Grow Controller ?'s

OneEyedCat

Active Member
I should add, in the past other vendors have tried selling me on this tech. My response "Will you cover any losses incurred by malfunction of your product". Sales pitch stopped there. ;)
That is why the EULAs for software always have the weasel words "Not liable for any losses, due to failure of the software ...."
Obviously this is meant for Hydro growers, but I think you hit the nail on the head with KISS.
Cannabis is both easy and hard to grow so why make it more complicated than you currently are dealing with.
 

mike91sr

Well-Known Member
A large scale industrial grow would have employees, on site or in ready response mode, who would address all of the issues you raise for your software. It might be nice to have monitoring capability, but that should be in your security monitoring plan.
Have you actually discussed this with any industry leaders? They're not agreeing with you. Not very efficient at all to pay employees to be in ready response mode, but to each his own. Check out Argus, doing very well in industrial agriculture
 

mike91sr

Well-Known Member
I should add, in the past other vendors have tried selling me on this tech. My response "Will you cover any losses incurred by malfunction of your product". Sales pitch stopped there. ;)
That is why the EULAs for software always have the weasel words "Not liable for any losses, due to failure of the software ...."
Obviously this is meant for Hydro growers, but I think you hit the nail on the head with KISS.
Cannabis is both easy and hard to grow so why make it more complicated than you currently are dealing with.
Thanks for the input!
 

OneEyedCat

Active Member
I love technology and am a CIS guy but I find growing to be a kind of relaxation exercise for me so I try to keep it simple.
Look at the code and especially the comments with the code on almost any medium to large scale project or piece of software and you shall know fear.
 

stonedu

Well-Known Member
Well, I think I might be your target audience. Small higher end grow and will to pay for what I want.

What I really need is monitoring.

I want to be able to look at my phone, see what's going on. All the current values along with an easy to get to log of each measurement. I'm technologically competent most of the time, but value ease of use and setup.

If something needs to be done I'll probably just go in the room to fix it. Being able to make adjustments remotely would be nice, but not critical, except if I'm on vacation, but still not what I care most about.

My system is pretty dialed in so I only need to go in there to do res changes, adjust lights, trim/tie plants.

It would be great if the system was modular so each instrument could be purchased individually and connect to my home network over wifi. No expensive master controller would be a big selling point for me. Start by selling a remote pH meter that connects to your app. Also, put some kind of log/notes in the app so I can track when I change to flower, etc.
 

mike91sr

Well-Known Member
Well, I think I might be your target audience. Small higher end grow and will to pay for what I want.

What I really need is monitoring.

I want to be able to look at my phone, see what's going on. All the current values along with an easy to get to log of each measurement. I'm technologically competent most of the time, but value ease of use and setup.

If something needs to be done I'll probably just go in the room to fix it. Being able to make adjustments remotely would be nice, but not critical, except if I'm on vacation, but still not what I care most about.

My system is pretty dialed in so I only need to go in there to do res changes, adjust lights, trim/tie plants.

It would be great if the system was modular so each instrument could be purchased individually and connect to my home network over wifi. No expensive master controller would be a big selling point for me. Start by selling a remote pH meter that connects to your app. Also, put some kind of log/notes in the app so I can track when I change to flower, etc.
Wow, great! Thanks!

I'll look into having each component be able to monitor/control without a central controller. I'm not a tech guy so I'll have to talk to our developer, but I think it might be expensive or bulky to fit long-range wireless capability into each battery powered item. While this might not apply to you, many large scale applications would need to transmit that signal quite some distance to a router. I like that idea though!

The logging/tracking portion of the app, as I should have explained more in the original post, would absolutely include events like you mentioned. It will be able to be used to coordinate multi-room grows through each stage, similar to some of the opensource grow software out there. I want it to be even more specific than just light changes, etc too. For example, it will be able to show exactly when your CO2 or A/C turned on, and then how long it took to get to the proper level. Can be used to help adjust deadbands and save power ultimately.

Thanks again
 

mike91sr

Well-Known Member
Well, I think I might be your target audience. Small higher end grow and will to pay for what I want.

What I really need is monitoring.

I want to be able to look at my phone, see what's going on. All the current values along with an easy to get to log of each measurement. I'm technologically competent most of the time, but value ease of use and setup.

If something needs to be done I'll probably just go in the room to fix it. Being able to make adjustments remotely would be nice, but not critical, except if I'm on vacation, but still not what I care most about.

My system is pretty dialed in so I only need to go in there to do res changes, adjust lights, trim/tie plants.

It would be great if the system was modular so each instrument could be purchased individually and connect to my home network over wifi. No expensive master controller would be a big selling point for me. Start by selling a remote pH meter that connects to your app. Also, put some kind of log/notes in the app so I can track when I change to flower, etc.
So it seems like that is a viable option, exploring it further. Since you said you're mostly interested in the monitoring, what prevents you from getting something like the La Crosse Wireless Monitoring or Monnit for example?
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
As a commercial grower I would never count on one piece of equipment for monitoring. I like multiple levels of redundancy.

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
Every room I have (or should) have duplicate monitoring systems. An example would be 2 or 3 thermometers and rh monitors. I've seen huge losses when people relied on one piece of equipment that gave them bad info

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
So there for I'd be real reluctant to rely on one master unit to tell me all my conditions

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
Right, but that's why having ONE computer system doing monitoring scares me.

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
Yep. I catch so much stuff during daily rounds. Now, that being said a program that would let me look at trends and the like would be nice. But I'd never rely on it to run my grow.

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
Yep. I catch so much stuff during daily rounds. Now, that being said a program that would let me look at trends and the like would be nice. But I'd never rely on it to run my grow.

Sent from Northern Colorado.
what do you mean by trends?
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
Environmental conditions and settings and nute levels vs. Yield... :)

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 

Merlin34

Well-Known Member
not thinking thats necessary. top shelf dank comes from straight gardening. you know what i mean.
Well of course! But in huge production settings small variables in nutes etc really do add up. Trust me, my home garden is a whole world apart from my production garden which is, unfortunately, judged on one thing in the end, dollars produced. In my home garden I do things way different...

Sent from Northern Colorado.
 
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