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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator


Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Automating a terrarium *DELETED*
#6587794 - 02/19/07 10:59 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
Edited by poke smot! (02/21/07 11:55 AM)
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RogerRabbit
Bans for Pleasure


Registered: 03/26/03
Posts: 42,214
Loc: Seattle
Last seen: 1 year, 4 months
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6587922 - 02/19/07 11:24 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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yea, it would be nice to have your computer dial out to your cell phone, to say, "you dummy, come fill the humidifiers!" Mine always seem to run out just as I go to bed, especially if i've forgotten to check on them first. A phone call would be nice. I've always resisted the urge to complicate my greenhouse though. . .so far...  RR
-------------------- Download Let's Grow Mushrooms semper in excretia sumus solim profundum variat "I've never had a failed experiment. I've only discovered 10,000 methods which do not work." Thomas Edison
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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator


Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Automating your terrarium *DELETED* [Re: RogerRabbit]
#6588004 - 02/19/07 11:45 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6588577 - 02/20/07 05:06 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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I think it's a viable idea. If you're going to have a microcontroller on board it would be just as easy to have it be a stand alone unit. You could shuttle the data to and from the microcontroller as needed. You really wouldn't need computer control to run it, any microprocessor these days has enough computing horsepower to handle temp, humidity, and some relays.
-FF
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Arp
roving mycophagist


Registered: 04/20/98
Posts: 2,191
Loc: in a van by the river
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: fastfred]
#6597361 - 02/22/07 01:40 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.velleman.be/ot/en/product/view/?id=351346
was thinkin of getting one of these and some sensors & relays and have my friend who is a skilled eletrician to help me put things together. i'll take care of the programming . seems like a great project you're up to. these things i need will make it cost quite a bit you're doing it from scratch right? guess it will cut costs grealty.
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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator


Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Automating your terrarium *DELETED* [Re: Arp]
#6597745 - 02/22/07 03:16 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
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Arp
roving mycophagist


Registered: 04/20/98
Posts: 2,191
Loc: in a van by the river
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6598489 - 02/22/07 05:29 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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I reckon it will be a valuable product as there are many mushrooms selective in their preference of enviroment.
This would optimize and make enviromental variables much more accurate 
Perhaps you could make it possible to add on extra sensors for those who want to take it another step aswell.
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Helge
PsilocybinFlightSpecialist


Registered: 03/17/05
Posts: 1,180
Loc: International Waters
Last seen: 3 years, 1 month
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: Arp]
#6600176 - 02/22/07 11:29 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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I cant wait!!!:) Total Automation is only a couple weeks away:)
-------------------- I AM THE LIQUOR!!!
Edited by Helge (02/23/07 01:03 AM)
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Socrates
Ownsberry West


Registered: 10/27/04
Posts: 40
Loc: ILLINOIS
Last seen: 5 years, 5 months
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: Helge]
#6602327 - 02/23/07 02:20 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Ive been looking for a low cost automation. I'm sure the market is more then ample to put forth the effort in making a lot of these kits. My main set back has been the interface with the computer. I'm not vary skilled yet with programming. It being open source would allow someone to make a nice GUI interface and add some e-mail options or text message your phone and give you a temp/hum report. I know if it were reasonably priced I would buy one. And if its wireless that would be amazing.
-------------------- And I quote.
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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator


Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Automating your terrarium *DELETED* [Re: Socrates]
#6605174 - 02/24/07 10:17 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
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shirley knott
not my real name

Registered: 11/11/02
Posts: 9,105
Loc: London
Last seen: 7 years, 5 months
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6605567 - 02/24/07 12:55 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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nice going, smotty
-------------------- buh
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Jorsher
Psychonaut


Registered: 08/28/06
Posts: 691
Loc: Earth
Last seen: 13 years, 6 months
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Nice, what chip burner are you using?
I bought a willems burner to use for burning tuned maps for my turbocharged honduh. It seems to be quite versatile though and I thought about using it for microcontroller programming as well.
-------------------- 5 shroom me!
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: Jorsher]
#6613219 - 02/26/07 04:13 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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In circuit programming is the way to go. Using a chip burner ends up being a hassle, especially for development, IMO.
-FF
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illahee
Content Observer

Registered: 01/02/05
Posts: 78
Last seen: 17 years, 3 months
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: fastfred]
#6613261 - 02/26/07 04:23 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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I'd buy one
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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator


Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Automating your terrarium *DELETED* [Re: illahee]
#6614612 - 02/26/07 09:45 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
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shroomsynergy
Fungi Freak


Registered: 01/17/06
Posts: 861
Loc: Andromeda
Last seen: 4 years, 9 months
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Re: Automating your terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6615305 - 02/27/07 01:00 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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i'd buy one, considering that the closest thing is for commercial hydroponics systems, and cost thousands of dollars.
how much are you thinking on selling those for??
--------------------
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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator


Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Automating a terrarium *DELETED* [Re: shroomsynergy]
#6616892 - 02/27/07 02:10 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
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magicfluff
the high wizard

Registered: 02/12/07
Posts: 37
Last seen: 17 years, 3 months
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Re: Automating a terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6640451 - 03/06/07 05:28 AM (17 years, 3 months ago) |
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not much more to say than great work!
with a little extra work, you could probably have this scalable to greenhouse or small commercial grow levels. e.g. you could add inputs for reading dissolved components in feed solutions and make the interface look fancy with some graphics. or you could add photodiode feedback so larger growers could get some measured feedback on bulb output. could improve the photodiode accuracy by sticking bits of filter over the sensor to remove most of what wasn't on the spectral absorption peaks of the plants. just thinking aloud....
Olimex seem to have pretty good prices on small scale PCB production. They're in a bit of a weird location, but I've ordered from them before and had no problems.
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poke smot!
floccinocci floofinator



Registered: 01/08/03
Posts: 5,248
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Re: Automating a terrarium *DELETED* [Re: magicfluff]
#6640971 - 03/06/07 10:48 AM (17 years, 3 months ago) |
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Post deleted by poke smot!Reason for deletion: x
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magicfluff
the high wizard

Registered: 02/12/07
Posts: 37
Last seen: 17 years, 3 months
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Re: Automating a terrarium [Re: poke smot!]
#6641205 - 03/06/07 12:10 PM (17 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
poke smot! said: I did find a PCB producer which meets my needs/budget, but with pcb's there would also be a bit more assembly required.
Lots of different types of sensors could theoretically be added, but at this point I'm focusing more on getting something finished that is for mycology-like purposes.
I'd like to make a version that runs independent of a PC. This would cut back costs for one thing.
Yeah, in a lot of ways I'd prefer something that didn't involve a PC.
For a stand alone unit you'd need to think about what you want to be variable and monitored.
One thing you'd probably want automated is air exchange, so the terranium is aerated through the day. You could do that by adding some sort of CO2 / O2 sensor. I did a quick google and found a CO2 sensor for around $20. http://www.futurlec.com/Gas_Sensors.shtml
But I mean, to save money, just roughly guessing at the fanning frequency would be fine. Everyone does it that way at the moment and it works okay. So you'd want an option for the number of fan on times per 24 hour cycle maybe, and how long each should run for.
Then you'd obviously want temperature. It'd be nice to have two preset buttons maybe. Then humidity and that should be about it, apart from maybe lighting, which you could even do a quick LED kit for or use some cold cathode lights.
One thing that would be cool is if the unit could function outside as well, so outdoor grows could have their humidity and temperature recorded maybe in a datalogger / warning mode. A cool sensor for that would be a couple of those water content probes you can get for plant pots that could be stuck into the grow area to monitor the soil and watch out for it getting too dry. Maybe you could even add a few at layers as you add the grow so's that water content in a 3D patch could be monitored.
Perhaps these temp/RH sensors are little too expensive, $30 is quite a bit. Maybe the lower humidity accuracy version would be okay. 95% 100%, I doubt the shrooms would be all that bothered. You could always build a bias into the humidifier circuit such that it stays on slightly longer than it should after reaching 100% humidity on the sensor to bias it towards a positive error. The only negative of that would be a slight increase in the possibility of puddling and slightly more energy use.
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