Home Automation

@Bob5920 Sorry for the delay in this response, but life happens.

I’m seeing two objectives. One to have automated control of the hydroponic installation, and a second to remotely monitor and control the system. I’m going to try and address the remote access part, as I see that as your key issue. The details of automating the system is, of course, quite a task in itself.

First question is regarding the scope of mobility of the remote access device. Will you be using it near the installation? If so, you likely have all your suggested communications mediums available. If you need to access the system while away from home, you will need to incorporate internet access (preferably this would includ VPN).

At a high level this sounds like a, not unusual, home automation task. As I mentioned before, this is a new-ish area for me. However, I have been collecting Youtube videos (see the link below) that speak to the topic. It appears that you can (and I have) set up a Raspberry Pi with MQTT and NodeRED that would meet your primary access requirements. Andreas Spiess explains how to do this in

. However I would suggest using a RPi 3B, 3B+ or 4B, rather than a Zero W. The benefit of this method is that it allows the use of your WiFi to access the system. Which goes on to enable easier external access.

Note that the automation controls built in to NodeRED may also be able to support the automation (local automatic control) of the fans and nutrient flow mechanisms.

In

Andreas goes on to describe how to connect to a ESP8266 to the internet. This will set up away from home access. I’ve not explored the use of an ESP32, but believe that it may be superior to the ESP8266.

digiblurDIY describes an alternate approach to connect an ESP8266, using Tasmota in

. Tasmota is code that implements/simplifies the connection to an MQTT broker (MQTT server). To use this method, you should also set up a VPN to secure your communications, when you are not at home.

BRUH Automation has a great video on The Beginner's Guide to Home Assistant – HassIO which explains a “simple” method of setting up a more sophisticated home automation system in

I realize that the above may well raise more questions that it resolves, but my research and attempts to implement home automation seems to show that it is not a simple task. Please take a scan through the list of videos below for more information. And as always please feel free to punt any questions my way.

Dale

Home automation YouTube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_OHeZmMGF_ITseFXBLt7Yg/playlists