Arduino Grow room controller

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,

I am in need of some guidance to build a controller for the grow room on me backyard.

I have no programming skills besides some of the tutorials i've done that came with the UNO.

I know i can program any functions with lots of time studying and remembering until i bang my head against the wall.

Mechanical, electronic assembly, soldering etc doesn't scare me as it is part of my daily job.

What i am looking for is for some nice software with a friendly interface. I've seen some block software, but couldn't find one that has a library with most common components, and is easy to perform modifications on the fly has the system built will surely need upgrades as it goes.

The intended use is to control a grow room that has several sensors for temperatures, luminosity, humidity and 220v relay outputs.

Below is a list of the components that i already own:

-Arduino Uno Starter Kit

-Common electronic apparel like PCB's , cables, terminals, etc..

2 x -BPV10NF

2 x -Keyes ZND - 15 High Sensitivity Soil Moisture Content Sensor

2 x -KEYES MD0004 Relay Module

-DHT22 Digital Temperature and Humidity Sensor Module

-16 Pin digital display that came with Arduino starter kit

-DS1302 RTC Real-Time Clock Module (safeguarding of measurements history)

-ESP-01 ESP8266 2.4GHz Wireless Module (for future connection via VPN)

Is there anyone that can help me or at least throw some food for thougt?

Thank's in Advance!!

Regards,

K

2

is the question that you are looking for a graphical user interface for programming ?

There are quite a few alternatives to the Arduino C++ based IDE, however, the closer you get to the code, the more options you have to do things.

what you seem to want to do is well within the graphical programmers. monitoring soil moisture and turning on a relay for some time or until a value changes.

if you just want to build a garden controller, there are lots of sites where others have posted the parts, the wring diagrams and the code. might be a great place to start.
and as you want to add sensors or other inputs, and maybe expand your outputs, the Arduino has lots of room for expansion.

block programmers will not have your specifc parts becase your parts to no matter.
a relay output can be any relay from a tiny speck of dirt size to one that is as large as your luggage.
the output signal and the control steps are the same. the physical wiring is different. the software does no care.

so, regardless of your sensor input it has a value. might be 0 to 1,000 or it might be 0 degrees to 250 degree or any values you can think. software does not care, you set the high, the low and then the point you want to do a thing.
say a soilmoistire. low is 50 high is 700 (just making up numbers) and you find that a nice moist soil has a value of 520.
so you set the low limit to 500 and when the value is less than 500, you close the relay.
the relay tuns on the water and the soil gets watered.

no parts numbers are involved in the software side so the graphical interface that you find easy to work with is the one to start with. learn it and you will be able to do probably everything you want.

3

Hello @dave-in-nj, thanks for your reply.

Yes i have to dig and study this further. But at the moment time is short...

I've found several examples, but they all seem very different and follow different approaches.

Also found several different software so thought i might ask if there is some general easy to use interface/software that everybody is using and would also apply to my needs.

Electrical schematics or wiring is no trouble for me, but the programming...

Can you recommend one software that you use? or that is commonly used??

Thanks for your help!!

Regards,
K