R&D Cannabis Plant Steering Application

Hello ALL - I'm currently in the process of designing a dynamic Cannabis Plant Steering Application.

My objective is to break it into segments, ie: lighting, A/C, Irrigation, Automated Control Valves, Sensors, Co2, etc.

Primary focus is on the Lighting Program-
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I have a total of 70 LED lights - 3 Different Spectrum's [Full Spectrum ; Anthocyanin; & UV.

8 are 600watt, 35 are 85watt, 27 are 45watt - running on 240vac - with 12 Lutron Dimmers 0-10v.


My objective is to be able to control the 3 different spectrum's - Full Spectrum 400nm-735nm ; - Anthocyanin 450nm & 660nm; - UV 380nm-425nm - I would like to be able to change the intensity - by dimming 0% - 100% and group lights from the walls and ceiling with the ability to group/un-group ; mimic the actual lat/long of certain strains, sunrise/sunset.

Another idea is to utilize a Apogee Quantum Sensor and tie it into the PLC and have the lights controlled via the sensor off of umol setpoints for plant steering, etc.

Eventually I want to add more sensors for environment feedback ie: vapor pressure deficit, temp, rh, co2, soil moisture, soil ec, grow room ec, water chiller control, water treatment system control , etc.



I downloaded CCW and new to the software interface and rusty at STL or FB - as I think this would be the ideal programming set for what I want to accomplish.

Anyone have any value added feedback or would like to assist with the application I would welcome the challenge and remuneration.

v/r,

Hollywood

A lot of LED drivers have 0-10VDC dimmer options that would work great with an analog output card on a PLC.

Most PLC is 24 Volt, and analog is expensive.
I would check arduino, as it is a lot cheaper and is simpler to program with scratch.
dimming led lamps, will change the colour so check it.
indeed break it up, and as an arduino is cheap use several of them.

https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/Shopping/Catalog/Programmable_Controllers/Do-more_Series_PLCs_(Micro_Modular_-a-_Stackable)/Do-more_T1H_(Stackable_PLC)

I would take a look at the Do-More Stackable PLC. It has 16 point analog outputs. Price is reasonable.

Regards,

Dude...

Maxkling said:

A lot of LED drivers have 0-10VDC dimmer options that would work great with an analog output card on a PLC.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the feedback - I know that's one of my issues which PLC platform to go with and make it scale-able etc. Looking at Allen Bradley 800 series / Momentum or SCADAPack 575 by Schnieder Electric.

Looking at HMI panels as well - that can have webserver etc.

Thanks,

Hollywood

shooter said:

Most PLC is 24 Volt, and analog is expensive.
I would check arduino, as it is a lot cheaper and is simpler to program with scratch.
dimming led lamps, will change the colour so check it.
indeed break it up, and as an arduino is cheap use several of them.

Click to expand...

Arduino never even thought of that option - though I will look into this for sure. Thank you -

gclshortt said:

https://www.automationdirect.com/ad...ar_-a-_Stackable)/Do-more_T1H_(Stackable_PLC)

I would take a look at the Do-More Stackable PLC. It has 16 point analog outputs. Price is reasonable.

Regards,

Click to expand...

Thank you for the link - been looking at these as well.

LadderLogic said:

Dude...

Click to expand...

;-) Just shine the light down.......and thus it happened ;-)

Any ideas.......lol

What is your honest price range. AB / Rockwell will be on the upper tier but Automation direct is a great choice for lower budget enterprise solutions. Rockwell will easily eat up 60-75% or your budget on licenses and software if it's a small project (single rack low IO count, single client HMI), which sounds like what you are doing. There are plenty of cost effective 0-10VDC analog IO out there.

Maxkling said:

What is your honest price range. AB / Rockwell will be on the upper tier but Automation direct is a great choice for lower budget enterprise solutions. Rockwell will easily eat up 60-75% or your budget on licenses and software if it's a small project (single rack low IO count, single client HMI), which sounds like what you are doing. There are plenty of cost effective 0-10VDC analog IO out there.

Click to expand...

7.5-25k as the project will be scaled into one large SCADA system - The project will be an All in One Environment Controller and Data Logger with Integrated Sensors of all sorts and Camera with remote login and control - for a complete Silver Key application that is non-proprietary so to speak - open platform - scale-able.

thank you for your feedback!

BoutiqueBuddz said:

7.5-25k as the project will be scaled into one large SCADA system - The project will be an All in One Environment Controller and Data Logger with Integrated Sensors of all sorts and Camera with remote login and control - for a complete Silver Key application that is non-proprietary so to speak - open platform - scale-able.

thank you for your feedback!

Click to expand...

Open platform? What's the project's name?

Epy said:

Open platform? What's the project's name?

Click to expand...

YES; Open to that as well - it's going to be a total control system for cannabis plant steering and data logging

You can install Codesys Control on a RaspberryPi, this would give you the possibility of an HMI + webserver. You could use Arduino as remote IO.

That being said, I think this solution is great for a lab setup or prototyping, but not for permanent control. But that is IMHO.

I am running my home sprinkler on a system like that, went a little nuts and am showing weather forecast and implemented voice activated control.

Yeah, there are like dozens of projects for this application using an arduino. I have a buddy that builds out entire indoor operations using arduino mega for the controls 12 Vdc for the lighting, pumps and solenoids and uses a Raspi for a simple SCADA OPC server.