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2019-06-18 2:43 am
Hi everyone. I started hydroponics gardening last winter 2018-19 in my basement and learned through research (thanks to youtube) that monitoring conditions of the garden is quite essential for an optimal harvest - lettuce, tomato and pepper basically. Tried Kratky, NFT and DWC but might explore and settle for flood and drain next fall-winter season.
I've watched arduino or Rpi-driven monitoring system and was wondering if anyone in this forum have done it. Here's my dream: in the first phase, I probably need to monitor pH, temp and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) or Electrical Conductivity (EC). Second phase is auto-adjustment of these 3 variables. Third maybe online or mobile monitoring with an override to manually adjust those conditions in the app. with an alert system if solution is in critically low level... I am not an electronic expert nor a gardening professional - just to set the scene. I like electronics and tinker stuff. I am a handy-person and an enthusiast of D-I-Y stuff if that helps.
If anyone have the patience and know-how, I'd be very glad to hear from you. Thanks for your time and interest in this topic.
2019-06-18 3:12 am
PH sensors are around but are one of the more expensive sensors. Temperature is easy. You may want to add in humidity.
TDS is another matter, I doubt a measurement of EC given that any salt in the solution would override the conductivity of a dissolved solid. I'm assuming by TDS we are talking about rotting plant matter, or dirty water, rather than a solution, then any bits in water will change the viscosity and sound and light slows down in that liquid. If the TDS changes the colour of the liquid then you have another measure.
It sounds like a fun project, keep us informed.
The 600 series had rubber skin. We spotted them easy, but these are new. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot.