just to see.

Also i mixed a bit of leftover perlite i had into the new straight coco, its probably less than 20% perlite, i did want to run straight coco but this stuff is a little finer than i wanted and was compacting and retaining a lot of water when doing some water tests, i will have to try and get a chunkier coco for next time.

Also i think ill be starting a new thread after most of this last run finishes up. Just to have a fresh thread

 

[ReikoX]

Be sure to drop a link here so we can find it

 

[IgmarBudman]

Will be interested to see what you think of the AK48, I'm considering giving it a go.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Will be interested to see what you think of the AK48, I'm considering giving it a go.

Had some this weekend, for a first sample it's accurate to its description for the most part, for me i had an initial head high of getting lost in my own thoughts, a bit spacey but not too bad, was still doing house chores and tasks without getting to distracted, or getting sucked up by the couch, it then mellowed out into some inner perspective on my body alignment and current pain issues, which some stretching on a yoga mat helped with.

The fruity smell was more prominent earlier on in flowering then died out to a more musky smell, but i expect it would of been a bit different without the issues i ran into. Also its still in the midst of a cure so the final smell will change some.

Also i harvested when a lot of the sugar trim was mostly ambers but the buds were mainly cloudy/clear, i can see this strain becoming more couchlock if it was run longer though.

I'll be sample some more of it over the next while but will report back if im initial impression has changed.

Its pretty decent and when factoring in price you definitely can't complain at all with the bit of plant variation i got. It's probably not something i'll re buy, but that's fully due to personal preferences, and is actually better than quite a bit of genetics i've tried. It's worth a try.

 

[Tbonegrower]

Had to go out of the country for a week for work. I used your stuff as an example, and setup a couple pumps on timers for each cab. I came home to 1 dead plant, and everything else looked great!

Thanks for the example! I am working on my arduino coding now to run them this way regularly so that I can spend less time top watering by hand. I made my pots out of felt, which I feel won't last much passed one use, but they are working for now and the price was right for sure.

 

[Hen]

Nice idea using nylon for the fabric pot side walls. I wonder if it will air prune as well as the other fabric does?

Sorry if I missed it, but did you do an experiment using non-hydro fertilizers (ie. regular soil fertilizers) for your coco grow? If so, how did it go?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Thanks for the example! I am working on my arduino coding now to run them this way regularly so that I can spend less time top watering by hand. I made my pots out of felt, which I feel won't last much passed one use, but they are working for now and the price was right for sure.

Just make a soil sensor then your pretty much there for hands free watering apart from some special coding here and there, and the felt should last a couple of times, some of my older bags are on like round 10+ as ive reused the fabric from older bigger bags and they still look great, but bit different material than felt.

Nice idea using nylon for the fabric pot side walls. I wonder if it will air prune as well as the other fabric does?

Sorry if I missed it, but did you do an experiment using non-hydro fertilizers (ie. regular soil fertilizers) for your coco grow? If so, how did it go?

I don't expect them to air prune as it will be pretty hard for the roots to penetrate that fabric, it will still breathe which will do dome pruning, but what i noticed in my setup was that really the roots only every came out the side in the bottom half to third of the old pot, and usually they just drive straight down because the walls dry out so they follow the moisture, the goal here is to have a bit more water retention for longer with possible air pruning, but still have the roots drive down to where they are being watered, also because my containers are so small it doesn't take long before they are maxed out with roots anyways, so really all i want to see is the root development and if retaining a bit more moisture will create better roots. I started a couple random seeds, fully to plant them and rip out the root ball half way to see what they are doing.

As for non hydro fertilizers, yes i tried some generic all purpose 20-20-20 fertilizer which isn't really all that different than hydro nutes depending on how you look at it, but it worked, i didn't have it dialed though but it can make fine bud, the downsides i had were, it was easier to burn the plants due to the fertilizer composition, at the end i was running around 0.7-0.8ec, which when calculated out was roughly the same concentration wise for npk as maxibloom at an 1.5-1.6ec, so initially i made a mistake and ran it too hot which caused issues but was fine once dialed back, also a general all purpose 20-20-20 isn't necessarily ideal for us, great for the initial start of the grow for veg and such, but i should of switched to a more bloom/fruit oriented fertilizer later on or just ran with that straight instead of the 20-20-20, so i should test again with a fertilizer more in the 1/2/2 ratio range, or anything where the nitrogen is a little less than the P and K.

I just went back to the maxibloom and gro, as i was already comfortable with it, had it decently dialed and i still have a good 1/2+ bag each left after the last time i bought some which was a good 2-3 years ago, so its kinda a till i burn through that and or decided to try a more suited general fertilizer i might as well run what i have.

Maybe ill try again in a future cycle.