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Discussion forum for the various methods and structures used for getting an early start on your growing season, extending it for several weeks or even year 'round.

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Old January 27, 2017   #16
whoose
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Location: Bozeman, Montana Zone 6b
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Default How Much?

How much for you to make one for me? I have power but no connection to my house.

I am serious and I think that the outside temp is very necessary.
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Old March 27, 2017   #17
pecker88
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Project update: 3/27/17

Everything is finished. I have to edit the code a bit to work with the inductive proxy sensors (counts motor shaft rotations up/down). The North/South rotations are slightly different, i.e. 3 rotations vs. 4 to half up, ect.. which is messing with the web app.

Overall, the project turned out great. My brother-in-law is a mechanical engineer and designed, machined the motor brackets and guide wheels, and i took care of the code and installation. I'm estimating that a similar off the shelf system would cost around $3K, and I don't think that gets you remote control.

Specifics:

1/16" thick aluminum plate, used a shop press to insert M4 self clinching standoffs for all components:
--12v 36A Power supply
--Resistor array to absorb energy when motor stops
--Sabertooth 2x32A motor driver
--Stacked: Arduino Uno + Ethernet Shield + Screw Shield
--RJ45 Breakout board




View of standoff inserts:





Weatherproof Honeywell low-voltage box with built-in CPU fan. Installed outlet inside box that is fed with a dedicated GFCI breaker from my greenhouse sub panel.




View of inside the Honeywell box with component panel installed. A single cat5 cable and 2 individual 12AWG conductors (black/white) for motor are ran from box to each side of greenhouse. The cat5 gets an RJ45 end that plugs into the RJ45 breakout board. This pic is a bit old, so it doesn't show the flex conduit runs to each greenhouse side.





Here's a screenshot of the web app. This is HTML5 and javascript, (jQuery Mobile library) so it's both mobile and desktop friendly. The site is secured with Apache2 basic auth. and sends ajax calls to a backend PHP script that performs security checks prior to calling the microcontroller for motor movement. I also incorporated the temp sensor in the app, so it's now more of a 1 stop shop.

In the future, I want to add at minimum, my on/off control of my propane heater. That's currently using a different app, which is annoying.




Here's a video of the curtain rolling UP until it hits the top limit switch. The long bolt on the motor shaft rotates past the blue inductive proxy sensor.
https://youtu.be/nf2VlJWsARE
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Old March 28, 2017   #18
Cole_Robbie
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Location: Illinois, zone 6
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Wow. Very impressive, to say the least. You should market your innovations.
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