Forum - Recent Threads

Indoor Grow Lights Using LEDs

ipv1 — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 04:42:38 GMT

Greetings!

I was wondering about using LEDs as grow lights for indoor farming use and since the vertical farming guys are already in that mode so probably someone can point me in the right direction.

I am trying to understand the specifications of LEDs for grow lights in terms of color/wavelength etc. There is a lot of information in the internet but I was hoping for some experienced users to share their knowledge. I am in the process of making my own grow light panels and so I can accommodate a mix of LED types.

Any information would be useful.

Thanks!

Open Source Chemical Analysis [Everyone Welcome]

m.ratcliffe — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 12:36:37 GMT

A lot of us here are working on hydroponics or aquaponics, a lot of the sensors are outdated and it would be great to have more information about the growing fluid at our disposal. On this page it would be great if we could discuss general techniques and potential prototypes to measure all the things we feel are important in a growing fluid.

Aims, to make a cheap [sub $XXX] spectrometer[or other] capable of measuring the quantity of chemicals in a liquid:

>What is needed :

Automated Green House Blog:20.1 - Toying with Chemical Analysis - Essential Nutrients

What is bad and can accumulate:

> [Coming Soon]

>Other things we can think of

Types of sensing [this will grow larger I hope and each one will have its pro's and cons listed]

>IR Spectrometry

>UV Spectrometry

>Mass Spectrometer [Will build this later]

Other ideas:

>Change frequency of AC EC measurments, maybe we can see polarisation happen for each element at a certain frequancy.

>Charge a probe to +5 and measure its depletion curve. maybe there will be peaks at certain times as polarisation is reversed.

I know very little on this topic right now, but maybe with a few of use we can make it work.

Maybe we could share the load between us and each tackle a small portion of the problem each, ie write up a little about what we need to measure, each sum up a common technique used today and pro's/cons of automating it.

If anyone can think of a better place to house this discussion on Element14, please let everyone know. And could one of the admin tag everyone in it, so all of the other great contest content does not put it in their shadow.

Some Useful Links:

http://store.publiclab.org/products/desktop-spectrometry-kit-3-0

Message was edited by: Michael Ratcliffe Anyone can Alter the content, please leave a short summary here of the changes

Contributors:

DAB I cant find a way to link you, but do you want to join the project?

EZ32WG starter kits?

RWReynolds — Mon, 24 Aug 2015 19:13:30 GMT

Hey Dave,

Any word on the EZ32WG starter kits for the US? Just checking.

EFM32ZG Sensor-Puck connection...

RWReynolds — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 01:01:22 GMT

Ok, has anyone else tried to work with the SensorPuck.

I have the Sensor-Puck connected to the EFM32ZG. And I've managed to configure Simplicity to recognize the puck for debugging. But there is no example software for the puck and I can't seem to locate the correct source code for the sensor-puck at SL. I found a link that says it's for the source code for the Sensor Puck firmware, V1.0. But I can't get it to compile. Missing includes and such. I found versions of some of the files but i wouldn't be willing to burn the image even if I could get it to compile.

It's at the very bottom of this page.

Sensor Software | Silicon Labs

And if I can get it compiled or not, can I read it from the J-TAG - I/O header if ti's in I/O mode. Not really finding any docs on that.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers,

Rick

windows 10 and silicon labs dev boards

shanesissons — Thu, 13 Aug 2015 21:14:08 GMT

im having issues connecting the dev boards to my pc I have recently upgraded to windows 10 (not the best idea in the middle of a project) has anybody else encountered this issue or have any suggestions?

on a side note im getting quite good at space invaders

Partial challenge kit has arrived.

RWReynolds — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 18:15:22 GMT

Cool!

Just received a package from Newark Element 14. Looks like everything is here except the Wurth switch kit, Dave addressed this in the update video, and the EZR32WG starter kit. Again, Dave explained this in an earlier thread. Since the EZR32WG kits are region specific they are being shipped separately to ensure that everyone receives the correct operating frequency radio for their region. So all according to plan. The EFM32 Starter Kit is however in the package so we can now get familiar with both SimplicityStudio and the online mbed compiler. And we have them in hand for the Silicon Labs mbed webinar. Learning is so much better when it's hands-on!

Funny, it has "Newark" on the box. I worked for a marine radio, coast, station in the early to late '80s. WLO, Mobile Marine Radio! We did a lot of our own R&D and either built or modified a lot of our own equipment. I was an R&D tech and the resident UNIX sysadmin and C programmer there. We used components that came mostly from Newark. So seeing a Newark box show up at the door brings back a lot of memories. Mostly good!

Thanks for the toys Newark Element 14. I will proceed to put them to good use.

Cheers,

Rick

EZR32WG, mbed Enabled?

RWReynolds — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 13:44:33 GMT

Does anyone know if the EZR32WG is mbed Enabled?

Based on this I'm assuming so. But it doesn't explicitly state it on the SL EZR32WG product page.

https://developer.mbed.org/platforms/EFM32-Wonder-Gecko/

Mechanical Design Assistance???

RWReynolds — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 02:28:48 GMT

Hey everyone,

I'm not a mechanical engineer by any stretch on anyone's imagination. I have one mechanical design issue that I'm not sure how to approach. I kind of know the theory, but I have no idea how to approach it practically.

Here's the problem...

I have a load, my cultivator unit, that will be about 3' - 4' tall, maybe 12" to 18" in diameter and weigh between 20 and 40 lbs. The whole thing will be mounted on a lazy susan style turntable. The plan is to have a gear or pulley at the bottom that will be used with a hight torque stepper motor, and chain or belt, to rotate the cultivator. I'm using a stepper motor because they are pretty efficient and can be controlled very easily at very slow speeds. I want the rotation speed to be maybe 3 to 4 revolutions per day. A stepper would work well for this I think.

I have no idea how to properly size the motor. I see them speced at anywhere from 10s of oz-in to 1000s of oz-inches of torque. I get the concept of torque being rotational force. And that required torque has to do with acceleration time up to the desired RPM. But I have no idea how to relate this to my requirements.

I'm a 'puter software with some dangerous electronics knowledge guy! HELP!!! And feel free to tell me this just a stupid idea and I should be using a washing machine motor or something if that's the case.

For reference, here's a drawing of the rig. Note the drive at the bottom right. Please excuse the misspelled labeling. I haven't gotten around to correcting it yet. lol...

The new main page format...

RWReynolds — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 16:10:36 GMT

Love the changes to the lower half of main challenge page! I have set up a FB page so friends can follow my progress and this will make it much easier for them to find my bolg. And to see all the other challengers blogs as well. Nicely done E14!

I have also reached out to my local Makersapce, Mobile Makerspace, and the project will be featured on their site as well. I recommend all challengers do this as well. You may find some help you didn't even know was available.

Here's the links to my local Makerspace.

http://makerspacemobile.org/

https://www.facebook.com/makerspacemobile?fref=ts

Cheers,

Rick

Würth Elektronik Component Design Kits Info...

RWReynolds — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 14:08:20 GMT

For anyone who's interested, I went to the Würth Elektronik site and located pages for all of the component kits included design challenge kit. Lots of really great components. And from what I can tell most or all of the kits come with a lifetime refill policy. Thanks to Würth Elektronik for a great component package!

Just to get a little jump start on knowing what we have to work with. See the links below.

These are the three capacitor kits.

885 060

Design Kit WCAP-CSGP - General Purpose - 0603

Design Kit WCAP-CSGP - General Purpose - 0603 - Product Catalog Passive Components

885 070

Design Kit WCAP-CSGP - General Purpose - 0805

Design Kit WCAP-CSGP - General Purpose - 0805 - Product Catalog Passive Components

885 080

Design Kit WCAP-CSGP - General Purpose - 1206/1210/ 1812

Design Kit WCAP-CSGP - General Purpose - 1206/1210/ 1812 - Product Catalog Passive Components

The switch kit.

499 001

Design Kits for Switches

Design Kits for Switches - Product Catalog Electromechanical Components

The LED Kit.

150 151

Design Kit LED

Design Kit LED - Product Catalog LEDs

The Power Inductor Kit.

744 383 3

Design Kit SMD Power Inductor WE-MAPI - 3010/ 3012/ 3015/ 3020

Design Kit SMD Power Inductor WE-MAPI - 3010/ 3012/ 3015/ 3020 - Product Catalog Passive Components

Vertical Farming Association membership...

RWReynolds — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 18:05:18 GMT

Just an FYI to the other challengers.

I reached out the VFA and got a very warm welcome.

I registered on the site and through a couple of emails exchanged with Maximilian Loessl, the site contact, was granted full access to the site.

Normally this would require a donation, but that was waived due to participation in the E14 challenge.

Remember, E14 will donate $100 in the name of everyone who submits a completed project.

I would recommend everyone go and register. Looks like tons of relevant info.

Vertical Farming

Cheers

Rick

Question concerning the design challenge kit...

RWReynolds — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:57:02 GMT

I have a question concerning the kit provided for this challenge.

On the kit description page, Vertical Farming Design Challenge - Kit List, it lists two separate SL microcontroller devices.

The EFM32™ Zero Gecko Starter Kit and the EZR32 Wonder Gecko Starter Kit.

However in the unboxing video, https://youtu.be/rPN4RmauEvE, David Finch references only the EZR32 Wonder Gecko Starter Kit.

And even though the box appears to contain two complete units he says the kit includes 1 each.

I'm assuming he means 1 each kit, and not unit, as he goes on to explain the mission critical nature of the comm link.

But he never mentions or shows the EFM32™ Zero Gecko Starter Kit at all.

Just looking for clarification on what's included so I can move forward with design while waiting on delivery.

Thanks,

Rick Reynolds

Waiting for the participants list for the vertical farming design challenge !!

Former Member — Sat, 25 Jul 2015 20:20:41 GMT

Hi !!

element14Dave eagerly waiting for the challengers list for this vertical farming challenge. May I know when will be the names to be announced ??