Has any incorporated their grow into their smart home?

K

Kronowaluk

Well-Known Member
Iv been in the smart home game for a few years now. Enough to always ask anytime I plan on getting something new, "how can this be added to my system" Specifically Im speaking about home assistant. I have a number of zigbee and wifi sensor temp,humidity, lux ect. The only thing I haven't been able to find was a decent PH sensor that can connect to HA. Anyone heard/use those Miflora sensors? The one thing I wont do is have HA be the light timer as I just cant rely on the server to be without issue so id keep it on its own timer. Would love to hear/see what kind of setups you have (if there are any).
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I think I saw someone using audrino to connect a pH sensor to HA for a pool. Might be worth a google search.

TBH the only automation I need is handled by the lighting timer and an autopilot controller. Making it more complex than required just adds more stuff to maintain and fail. If you really wanna get into automation with remote capability you may wanna look at the iPonic setups although I did hear some people have had issues with sensors going out, not really sure because I haven't tried one.
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
These guys make a digital pH sensor if that helps you any.

www.automationworld.com

Digital pH Sensor

The Memosens CPS171D from Endress+Hauser features a Memosens glass electrode for bioreactors and fermenters in the biotech industry.
www.automationworld.com www.automationworld.com
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
One thing I learned when I was using a home built dosing pump system is you want some form of runaway control. If your pH probe goes bad the system could be given an erroneous reading prompting the PID to add pH buffer. As the probe is bad the pump just keeps running. Obviously not good for your plants. lol So it's good to have some form of logic that will prevent an overrun and send an alert that the system needs maintenance.
 
min444

min444

Active Member
Kronowaluk said:
Iv been in the smart home game for a few years now. Enough to always ask anytime I plan on getting something new, "how can this be added to my system" Specifically Im speaking about home assistant. I have a number of zigbee and wifi sensor temp,humidity, lux ect. The only thing I haven't been able to find was a decent PH sensor that can connect to HA. Anyone heard/use those Miflora sensors? The one thing I wont do is have HA be the light timer as I just cant rely on the server to be without issue so id keep it on its own timer. Would love to hear/see what kind of setups you have (if there are any).
Click to expand...
I do. I love it.
I use a combination of Home Assistant and a Raspberry Pi. When I walk to my grow closet, the lights and the display showing all my data is turns on. 1571444093770.png
When I open the doors of the closet the lights automatically dim and the fans turn off. The temp, humidity and moisture of the soil are monitored and shown as graph on the display. I get warnings via telegram if something is out of range. With the same data my ventilation and humidifier is automated and reacts to the current climate. The same humidity sensors are in several of my curing glasses, also giving me warnings when it's out of range.
A camera takes timelapse pictures, twice a day a get a new timelapse rendered.

Home Assistant is for my Zigbee stuff (motion, door sensors) and Sonoffs (light, humidifier, desk fans), the RasPi (using Node Red) for the Bluetooth sensors (Mi Flora and Temp/Humi), Camera, PWM Control (pc fans, light dim, ventilation), Display.
 
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K

Kronowaluk

Well-Known Member
min444 said:
I do. I love it.
I use a combination of Home Assistant and a Raspberry Pi. When I walk to my grow closet, the lights and the display showing all my data is turns on. View attachment 4409921
When I open the doors of the closet the lights automatically dim and the fans turn off. The temp, humidity and moisture of the soil are monitored and shown as graph on the display. I get warnings via telegram if something is out of range. With the same data my ventilation and humidifier is automated and reacts to the current climate. The same humidity sensors are in several of my curing glasses, also giving me warnings when it's out of range.
A camera takes timelapse pictures, twice a day a get a new timelapse rendered.

Home Assistant is for my Zigbee stuff (motion, door sensors) and Sonoffs (light, humidifier, desk fans), the RasPi (using Node Red) for the Bluetooth sensors (Mi Flora and Temp/Humi), Camera, PWM Control (pc fans, light dim, ventilation), Display.
Click to expand...
This is absolutely incredible. I was looking at those mifloras. How is the accuracy of them? I have a bunch of those aqara zigbee sensors and using a conbee 2
 
min444

min444

Active Member
Kronowaluk said:
This is absolutely incredible. I was looking at those mifloras. How is the accuracy of them? I have a bunch of those aqara zigbee sensors and using a conbee 2
Click to expand...
The Mi Floras are pretty accurate. Its my main source of information when to water my plants. Of course I do a double check with the finger before I actually water them.
The placement of the unit is the most critical, don't place it at the edge of the pot. Also the soil has to be very tight around the sensor, otherwise the measurements can fluctuate more.

The temp/humidity sensor are also very accurate. The downside of them is, they are really fast in changing. You can breath on them and they go instantly up in humidity. In combination with the graph this is no problem, as I can always see what the values were before opening the tent.
And they are battery driven, so if climate control depends on them, a redundancy is recommended.
 
K

Kronowaluk

Well-Known Member
min444 said:
The Mi Floras are pretty accurate. Its my main source of information when to water my plants. Of course I do a double check with the finger before I actually water them.
The placement of the unit is the most critical, don't place it at the edge of the pot. Also the soil has to be very tight around the sensor, otherwise the measurements can fluctuate more.

The temp/humidity sensor are also very accurate. The downside of them is, they are really fast in changing. You can breath on them and they go instantly up in humidity. In combination with the graph this is no problem, as I can always see what the values were before opening the tent.
And they are battery driven, so if climate control depends on them, a redundancy is recommended.
Click to expand...
Sent you a pm actually
 
2

2com

Well-Known Member
Kronowaluk said:
Iv been in the smart home game for a few years now. Enough to always ask anytime I plan on getting something new, "how can this be added to my system" Specifically Im speaking about home assistant. I have a number of zigbee and wifi sensor temp,humidity, lux ect. The only thing I haven't been able to find was a decent PH sensor that can connect to HA. Anyone heard/use those Miflora sensors? The one thing I wont do is have HA be the light timer as I just cant rely on the server to be without issue so id keep it on its own timer. Would love to hear/see what kind of setups you have (if there are any).
Click to expand...
Hey,

I'm looking into automation of dosing for nutrient solution and before I bore you, I found these guys https://www.atlas-scientific.com
It appears they make pretty cool gear that I really wish I had the knowhow to use right now. They have kits with "boards" (heh) for arduino and/or raspberrypi, and all the parts to connect anything from pH, EC, ORP, (etc) probes - like the bnc connectors and stuff. And they appear to be focused on quality (they have 'consumer' and 'lab' quality probes too). The price looks reasonable.

I hope this helps. Maybe I'll even get to see you put something together and learn, lol.
 
K

Kronowaluk

Well-Known Member
2com said:
Hey,

I'm looking into automation of dosing for nutrient solution and before I bore you, I found these guys https://www.atlas-scientific.com
It appears they make pretty cool gear that I really wish I had the knowhow to use right now. They have kits with "boards" (heh) for arduino and/or raspberrypi, and all the parts to connect anything from pH, EC, ORP, (etc) probes - like the bnc connectors and stuff. And they appear to be focused on quality (they have 'consumer' and 'lab' quality probes too). The price looks reasonable.

I hope this helps. Maybe I'll even get to see you put something together and learn, lol.
Click to expand...
Pretty decent site, lots of sensors and pretty pricey too. I do have a temp/humidty sensor setup and added alerts in case its out of range. Had a cheaper wifi camera laying around so I decided to hook that baby up in the tent. I set up the light timer in Home Assistant, but not 100% sure im comfortable with that yet. I really wanted to buy those "mi plants" soil sensors but they seems to be very hard to find these days and the ones you can find, the price has gone up
 
2

2com

Well-Known Member
Kronowaluk said:
Pretty decent site, lots of sensors and pretty pricey too.
Click to expand...
Really? They have consumer, lab, and industrial quality probes. The prices level reflect the "grade" for the most part, from what I can see. And the "Lab" quality pH probe, for example, is the same price as a bluelab pH probe. Their lab quality pH probe says it has a 2.5year life expectancy and a calibration interval of 1year, an accuracy of +/– 0.002, and resolution of +/- 0.0001, fully submergible, etc. For $75. Lol.
"Consumer" grade is $40.
 
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