Indoor Ideas for open source grow room controller?

[exploring]

So I've got some electronics and programming experience. I was looking at the GroBot, and it seems REALLY expensive for what it is, but I feel like I have to be missing something. I've only grown vegetables (but I recognize communities such as this as a valuable resource) , and only in deep water culture, which was a HUGE upgrade from 'the dirt from the backyard'. Just the same, I've really gotten into this as a hobby

What would you guys like to see? What does the GroBot and other commercially available solutions have that seems to justify the pricetag?

Current ideas for features:

• Peristaltic pumps for A + B nutrients
• Peristaltic pumps for clean water
• Peristaltic pumps for PH up and Down?
• Of course, TDS / EC / PH monitoring to control these things... This will probably be the most expensive part, so I'd appreciate recommendations on inexpensive but reliable constant monitoring systems with outputs... I'd like to do more research into how these devices operate, I might be able to get away with just using the probes from a trusted and widely available brand.,
• Relays for lights, fans, etc. I'd probably want to have these be programmable so that you could 'train' the system to arbitrary peices of equipment like humidifiers/dehumidifers/AC whatever, at the very least a sort of 'thermostat' functionality
• Solenoid controlled C02

And of course, this would all be connected to a microcontroller, with a web front end, because really, it's not that difficult or expensive to add.

This might just be an idle dream, but if there's an interest, it's something I do have the skills to create, and I'd love to see it out in the world for a more modest price.

 

[auto-p]

Something like this would probably work really well as a grow room controller, and it's fairly cheap:

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store...ers/reef-keeper-lite-l1-digital-aquatics.html

 

[exploring]

Well, that's not a terrible option, but it seems to work more or less on timers. I'm trying to make something that goes 'OK, the TDS is down to a certain level, add more nutrient mix' 'OK, the temperature is too high, throttle up the fans' 'OK, the humidity is too low, kick on the humidifier', 'OK, the pH is too high, add some pH down'.

But really, something with a nice user friendly web interface, where you can click a button and add a measured amount of something, etc.

 

[ketchieshoobie]

This is intriguing. I am a SW engineer by trade that also has several open source projects. I don't think the code/web interface/etc. would be too hard. But I do fear that sensors may be expensive.

Very interested, I'm subbed...
KS