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Post by SDL on Jan 1, 2020 13:17:38 GMT -8
Hi Folks, We have sold a lot of these in the past year since the successful Kickstarter. We are now starting to look at some enhancements and would like to poll you guys too in order to get your ideas. 1) We are redoing the Smart Garden System to Python3. This is a big hassle but it has to be done sometime.  2) We are going to supply a straight MQTT feed to a Mosquitto broker on a Raspberry Pi. That will give any hackers out there that want to use an MQTT feed the perfect example. 3) The big news is that we are in the process of designing a new Wireless 4 Moisture Sensors/4 USB Pumps and four Relay (5V - 240VAC) Extender for the Smart Garden System. This will be based on an ESP32 which will connect to the Raspberry Pi based Smart Garden System. It will have a mechanism for provisioning the WiFi (what a pain) and you will be able to have up to 32 different Wireless extender units out there on your local WiFi network. SGS.py on the Raspberry Pi will be modified to support this and we will include support for these units on Blynk (at least for 9 sensors of your choice!!!!). This will be launched in a Kickstarter in 1Q or 2Q 2020. 4) We will provide some extender kits for Weatherproofing and even Solar Power for your extender units. (We are asking you folks the question about providing solar power options for the Smart Garden System itself! Let us know. With our SolarMAX solar systems we have the power rand technologies). 5) How about an integration with a SkyWeather weather station? That make any sense to you people? camera and weather info! 6) If you guys want to use a SkyWeather Station, we might be able to talk our buddies at WeatherSTEM into putting your gardens on the air along with SkyWeather. We are also going to be supporting Grafana on the Raspberry Pi to display ALL THE DATA coming into the Smart Garden System. Thank you for your support and we look forward to the comments! Best regards, John C. Shovic, PhD CTO SwitchDoc Labs |
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Post by Adrian on Jan 1, 2020 14:38:29 GMT -8
My two biggest wants was Python 3 + MQTT for Node-RED, but it sounds like you're already there ... also, my pump died, so maybe some improvement in that department?
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Post by SDL on Jan 1, 2020 14:45:58 GMT -8
Adrian,
Yes, MQTT will be supported. Should be easy to take into Node-RED. We do not plan to change out the USB pumps at this point. We have seen almost no failures (I **think** yours is the first one). However, the new Wireless Extender boards will support Relays, so you can use whatever you wish.
Thanks for your comments!
BP
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hawk
New Member
Posts: 6 
Raspberry Pi: Yes
Other Device: Atomic Pi
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Post by hawk on Jan 1, 2020 16:47:01 GMT -8
Since we will be able to use relays with the new Wireless Extender boards, that will be a great addition. I am interested in weatherproofing and solar power extender kits when available. Also will want to integrate it with my skyweather kit. So it seems that you already have my interests covered. If I come up with new ideas, I'll be sure to post them here.
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Post by SDL on Jan 2, 2020 13:05:28 GMT -8
Hawk,
You are amazing! We are looking for a REST or an MQTT interface with SkyWeather. Won't be on the same Pi. Which is a good thing.
BP
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Post by Paul C on Jan 7, 2020 10:19:35 GMT -8
Great work on this project, it was fun to put together.
I had only two complaints with the original project, and you're addressing one of them already with the ESP32-connected module.
The other issue I had was that the project was *messy*. I would have loved to have some braces to allow me to attach the raspberry pi to the bottom of the mounting board, or perhaps a box (or recommendations on building one) in which I could mount everything securely. Perhaps an extender kit that is a box with a vent (for air quality) and one side plexiglas (for display and sunlight readings) would be helpful?
I eventually cut some of my grove cables and added modular phone jacks, which gave me off-the-shelf options for placing components farther apart. I love that you're using grove connectors, but perhaps a "grove-to-modular extender" extender kit (two adapters, one for either end) might be a way to let the system be a little farther away from the garden without locking people in to using hard-to-find cables.
That's my 2.6024 ยข (CAD).
- Paul
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Post by SDL on Jan 7, 2020 12:17:42 GMT -8
Paul, Great comments!!!! 1) On the SGS base kit and wired expansion kits we are redoing the 3D printed structures and including the Raspberry Pi on the board. We are also going to provide what we call a weatherproofing manual that shows how to put it in a box. We have been doing on this on our newer SkyWeather kit and customers love it to see the full example. We may or may not sell the boxes. Jury is still out on that. We have to figure out how to get an OEM deal on them Right now we are just buying them off Amazon so we just provide a link. We have such a box with plexiglass on the top! Plexiglass blocks UV, so we have to use a quartz window to get those readings. the vent thing would be pretty easy. 2) I really like the idea of an extender plug set. Grove on one end and RJ11 on the other. We have something similar to that already. I'll look into that. You only can extend I2C so far, but we could add some spaces for additional pull-up resistors. You would have to use straight through phone cables. This is what we have (but won't work for your use) but it could be modified as a dual grove extender board with just a few modifications. shop.switchdoc.com/products/weatherrack-interface-board-for-grove-pin-headers-rj11Thanks again! Please comment on the above in case I missed something. BP |
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Post by Alec on Feb 9, 2020 12:27:18 GMT -8
Hi John,
is there any interest on having control of the light source (growth LED or other lights) as part of the system? Right now, system assumes that light comes from the Sun, I guess, so if the garden is indoors, it would not be able to control the artificial light source.
Just curious if this would be of interest to others or the main focus of the Smart Garden is the outdoor use.
Thank you,
Alec
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Post by SDL on Feb 9, 2020 13:22:45 GMT -8
Alec,
We are looking at the same thing. PWM ccontrol of LED lights would be cool.
BP
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Post by Alec on Feb 10, 2020 6:05:43 GMT -8
Great. I assume that, with existing SmartGarden HW and few spare ports, we would be able to control lights and potentially fan for air circulation.
Few days ago, I just purchased a basic kit. Looking forward to a new development and SW updates.
Alec
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Post by SDL on Feb 10, 2020 15:59:29 GMT -8
Yes, what we are planning to do is implementing this with the Wireless extender kit we are building. I have two of the prototypes in house (a couple of changes need to be made) and expect to start work on that (or better yet, John does it) in the next few weeks.
BP
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alec
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by alec on Feb 12, 2020 5:54:02 GMT -8
Just few other ideas that might be of interest:
1. Control of small Peltier heater/cooler to control the temperature in the closed env
2. Have option to load the recipes for humidity/temp/light duration - different plants have different requirements in regards to environment
3. Instead of using one water pump per plant or group of plants, use one pump plus several independent digitally controlled valves. To water a single plant, pump and specific valve should be turned on. You could also turn on multiple valves to water several plants at the same time.
Sorry, just throwing ideas and we can see what sticks.
Alec
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Post by SDL on Feb 12, 2020 14:39:14 GMT -8
Alec,
1. Control of small Peltier heater/cooler to control the temperature in the closed env
That is a cool project. A Peltier to cool even a moderately sized box takes a lot of current, but it can be done. We could do it with two relays (like two relays on the wireless pump board above4)
2. Have option to load the recipes for humidity/temp/light duration - different plants have different requirements in regards to environment
Yes! On the list.
3. Instead of using one water pump per plant or group of plants, use one pump plus several independent digitally controlled valves. To water a single plant, pump and specific valve should be turned on. You could also turn on multiple valves to water several plants at the same time.
We can do that with the wireless relay board above!
John
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