Minty Grow Diary - GR420 LED Grow Off

[TommyT]

Small test video upload showing the dosing pumps in action. Was trying to dose 420 but couldn't be arsed to wait for that much so frigged the software to dose 42.0 instead and the cheap Amazon Pumps I got are pretty accurate.

That is really cool.
So is that to mix nutes into the water or what is that for?

[Minty]

That is really cool.
So is that to mix nutes into the water or what is that for?

Hey Tommy mate,

There are basically 8x of the them pumps around the base unit which will sit above the RES and each pump can dose one of the following nutrients:-

• * PH UP - controlled automatically by dosing a couple of .ml each 'ping cycle' if the pH goes outside the pre-determined range.
• PH DOWN - controlled automatically by dosing a couple of .ml each 'ping cycle' if the pH goes outside the pre-determined range.
• Cali-Mag - schedule controlled exact amounts - following a res change
• Flora Micro - schedule controlled exact amounts - following a res change
• Flora Grow - schedule controlled exact amounts - following a res change
• Flora Bloom - schedule controlled exact amounts - following a res change
• HydroGuard - schedule controlled exact amounts - following a res change
• Spare (you never know what else you wanna dose in an EMERGENCY)

The dosing amount is based on the following section within the software:-



Which allows you to adjust the bottom table to get a total dosing amount (based on total Res size) shown in the top table. Once a scheduled Res changed event fires, the RES and POT's will be drained automatically, re-filled and dosed to the desired range.

It is all still very much work in progress and I have so many ideas such as recording the E.C. / P.H. and water levels and automatically adjust the next dosing amounts. But hey, getting there slowly considering I have been researching, learning and then building this shit for the last 5 months.

I had been putting the dosing pumps off as I assumed it would be difficult to calibrate them but actually they are so much easier then calibrating the E.C. / P.H. probes. The dosing pumps only really need to dose a known amount which is weighed (repeat if needed), divide the weight by the time and you have a 'drive time' to dose 1 .ml (times that by the amount you want and it's pretty much done). I was really surprised how accurate the dosing is with 10 or so readings only differing by +/- 0.04 grams.

Planning on doing a full write up once I have the source code to a stage where I can at least schedule some events etc. The sensors fire events and I want to have scheduled devices act on these events, but user configrable via the calendar/scheduler (basically, drag out a shedule, select the device, select the trigger, done). e.g.

• if (temp < required) turn on heater (for complete grow cycle)
• if (humidity > required) turn on de-humifier (for flowering cycle)
• etc.

This gives the flexibility to control anything e.g. a heater without a thermostat.

Gonna dump a few more photo's and video's here in a bit... Everyone likes looking at pictures

[Minty]

New GrowRoom420 Stickers!!


Side view of the Hydro Box showing the cable outlets, RF sender/reciever.



DIY Humidifier and Dual Lens (extra zoom) Camera



Grow Room - lights on ;o)

[Minty]

Some old video's I had stored on my phone, will record some more later.

Shows the build in the early stages:-

To the Video

Shows the high water level, I have now run another return pipe from each POT back to the RES controlled with taps so hopefully be able to adjust the water levels. Will test it out over the weekend and report back ;o)

To the Video

[Minty]

I think I stressed them out a little bit by removing the seed casing (lesson learnt there, should have left alone). It's hard when your new cause you just want to fuss over them. Step away from the plants ;o)





Still day 8 and they are still alive.

[Minty]

Day 10 and the root's were showing from under the Jiffy cubes and out of the sides so I moved them into the final net pots, which look incredibly small - but they are from the IWS kit so I assume they are big enough when doing RDWC??




They are still looking a little stressed and moving them again into clay pebbles probably is not helping but they are still alive:-

Easy Bud:-



Royal Dwarf:-



I also set up a little Gheto fan for some air movement (Thanks MrNice I think, stoner memory fucks me every time, so sorry it that was someone else) which is basically a PC fan being controlled by variable voltage:-

[Minty]

Going to list the potential mistakes I have already made for my own reference:-

• Removed the seed casings before ready
• Pre-soaked the Jiffy cubes in RO water?
• Jiffy cubes still remain wet after 10 days (maybe overdid the pre-soaking?)

[Minty]

Comparison video (to the first part showing the high water levels).

The new 'control taps' do provide some level of water level adjustment but not as much as I imagined, and certainly not as much as I would liked.

I think the equal floor level between POTS and RES makes gravity drainage real slow even with two return pipes as the POTS are not really any higher than the RES and filling them more would overflow them.

It does however kinda work like a fill and drain system with the water level adjustments provided by the taps, meaning turning the pump on and off to raises and lowers the water level, which could work. i.e. I could schedule a 'Flood / Drain' routine to maybe help with the seedling stage rather than drip feeding from above? What do you guys think?

[Minty]

On a side note the extra return pipe was definitely worth it, as now the upper pipe is not really being used and acts as an overflow. In terms of doing things again I would have just used a single return with an inline tap but much lower in the pot (gravity permitting).

All good fun and I hope you don't mind me rambling as mostly just want to record the process.

[Cam420]

Love that you made your own humidifier, stoners are some of the most inventive creative people on this planet