DIY Automation Systems - Automate or stay late!

Umamiseedco

Umamiseedco

Well-known member
I must have hit my head, because I decided that I was going to learn how to code and build my own system. I threw away all my old trolmaster, atlas and other controllers and sensors and now my whole system runs off a raspberry pi with a mix of wifi, bluetooth, and zigbee sensors and smart plugs. Feel free to follow along and get out from under the expensive and limited systems currently out there.
 
Green Mopho said:
I've been in the vein of doing something like this soon myself! Just need the time and energy and a test garden to do it. 😜

Looking forward to seeing how it runs for you!
Click to expand...
I've been running the system for about 18 months now. True full automation with auto fertigation, lights, fans, the works. Similar to the Pinnacle system if you follow him on IG. I will try to take a bunch of pics and dig up old photos so you can see the progression.
 
I have done a very similar thing but I mostly use nodered so I didn't have to learn much code at all. It's really amazing the power we have at our finger tips now. I recently actually converted my system to use off the shelf smart switches which has made expanding mine very easy.
 
So, I went down the rabbit hole after first watching a few videos from LEDGardener on youtube a couple years ago. I watched the whole series on his garden build and have modeled my setup in a similar fashion. I am running my whole system on a Raspberry Pi 4 with an OS called Home Assistant. This software allows for you to integrate so many different sensors, smart devices, plugs and use them to their full potential with endless customization. I started this project with zero coding knowledge or understanding, and I still have no clue what I am doing, but with the invention of chatgpt4 and google it is very possible for pretty much anyone to build a similar system that rivals Aroya, Grow Link, Trolmaster etc.

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I was so excited when parts started to arrive... My excitement soon turned to dread, as I realized that I had zero clue WTF I was doing.
 
Luckily for me, there are tons of youtube tutorials on Home Assistant and I slowly made progress. I was always good at putting hardware together, but writing the software that enables the hardware was an entirely different story... I ended up buying a ton of Arduino hardware and started messing around with simple things, temp/rh sensors, ph sensors, dosers etc.

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The bulk of the communication systems are via wifi, using ESP32's running ESPHOME. I have used Zigbee and zwave devices but they seem to be less reliable. I also have a number of bluetooth devices that send the data to the ESP's and that is then routed to my PI and made available to me on HA (Home Assistant)

The first "project boxes" that I built are below. I have temp/rh sensors, rs485 soil sensors, a ph sensor and various power outputs. Most devices are 12v, 5v, and 3v dc.





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Learning how to program and run relays has been killer. These relays can run almost anything and I can turn on or off pumps, fans, solenoids, etc at the touch of a button. The device below can directly control and monitor around 50x different sensors and has 120vac, 12v dc, 5v dc and 3v dc power distro.



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Atom1 is my dosing pump system. Using 12v peristaltic pumps, I can dose my fertilizer fresh each day at any volume that I need.

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Mini 2 is my ph sensor, It reads the tanks ph and lets Atom 7 know if the ph needs to be adjusted to meet the current requirements.
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I am running Open Sprinkler for my irrigation system. At this point, if something doesn't integrate with HA then I wont use it...

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I have used and spent several thousand dollars on soil sensors that actually work and are accurate. I found these miflora sensors are dirt cheap and are highly accurate for moisture levels. My irrigation system is programmed in such a way that the schedule follows the sensors, so if there is a watering event set for 11am but the coco hasn't dried back enough, it will skip so as to not overwater. And on the opposite end, if the moisture % drops below a specified set point then I have an emergency feed programmed as a just in case.

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