Grow Room Using a controller

[SHRED]

I don't have one yet.

I'd like one that's remote to control what temp the fan comes on. Basic need.

What are some other usages for one that I shouldn't live without?

 

[FarmerJake]

I’ve got the new mars hydro ihub and also the aerolight setup from vivosun. I’ve been running the vivosun setup for almost a whole grow but just plugged in the mars system today. Both have their weaknesses and if your familiar with the industry of automation as I have become from my other hobby of reefing, these systems are a few years behind the aquarium industry’s automation(Neptune, Hydros, Reefkeeper). Most of these problems are software related and often times user error, I’ll come back and elaborate if I don’t get too high and forget

 

[Bob's Auto's]

I’ve got the new mars hydro ihub and also the aerolight setup from vivosun. I’ve been running the vivosun setup for almost a whole grow but just plugged in the mars system today. Both have their weaknesses and if your familiar with the industry of automation as I have become from my other hobby of reefing, these systems are a few years behind the aquarium industry’s automation(Neptune, Hydros, Reefkeeper). Most of these problems are software related and often times user error, I’ll come back and elaborate if I don’t get too high and forget

Please do, as I'm currently into making my own controller/monitoring device. If you know of certain pitfall please do elaborate as such experience is worth gold!!
While coding I'm still at the following conundrum...Which value to chase? Either humidity or temperature, doing both is moot as they are both related to each other. Change one and the other will react...Most likely those guys from Reefkeeper (started with arduino mega if I remember correctly) are way beyond that point. Sadly they don't have to worry about humidity as water is always 100% lol Now who's stoned...Just rolled me a combo of Amnesia Something something and some Mack 'n Crack.
Oh well, if you got some info, please do share

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Please do, as I'm currently into making my own controller/monitoring device. If you know of certain pitfall please do elaborate as such experience is worth gold!!
While coding I'm still at the following conundrum...Which value to chase? Either humidity or temperature, doing both is moot as they are both related to each other. Change one and the other will react..

You could always have a humidifier hooked to a controller and control heat and humidity independently too.. Not sure of the benefit but its possible.

 

[FarmerJake]

Take the Mars Hydro software for example.
I can control the outlets on a power strip by setting high/low values for temp/humidity and telling certain equipment to turn on/off accordingly. The software only allows a single set of humidity/temp settings for all the outlets at once. This could be better. In an ideal world we would have multiple set points for each individual outlet.
Beyond control these systems should be offering a fail safe as well. So if my vents turn on at either 85f or 60% humidity I might want to tell my lights to shut off if temps hit 90f, or I might want the humidifier to shut off at 55% but not have ventilation turn on until 65%.
Multiple channel spectrum control…… come on catch up already horticultural LED manufacturers!
we need a controller that computes VPD and has interior and exterior temp/humidity sensors and automatically tries to keep humidity and temp within an ideal range. Take the users out of the equation, like a learning nest thermostat for your grow tent

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Ok, couple of questions as you seem to know your sh!t

So if my vents turn on at either 85f or 60% humidity I might want to tell my lights to shut off if temps hit 90f

Why turn off the light? Light has to be priority number one in my mind, no? I would rather turn up the extraction or dim the lights. I'm currently working on a esp device with which you can do both from the touch of your phone... Just turned off the lights in my current grow and will dismount the light later on so I can do the 'hack'.

we need a controller that computes VPD and has interior and exterior temp/humidity sensors and automatically tries to keep humidity and temp within an ideal range.

Which kind of sensor would be needed to do a VPD calculation? Because if it needs to be a PAR sensor, the price tag of such controller goes skyhigh...
I do have a Lux sensor inside the tent, sitting at the same height as the canopy, but it can only measure (human) visible light

 

[Bill.de.Cat]

I don't have one yet.

I'd like one that's remote to control what temp the fan comes on. Basic need.

What are some other usages for one that I shouldn't live without?

A basic Inkbird temp controller would do that. Just plug the exhaust into it's cooling outlet, set the temp for the highest you want, when it hits that temp it'll send power to that outlet turning on your exhaust fan. It has range setting so it'll turn off when it gets to your preset lower setting.

As for what else, it all depends on what type of grow you are looking to do, you can go pretty basic or you can go all convoluted and complicated.......simple and easy is how I roll. I have a inkbird temp controller for my heat mat ( for the occasional cold spells so the roots stay warm) and speed controllers on my exhaust fans ( 1 sucks out, 1 blows in through the diffuseair ). Front flap is always open to the lung room ( bedroom ) so I wake up, flip the main switch ( turns on lights and exhaust fans ) when I go to bed I turn it off.......the heat controller and side fans are direct draw on power so those are always on.

 

[FarmerJake]

Why turn off the light? Light has to be priority number one in my mind, no? I would rather turn up the extraction or dim the lights. I'm currently working on a esp device with which you can do both from the touch of your phone... Just turned off the lights in my current grow and will dismount the light later on so I can do the 'hack'.

Last ditch effort to avoid overheating, back when reef tanks ran HID lights it was an important backup to have so perhaps unnecessary in this instance but a spillover of thought from another hobby. Your solutions of dimming and upping extraction seem smarter maybe dim at 90f off at 95f

Which kind of sensor would be needed to do a VPD calculation?

Not sure, my vivosun aerolight setup shows VPD inside the tent and outside the tent likely just based on only humidity/temp so perhaps not immensely accurate but it is computing a number it calls VPD so I would prefer to set an ideal VPD. Lots of if this then that scenarios.
I have the tent running as a drying tent right now so the numbers look funny but this is my Home Screen on the vivosun app.

BTW steer clear of the mars controller for the time being that one has some bugs and quality control issues to tweak, premature release(that’s what she said)

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Last ditch effort to avoid overheating, back when reef tanks ran HID lights it was an important backup to have so perhaps unnecessary in this instance but a spillover of thought from another hobby. Your solutions of dimming and upping extraction seem smarter maybe dim at 90f off at 95f

Not sure, my vivosun aerolight setup shows VPD inside the tent and outside the tent likely just based on only humidity/temp so perhaps not immensely accurate but it is computing a number it calls VPD so I would prefer to set an ideal VPD. Lots of if this then that scenarios.
I have the tent running as a drying tent right now so the numbers look funny but this is my Home Screen on the vivosun app.
View attachment 1546966
BTW steer clear of the mars controller for the time being that one has some bugs and quality control issues to tweak, premature release(that’s what she said)

Stupid me, I was confusing DLI with VPD. For calculating VPD there's code examples to be found online.

float temp = dht.readTemperature(); // Reading the temperature as Celsius
    float hum = dht.readHumidity();     // Reading the relative humidity percent

    float VPsat = 610.7 * 107.5 * temp / (237.3 + temp); // Saturation vapor pressure in Pascals
    float VPactual = (hum * VPsat) / 100.0;  // Actual vapor pressure in Pascals
    float VPD = ((100.0 - hum) /100.0) * VPsat;  // Vapor Pressure Deficit in Pascals

 

[Bob's Auto's]

So what you need next is function that according to the set values (temperature and humidity or VPD in fact), will activate and dim accordingly an extraction fan. And while we're at it use the light to add or remove some heat by dimming it as well. (I got this to work btw, just finished closing everything up and test running it on the bench for a couple of days. As soon as my network storage comes online I'll be updating my thread about it

That's one hell of an algorithm that needs to be written. Loads of "IF" statements in my near future, I see...