{"id":1971,"date":"2020-06-03T16:32:35","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T21:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kylegabriel.com\/projects\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2022-08-28T22:08:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T03:08:07","slug":"automated-hydroponic-system-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kylegabriel.com\/projects\/2020\/06\/automated-hydroponic-system-build.html","title":{"rendered":"Automated Hydroponic System Build"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last Updated: August 28, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydroponic farming is a method of growing crops without soil, with the main benefits of environmental and nutrient control, water conservation, and reduction of labor. This technique relies on a number of technologies that the principles of automation can be applied in order to improve yield and consistency. In this article and accompanying video, I’ll show you how to built a hydroponic system with basic components and automate it using the open source software Mycodo running on a Raspberry Pi single board computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Watch the video Automated Hydroponic System Build<\/a> on YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Many of the aspects that make hydroponic farming so efficient can also make it challenging to implement. Water and nutrients must be provided in a balanced ratio while being constantly monitored and adjusted as plants develop. Temperature regulation can also become a problem since the circulating water system acts as a heat pump. Additionally, the microbial communities that can benefit or harm your crops are now competing in an aqueous rather than a terrestrial environment, sending us even further into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. And to make matters worse, if you have a prolonged power outage, you may need to manually water or have a generator to keep the water pump going, else you may injure your crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with these challenges, there are several aspects that make hydroponics attractive (Barbosa et al. 2015). An optimal amount of nutrients can be supplied directly to plant roots in an immediately-usable form. Plants can be grown in areas with poor soil or limited space, or grown vertically to maximize plant density. Water waste is reduced by recirculating it back into the system. There’s also no need to worry about weeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although there are a number of different hydroponic and cultivation techniques, this article explores only one of the ways to build a hydroponic system and apply principles of automation to monitor and regulate it. This is meant primarily to demonstrate the process of applying automation techniques, which can be adapted to many other systems. And while the hydroponic system I built is relatively small, it’s a modular design that can be scaled to different growing spaces, be it a small grow tent or a large commercial greenhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you find this article or video useful or you use Mycodo and want to support my future work and software development, consider becoming a Patron at patreon.com\/kylegabriel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Raspberry Pi 4 single board computer (courtesy of WC<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

At the core of this automated hydroponic system is the Raspberry Pi single board computer. This $35 computer is only the size of a deck of playing cards, but it has all the components you would find in a full computer, including CPU, RAM, video\/audio output, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and micro SD slot. The most important feature of the Raspberry Pi for our application is its general purpose input-output (GPIO) pins, which will be used to connect inputs, such as switches and sensors to measure the environment, and outputs such as pumps and relays to move liquids and control electrical devices that will manipulate the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until recently (this month, in fact), the major Achilles Heel of the Raspberry Pi has been an inability to boot from external storage devices, forcing the use of a micro SD card. Micro SD cards were designed for cameras where there are minimal read\/write operations. Running a full Linux operating system along with a time-series database recording measurements severely reduces the life expectancy of the SD card and reduces the stability of the system due to file system corruption. In May 2020, firmware that allows the Raspberry Pi 4 to natively boot from an external storage device<\/a> entered beta. This drastically improves its stability and suitability in critical automation applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The software which will be installed on the Raspberry Pi to automate the hydroponic system is a free and open source software package I’ve developed, Mycodo<\/a>, which is essentially a universal tool for environmental measuring, monitoring, and manipulation, and has been used for a number of interesting and diverse applications<\/a>. Mycodo is a user-friendly yet powerful tool for building automation into almost any system. Below is a brief overview of the functionality that will be configured in Mycodo to operate as a hydroponic system controller:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hydroponic System Automation Features<\/h3>\n\n\n\n