I've decided to take my autoflowers from 24/0 to 20/4 lighting. I switched one tent over and it seems like its doing better, so I was going to switch the other.
Anyways, so I bought a cheap energizer brand wifi controllable smart plug at the dollar store today for $10, because it said it supported setting timers, so I figured cool I can just set it to turn off at noon and on at 4 every day. Well I fucked with it for a solid hour and could not get the damn thing to work. I spent my afternoon pissed off and then I had a stroke of genius.
Year before last I was going to build one of those musical christmas light things where you set your lights to sound. Never got around to it.
But, I have the raspberry Pi and the relay control board from that project.
The raspberrypi is a small computer that runs Linux. You can use it with a keyboard and mouse just like a normal PC, use it to surf the web, etc. I know tons of people who use these for their kids machines because they are simple and impossible to break. You can use it as a normal PC, or toss it in a project box and use it for fun stuff like this.
I followed a simple tutorial, and had a website up that I can control the relays from, in about 20 minutes
In this project you’ll create a standalone web server with a Raspberry Pi that can toggle two LEDs using a Python microframework called Flask.
randomnerdtutorials.com
I can hit those buttons on my web browser (at home, on my home network, you guys can't!) and it will turn the relays on and off on that control board.
Each relay can switch up to 10 amps at 220v so plenty to control some LED lighting, exhaust fans, and a water pump.
What I'm going to do is make a script on the raspberry pi so that it waters once or twice a day.
They make these cool little hall effect flow sensors I can use to figure out how much 1 gallon takes to flow and then calculate from there.
Amazon product
That, an anti siphon valve and a little giant pump should have me in business for watering from a reservoir.
I'll have it auto water once a day, but make it so I can keep an eye on it and water more if I feel necessary. I'll be adding a webcam as well.
My whole idea here is I want to get this all setup so I can go away for 2 weeks on vacation and be able to have it auto watering while I'm gone.
I have one friend who I trust to take care of things but she lives an hour away, so I will probably just ask her to come once to refill the reservoir and check on things.
I really don't understand why Netflix decided they were cool with the idea of running such an exploitative piece on someone who so clearly is dealing with severe mental health issues.
