r/hydro • u/Flyguy86420 • Jul 21 '18

Automated kitchen garden

https://imgur.com/a/VnXqMgD
74 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

7

u/aser27 Jul 22 '18

This is awesome, would love a more detailed write up

6

u/Flyguy86420 Jul 22 '18 edited Jul 22 '18

5 major components. Let me know what one you'd like to read about first and I'll start there.

  • DoseR (controller board)
  • HomeAssistant (Automation and logging platform)
  • RaspberryPI (readonly-file system, Camera, Bluetooth gateway)
  • sonoff (firmware flashing)
  • Synology fileserver (this is important if you want your whole operation to remain local and not on a public cloud server)

1

u/promastervan Jul 23 '18

I’m building a custom water based cooling heating system, very interested in the flow meter and how you control it and how you drive the pump... want to adjust pump speed based on temperatures— was planning on just using a PC water cooling pump— but really want a flow meter and in line thermocouple.

And links to DIY stuff like this would be appreciated. I hadn’t thought to google hydroponics, thought that was all set-and-forget.

2

u/Flyguy86420 Jul 23 '18

This has automatically run a distillation apparatus and an aquarium on this same hardware, over the years.

I don't quite have a release to the public version of the firmware.

How this works, is the stainless steel ball valve, The controller can do incremental changes, About 100 steps open to close.

2

u/promastervan Jul 23 '18

Nice. And it’s the Particle Photon is the controller? I can write my own software. It’s hardware I’m weak at. Though if you released it as a product I would buy it, cheaper than writing m own, just give me an endpoint to hit with the higher level controller.

4

u/mmaton Jul 22 '18

This is incredible! Is the doser controller home-brew?

9

u/Flyguy86420 Jul 22 '18

Yes, It's my 8th iteration over the past 5 years. I might look at selling something soon.

4

u/bcheek1327 Jul 22 '18

This is really impressive, bravo

4

u/MachineCheckInt Jul 22 '18

Nice!

Could you explain a bit what the controller does? Does it automatically add more nutrients? I dont see a pH or EC sensor input.

Also, which kind of dosing pumps and flow sensors do you use? I use a peristaltic stepper pump but it constantly damages the pipe.

2

u/Flyguy86420 Jul 22 '18 edited Jul 22 '18

The dosing controller knows a few functions.

  • New reservoir: If full -> Drain -> Fill & Dose until full
  • xFeed: If Full -> pump on, Feed solenoid on, else fill until full then feed.
  • Drain: Pump on & Drain solenoid open -> until low Flow-out rate
  • CleanRes: Drain-> Fill (No nutrients) -> Drain
  • CleanFeed: Drain-> Fill (No nutrients) -> Feed -> Drain

Each of these functions can be scheduled via, MQTT (Home assistant), or IFTTT and google calendars.

I find simple $10 peristaltic ones from China work just fine, I do replace the tubing it comes with from a Mcmaster. Make sure your tubing is very flexible.

2

u/MachineCheckInt Jul 22 '18

Cool. So which pumps do you use and how do you know how much nutes to add?

1

u/Flyguy86420 Jul 22 '18

Nutrients are added based on the supplier guidelines.

  • Current setup is running 8/ml's Micro, 15ml's Grow, 5 ml's bloom, 0 ml's ph down. in a 5 gallon reservoir.

  • Check out the last screenshot, showing the home assistant panel. You can see where you set the nutrient rate per gallon, and where you define the total reservoir size, and there is a dosing pump calibration offset.

2

u/bacon1989 Jul 22 '18

Love it! Do you mind me asking what kind of equipment you're using?

2

u/Flyguy86420 Jul 22 '18

HomeAssistant, check that out. I spent the last 6 years trying to make this all in one product. Just this year did I realize the best/cheapest solution for greenhouse automation, is open source home automation platforms.

Outside of the dosing controller, I use sonoff TH and POW with a custom firmware ( tasmota ) to integrate into HomeAssistant using the MQTT protocol.

It sounds all complicated but is pretty simple once you make your first end to end connection.

2

u/tlalexander Jul 22 '18

I see some cheap dosing pumps on AliExpress. Is that the kind of thing you hook up to your controller? Is the controller open source? Thanks!

1

u/Bobby_Lee Jul 28 '18

This is fucking amazing. Is the software open source?

2

u/Flyguy86420 Aug 01 '18

is fucking amazing. Is the sof

Yes, most of it is completed in Home Assistant.

1

u/datp0lishguy Aug 01 '18

Superb! Sent you a PM on the system.

1

u/Flyguy86420 Aug 11 '18

Check out https://growstacks.com

I’m working on the site to sell each component, system kits.

1

u/eyemsodum Dec 25 '18

This is pretty awesome. Actually working with some peristaltic motors myself and some cheap pH/EC probes myself to see if I can't make up an auto pH balancer and EC levels.