Home Vertical Farm for Fresh Vegetables - Updated TimeLapse Video

[ognqn.chikov]

About This Project

I have made this project because I want to automate the process of growing some vegetables, small fruits like strawberry and another home herbs. The box (vertical farm) is completely automated with self watering, self growing with new LED lighting. Self controllable…only picking up the crop is not automated:D
I already put some lettuce, and you can see the progress for about 4 days in this pictures bellow:

I am using the lighting for cycle of 20/4 (20 hours with light, 4 without). This project include also a remote node, so you can control your plants outside the box. The remote node is with solar panel. I run it for about 1 week and there is not so much sun. The battery is still in good condition.

What’s Connected

1x Power Supply 220v - 12v
1x Raspberry Pi 3

To the raspberry I have connected:

1x No IR Camera Board ( I plan to use the NOIR camera to detect the plant health. More about the method that I will use can be found [here](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/whats-that-blue-thing-doing-here/ and here). I want to use NDVI analysis of Infragram project.

1x Official Raspberry Pi 3 Display
5x Relay Modules (I plan to install more because I want to use rails to automatic fix the light surface close to the plants).
3x DS18B20 Temperature Sensors
1x SHT10 Sensor
1x BMP180 Sensor
1x TSL2561 Sensor
1x DHT11 Sensor

1x Arduino Uno Module connected to the raspberry pi.
The arduino is with special Open Garden Shield. On this shield I have:
1x Temperature Sensor
1x Luminosity Sensor
I can also connect DS18B20 and DHT22 but I don’t need them right now.

To the arduino I have connected the Remote Node, which has the following sensors:
1xDHT22
1xSoil Moisture Sensor
1xBattery Capacity
1xLuminosity Sensor

Triggers & Alerts

I use triggers and alerts to control the logic of the box:

1. Irrigation
2. LED control
3. Fan Control

I plan to add more.

Scheduling

I use the scheduling for Irrifation ON/OFF and for restarting the Pi.

(How did you use Cayenne’s Scheduling feature?)

Dashboard Screenshots

Photos of the Project

(Take some pictures of your project living in the wild!)

Video

Cayenne Vertical Farm

What I have planned

I planned to add flow sensor, so I can detect how much water is going waste, and also a separate irrigation fuse for every plant as the following (this may cause double the pump power):

TimeLapse Video of growing:

Lettuce TimeLapse

[Neoxelox]

Wow looks very professional!!!
Which solar panel did you use and how did you connect it to the Raspaberry/Arduino?? I also want to do some self-sufficient projects!!

[ognqn.chikov]

I have bought ready made module for programming of Cooking Hacks (Spanish Consumer Electronic Company - daughter of Libelium Company if you know them).

You can see it here, it works based on RF.
I connect it to the arduino via RF and then to the raspberry using serial communication.
I also planned to use very big and powerful solar panel to power the whole solution, BUT the LEDs are very powerful - 300W so it will be very expensive, that’s why I left this idea.

[Neoxelox]

I didn’t know that page existed
It seems there are 3 different kits, which did you select? And they include the solar panel?

[ognqn.chikov]

I did not buy the whole kit - it is too expensive. I bought the NODE KIT and also open garden shield. The node kit is with solar panel. I can make detail picture to you, because i think you can find in somewhere cheaper! They are not producing it…they just resell it

[joaoduarte_89]

Hi @ognqn.chikov!

What a nice project you have! I also considered in the past buying from Cooking Hacks but I think Open Garden it is a little overpriced…
Can you please tell me what leds have you used? I want to upgrade the ones I have in my project.

[ognqn.chikov]

Yes, you can use ordinary led strip panels like this but the most efficient are the leds from OSRAM, and the series is OSLON. If you can contact them to supply you, you can see the difference by the plant speed of growing.

[paul.hellfalk]

Really nice project!

[ognqn.chikov]

Thank you @paul.hellfalk

[a19i23villa]

This is so Awesome!

[ognqn.chikov]

Thank you! I will continue to develop it:)

[ognqn.chikov]

I have posted a time-lapse video of growing Enjoy and expect more

[adam]

I always get a kick out of time lapse videos of plants. It’s so funny to see them wobble around and expand.

[ognqn.chikov]

@adam

I always get a kick out of time lapse videos of plants. It’s so funny to see them wobble around and expand.

Hah This is only 8 hours of pictures, taking a picture in every 10 minutes. Now I upgrade my SD card and I am taking a picture every minute. Tomorrow I may have more interesting video

[bestes]

That’s only 8 hours! wow. Very cool, keep us updated with how this project progresses.

-B

[tpangburn]

Interesting project I didn’t know there was an open garden shield available. Looks like a cool project.