Software Engineer: First Growing Experience

[PulsarBlue]

Hello all,

Thank you for providing this forum to us growers. I’m a software/systems engineer with quite a bit of years with me and we (my lovely wife and I) recently started our growing journey. She speaks plant, and she have a number of other plants along with cannabis. With her feminine energy, she can feel what they are saying and she’s doing the hard work like watering, nutrition, topping, keeping things in order, etc. I, on the other hand, try to provide the best growing environment and make sure that there are no technical difficulties for her to do what she does best.

Due to my open source philosophy, I have an innate desire to put knowledge out to the world. That’s why I tend to write my post in an article format. With the start of our journey (~2 months now), I learned a lot about temp/humidity control and started transferring my engineering knowledge to growing. I will be writing my experiences later in another post.

What We Have​

Tent: Secret Jardin HS100 100x100x200
Light: 400W Full Spectrum LED
Out fan: SP TD-350/125 + carbon filter
Pot: 20lt
Soil: Biobizz light mix
Nutrition: Biobizz organic full set

Monitoring: 2 ESP8266 + SHT31 temp/humidity sensors. 1 remote server with time series database, MQTT collector, and visualization service (grafana).

Current Status​

This is what I look at on a daily basis. My sensors push readings every 15 seconds and I collect them. Since I have metrics collected, I also have alarming system which fires up a push notification to my phone when there is no sensor reading for 10 minutes or VPD metric outside of the boundaries. I usually get alarm when water tank is empty in humidifier.

Looking forward, I will write up my experience and explain how you can setup a monitoring system with ESP8266 for a couple of bucks. I will also post pictures of our babies.

Nice meeting you all and have a nice day!

Best,
PB

 

[ArtfulCodger]

Welcome to The Farm! Got plant pics?

 

[Trash_2002]

welcome bro!!!

 

[PulsarBlue]

Welcome to The Farm! Got plant pics?

I do. Here they are.

We got a problem with the right one. There was no problem until the flowering stage. I asked around and it looked like a calmag deficiency along with nutrition lock. We haven't used any calmag until that point so it made sense and we flushed the soil for nutirion issues (drain PPM turned out to be around 1600, we managed to down it to 800). We waited for soil to dry then we gave them half dose of nutrition yesterday. The left one had tiny issues and it was gone after the flush. However, we still see those points on the right. We always wait at least 3 days and see the leaves bending downwards before we water. I'm not sure if the plant is healing but our measurement shows that both are growing upwards day by day.

Note that I took the photos under the light, it may be misleading. I'm also attaching the leaves I got rid of yesterday.

 

[ArtfulCodger]

Thanks for the pics. If that's your first grow, and you're finishing, put it in the win column!

 

[PulsarBlue]

Thanks for the pics. If that's your first grow, and you're finishing, put it in the win column!

Thank you! :) Yeah I'm finishing it and many more will come. Those feel like our babies and I feel sad when they are a little sick like this. Any ideas about the problem on the leaves? Should I ask in another topic?

 

[ArtfulCodger]

Thank you! :) Yeah I'm finishing it and many more will come. Those feel like our babies and I feel sad when they are a little sick like this. Any ideas about the problem on the leaves? Should I ask in another topic?

Moderate Ca deficiency (brown spots) and the beginnings of Mg deficiency (interveinal chlorosis). If I'm in soil, I give calmag with every non-feed watering.

 

[magonheiro]

Amazing Work!!

There is any problem to you to show your monitoring system hardware/code?
I'm currently learning about esp32, i just bought one and now im trying to create a monitoring system like yours.
What do you use as server? RaspberryPI?

Thanks in advance, lets growww!!

 

[PulsarBlue]

Moderate Ca deficiency (brown spots) and the beginnings of Mg deficiency (interveinal chlorosis). If I'm in soil, I give calmag with every non-feed watering.

Thank you. I thought non-feed watering is not needed when you are using organic, maybe it's a myth. I always fed according to biobizz chart. Do you recommend non-feed watering with calmag in this case or adding calmag in every feed? What would be the schedule?

I kinda feel that non-feed watering makes sense but I'm new and confused. Seeing the improvement on one baby after flush makes me think that non-feed watering may allow the plant to get excessive nutrients in the soil while getting enough water.

 

[PulsarBlue]

Amazing Work!!

There is any problem to you to show your monitoring system hardware/code?
I'm currently learning about esp32, i just bought one and now im trying to create a monitoring system like yours.
What do you use as server? RaspberryPI?

Thanks in advance, lets growww!!

Thank you Magonheiro! I'm glad that you are interested in the monitoring system and you already completed the first step by buying ESP32. There is absolutely no problem sharing the code. Let's build one for you!

I was already thinking of writing a guide in another post but I can only do it in the weekend. In the meantime, I'd advise you get yourself familiar with the following:

• ESPHome: https://esphome.io/. We are using this project to create the firmware for ESP32/8266. You do not need to look at HomeAssistant integration. We don't use it and we only care about pushing values to a remote server. Learn how it works and try to make sense of its configuration file. Find your sensor component and look at its configuration parameters.
• MQTT. Get yourself familiar with what it is. It's basically a message queue where the device pushes sensor readings. You get the reading from MQTT server and write it to TSDB (Time Series DataBase. In our case, InfluxDB)
• Grafana. This is the main screen. What it does is to query the database (InfluxDB) and create beautiful charts. I already have configs, so you won't have to manually create charts yourself.
• Which sensor are you using? If you got DHT11 (most probably because it's the first sensor everyone gets), I'd suggest you buy SHT31. It's battle tested and DHT11/22 do not work as expected. However, you can use whatever sensor you have for the first iteration, then change it.
• Get yourself familiar with Ubuntu. Learn basic commands (ls, cp, sudo, apt-get, etc).

For server, I use a remote Ubuntu machine. I want to access it outside of my home so I just got one from DigitalOcean. It does not matter which device you are using as long as it stays on. You can install it on RaspberryPI and only access it within your home. So this is the easy part, you can decide later. If you got a Ubuntu machine that's reachable within your network, you're ok.

Let's grow!

 

[ArtfulCodger]

Thank you. I thought non-feed watering is not needed when you are using organic, maybe it's a myth. I always fed according to biobizz chart. Do you recommend non-feed watering with calmag in this case or adding calmag in every feed? What would be the schedule?

I kinda feel that non-feed watering makes sense but I'm new and confused. Seeing the improvement on one baby after flush makes me think that non-feed watering may allow the plant to get excessive nutrients in the soil while getting enough water.

I'm one of those nefarious salt growers, so I'm not qualified to opine on proper supplementation of an organic grow. It probably needs bat meal or something.

 

[PulsarBlue]

I'm one of those nefarious salt growers, so I'm not qualified to opine on proper supplementation of an organic grow. It probably needs bat meal or something.

Haha. I will create another post for organic grow and this cal/mag deficiency then. Thank you for your help

 

[GoldenDragondnw]

Welcome. And congrats in your first grow man!

 

[magonheiro]

Thank you Magonheiro! I'm glad that you are interested in the monitoring system and you already completed the first step by buying ESP32. There is absolutely no problem sharing the code. Let's build one for you!

I was already thinking of writing a guide in another post but I can only do it in the weekend. In the meantime, I'd advise you get yourself familiar with the following:

• ESPHome: https://esphome.io/. We are using this project to create the firmware for ESP32/8266. You do not need to look at HomeAssistant integration. We don't use it and we only care about pushing values to a remote server. Learn how it works and try to make sense of its configuration file. Find your sensor component and look at its configuration parameters.
• MQTT. Get yourself familiar with what it is. It's basically a message queue where the device pushes sensor readings. You get the reading from MQTT server and write it to TSDB (Time Series DataBase. In our case, InfluxDB)
• Grafana. This is the main screen. What it does is to query the database (InfluxDB) and create beautiful charts. I already have configs, so you won't have to manually create charts yourself.
• Which sensor are you using? If you got DHT11 (most probably because it's the first sensor everyone gets), I'd suggest you buy SHT31. It's battle tested and DHT11/22 do not work as expected. However, you can use whatever sensor you have for the first iteration, then change it.
• Get yourself familiar with Ubuntu. Learn basic commands (ls, cp, sudo, apt-get, etc).

For server, I use a remote Ubuntu machine. I want to access it outside of my home so I just got one from DigitalOcean. It does not matter which device you are using as long as it stays on. You can install it on RaspberryPI and only access it within your home. So this is the easy part, you can decide later. If you got a Ubuntu machine that's reachable within your network, you're ok.

Let's grow!

Thanks for sharing!!!
I currently work as Cloud Engineer, so im kinda familiar with these things, but i'm really new to IoT World.

About the sensors, for now I have only one DHT22, that will be used to monitor temp/hum outside grow tent, and im looking for alternatives sensors to put inside the grow tent, I found some intersting but Idk if its battle tested as you mentioned
ENS160 + AHT21 - Temp Humidity and CO2 levels.
AM2301

I will check about ESPHome and how to use it without HA integration, thanks to share it, I was struggling with OTA and things to make my development workflow lightness.

Waiting for your guide, it will be very helpfull, and maybe we can improove things togheter! I let you know when I create anything usefull here!

 

[PulsarBlue]

I currently work as Cloud Engineer, so im kinda familiar with these things, but i'm really new to IoT World.

Cool! Then I believe you are familiar with the server side. We will be able to quickly setup a DO or AWS instance and start installing the backend components.

About the sensors, for now I have only one DHT22, that will be used to monitor temp/hum outside grow tent, and im looking for alternatives sensors to put inside the grow tent, I found some intersting but Idk if its battle tested as you mentioned
ENS160 + AHT21 - Temp Humidity and CO2 levels.
AM2301

There is a good article that tested 4 different temp/humidity sensors. I read it before buying SHT31. It should be saved somewhere. I will try to find and post it.

It’s always a good idea to stick with one sensor because we want to get same reading from the same sensors (with their possible inconsistencies). Not all sensors are equal. If you use different sensors in your tent and room, you cannot be sure if there is an actual difference between room/tent values or if it’s a deviation caused by sensor quality.

For now, you can use different sensors but at the end you need to stick with one.

I will check about ESPHome and how to use it without HA integration, thanks to share it, I was struggling with OTA and things to make my development workflow lightness.

Great. ESPHome handles OTA updates by default and your workflow will be as simple as running one command on your laptop and seeing it uploaded to ESP32. You only need to flash once with the cable, the rest is easy

 

[magonheiro]

Cool! Then I believe you are familiar with the server side. We will be able to quickly setup a DO or AWS instance and start installing the backend components.

I already understood how ESPHome works, yaml is my life as cloud enginer -
Do you know any firmware or anything that I can study about Commercial IoT (I checked/test Blynk but IDK if will fit for this) I mean... my ideia is to make a monitoring system for me, but I would like to create a kind of a product to share with my friends, big deal right? but I want to understand how difficult it is... for now esphome will work!

There is a good article that tested 4 different temp/humidity sensors. I read it before buying SHT31. It should be saved somewhere. I will try to find and post it.
It’s always a good idea to stick with one sensor because we want to get same reading from the same sensors

Awesome! I will check about it and of course I will follow your experience, buying two new sensors right now! hahaha.
Im also curious about how do you connected it into your esp32 and how you placed/builded it inside the tent, how far it is? (sensor x esp)

 

[PulsarBlue]

I already understood how ESPHome works, yaml is my life as cloud enginer -
Do you know any firmware or anything that I can study about Commercial IoT (I checked/test Blynk but IDK if will fit for this) I mean... my ideia is to make a monitoring system for me, but I would like to create a kind of a product to share with my friends, big deal right? but I want to understand how difficult it is... for now esphome will work!

Haha, YAML life, believe me I know

I have some experience with Blynk but I wouldn’t suggest to go down that road. You will need to implement everything yourself (first unboxing, wifi AP, pairing, scanning and connecting, configuration, OTA updates, etc). It’s time consuming and it may lead you to a burnout. If you are not going commercial or not developing IoT systems for profit, I wouldn’t spend time there. Plus, you need to pay Blynk a monthly fee after 5 users.

For sharing with friends, you can always flash the chip and give it to them (change sensor id to filter metrics). You can then create separate users / dashboards in grafana and give credentials to your friends.

Awesome! I will check about it and of course I will follow your experience, buying two new sensors right now! hahaha.
Im also curious about how do you connected it into your esp32 and how you placed/builded it inside the tent, how far it is? (sensor x esp)

The sensor need to be at the same height as the plant for accurate reading because humidity will be lower at the bottom of the tent. We aim to measure how the plant feels :) I have a training net and I just put/hang on top of it.

 

[PulsarBlue]

There is a good article that tested 4 different temp/humidity sensors. I read it before buying SHT31. It should be saved somewhere. I will try to find and post it.

I found it. Before losing the link again, here is the PDF file that compares 4 different sensors:

http://www.energiazero.org/arduino_sensori_umidita/Comparing%20Temperature.pdf

The last line reads:

Looking at this graph, and knowing what we've learned from the previous graphs, I would say my preferences for sensors are the HTU21D-F or the SHT31-D. The SHT31-D has a tighter group in this last graph, so if I had to advise people on which temperature/humidity sensor to buy, I would actually recommend the SHT31-D based on the statistics we've seen. This sensor is available in the Adafruit shop for $13.95, which isn't outrageous by any stretch of the imaginatio

 

[PulsarBlue]

I've created a new post for the project. Let's move the discussion to that topic. Thank you for all your interest!

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