What's the best pump cycle for aeroponics?

[Taipan]

so you're an electronics wiz huh? I'll tell you what I'm interested in maybe you can help.

 

I want a control unit that can be hooked up to any electric device (eg fan or pump) and also be hooked into a thermostat or smoke detector so if a pump fails or your smoke alarm goes off, or your temp goes above a certain limit, it rings your mobile phone and then you instantly know there is a problem with your grow room.

 

I have found a plug in system that will ring your mobile phone if a smoke alarm goes off but they are quite expensive (over a grand) and if I spent that kinda money I'd want it to do a little more than that. So I'm thinking someone in the know might be able to point me towards the right components to buy and how to wire em up.

 

more like a semi electronics wiz , I've never made anything that can interact with mobile phone technology, but I'll have a bit of a look when I get a chance. Setting up something that works over the internet wouldn't be too difficult. But you would have to dial into your site to get information, it wouldn't be able to call you.

 

There is some gear by Harvest Master who make growroom controllers, CO2 controllers etc, and you can get an addon that will phone your mobile phone in the event of a failure and you can also text back to turn things on and off. There website is www.harvest-master.com. The Mobile phone unit is the GSM Text Modem. You need to have one of the PLUS models of climate controller to use it though. If you don't want CO2 sensors you need the Climate Plus Controller and if you do want CO2 sensing the Climate Pro Plus Controller is the unit. But you'll spend a few grand getting it. I may be able to get them in Aus at a reasonable price so let me know if your interested and I'll check a supplier I know who used to distribute them.

Edited November 26, 2006 by Taipan

[Taipan]

I want a control unit that can be hooked up to any electric device (eg fan or pump) and also be hooked into a thermostat or smoke detector so if a pump fails or your smoke alarm goes off, or your temp goes above a certain limit, it rings your mobile phone and then you instantly know there is a problem with your grow room.

 

Well I've done a bit of reading and it shouldn't be too difficult to get one of the microcontrollers I use to talk to a mobile phone and use it to send and receive text messages. I would expect that I can put something together for a few hundred dollars. So I am definitely going to add this project to my list of things to do. After saying that, this would be quite a big project for me and I wouldn't expect to having a working model for up to 6 months. I have to write all of the code for the chip to monitor the growroom and interface with the mobile phone, as well as design the circuit board, build a prototype, test it etc etc. A great challenge for me though

 

Once I get started I will post about it and get feedback on the features it would need.

[Shithappens]

http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/microcontrollers/tini/

 

That would be your best bet as its been around for a fair while !!

 

I actually saw one on ebay and that reminded me of the name of them....

 

OK im getting old and brain cells scarce!!

 

Taipan theres no fun with prebuilt toys like this!!

 

The tini is chainable with the sensors

Ip addressable

and remote addressable for control and monitoring

Edited December 2, 2006 by Shithappens

[madazz]

Interested in your thoughts on the best pump cycles for an aeroponic system.

 

 

hey there all, you'll need to buy a repeat cycle timer as standard digi timers only have 10 or so on & off settings. these timers are very expensive (ebay $250 AU) sold by discout hydroponics. the best setting i've found is 1 min on and 5 min off giving the roots maximum time to draw air for 5 mins and 1 min for water is perfect. check out rollitup.org website checkout "stinkbuds - harvest a pound every 3 weeks" goes into detail about cycle timers etc

 

madazz.