HYDRO PH Monitoring

[madams9]

I'm lazy. Let's make no bones about that. I've come to terms later in life with some unfortunate things about myself and I have to be honest - I'm a lazy bastard.

That said, I am a firm believer in closely monitoring the environment in my grow reservoirs and it's considerably more work with 4 buckets to keep track of. To that end, I am interested in automating PH monitoring as much as I can. I'm wondering what experience you growers out there have.

Specifically, I'm wondering about something like an Arduino-based system that looks like it could be acquired affordably (have I mentioned that I am cheap as well as lazy)? Most of the industrial grade equipment I've seen for this is prohibitively expensive for a grow like mine which is strictly for personal production.

I have no experience with Arduino and am hardly an electrical engineer, but somebody figured this stuff out, therefore, so can I if given the time and other resources (I'm not THAT lazy). Here is what I'm looking at:

The Arduino





The sensor



Module upgrade (optional?)





I am not a "coder" beyond the occasional simple bash script, but surely I can cookbook an Arduino script. There is some documentation for the stock module here (Warning: Here there be Kanji).

The upgrade documentation seem a little more accessible.

Advantages to this system involve flexibility - I can upgrade (display, wifi board, etc.) and might be able to more easily monitor 4 buckets with less hardware.


Any wisdom out there?

Thanks.

[madams9]

Addendum: I just found this at Amazon.




It's affordable at $150, but I'm not sure as to how I would monitor 4 buckets. Take turns? Monitor one and assume the other three are in that ballpark?

Just curious. Opinions?

[LurkingInTheGrass]

If you were to go this route
Get a sensor for each bucket (never have to pull your sensor, clean it, put it in next bucket)
Even go so far as to route the wiring through a switch box and you could cycle from bucket to bucket



But, the arduino thing, that intrigues me. If I understand correctly, you can hook an ungodly amount of addressable sensors to the bus. Anything that could be measured (room temp, room rh, each bucket temp/tds/ph)


Hrm, off to the googles, what sensors are available and how much do they cost?

[Formernuke]

Slightly risky but. If all the buckets are connected and level the water level will equalize through them, so if you connect the buckets and install a small pump the water will circulate then install in one and you'll get a reading for all of them.

[Tersky]

I was writing my reply before you posted but i agree. If they do a top fed inter-connected recirculating setup it could work. Good call.

[Tersky]

I would never assume that because one bucket seems fine the others are because each plant will take up nutrients differently therefore altering the ph and ppm at different rates. Also, if you take turns, you run the risk of transmitting any diseases or pests. I would get one for each bucket, so that would run you $600. This seems like a whole lot of work to me. I just have a tds meter for $15 and a $35 ph pen that i just got (was doing drops previously but love my pen now) and that is simple enough and very effective. Im a former IT guy and i wouldnt want to build one of those things, though i could, cause it's a huge pain in the ass. Much easier to turn on my ph pen and tds meter and test. If you are willing to spend the time, which could be weeks (could be months or longer) building this apparatus you are a better person than me.

EDIT: May be possible with what Formernuke says.

[Formernuke]

Just remeber if you connect them all, if something gets in one container it gets in all of them. If I was to do it I would have a separate container without a plant that has the pump and the ph monitor pvc the bottoms of all containers together then run small pump lines to the top of each from the central one to keep everything flowing.

[madams9]

I see what you guys are saying and I agree. I'm probably just grasping at straws here looking for an easy (and cheap) way to get this done. I don't really think there is one. I'll likely just stick with the cheap PH and TDS test pens. Had to buy a new PH pen because my old one dried out and soaking it hasn't helped, it just won't calibrate.

As for the recirculating setup, that's very attractive in terms of just having one pool of liquid to monitor, but I'm not sure about introducing all that hardware. On the other hand, it might be feasible on a slim budget and without much investment of my super valuable time and effort /snark.

I'm going to look into this idea.

Thanks again. I do appreciate it.