HOME ASSISTANT — NODE-RED August 31, 2020
Posted by rik94566 in agponics.com, aquaponic automation, aquaponic systems, aquaponics, auqaponics automation, Controlled Environment Agriculture, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, internet of farming, Internet-of-Farming, Uncategorized.Tags: aquaponic automation, aquaponic devices, Home Assistant, Internet-of-Farming, Node-Red, rik kretzinger, rik-dyi-IOT, rik94566
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Researching how best to start learning Node-Red I spent a lot of time on YouTube watching what Node-Red is and how people learned how to use it. As always a lot of YouTuber’s put out content and some are clearly better at actually helping people understand concepts and produce valuable content that can be put to use by a non-computer programmer type person.
So I developed my list of people that were best for me to follow and start the process of learning this new skill set. Many of the ones I like were talking about the use of Node-Red with Home Assistant.
I had looked at Home Assistant some years ago and at the time it seemed Home Assistant was for very advanced users that are very good at the command prompt and with a lot of system knowledge. Way above my level at the time.
Then my research turned up this reference and changed my perspective on using Home Assistant.
This was, just what I was looking for.
DS18B20 – Resistor Module – parts defined November 4, 2019
Posted by rik94566 in 1-wire, agponics.com, aquaponic devices, aquaponics electronics, auqaponics automation, DIY aquaponics, DS18B20, ds18b20, Electronic Componets, indoor aquaponics, internet of farming, Internet-of-Farming, IoT aquaponics, One-wire, rik kretzinger, rik.diy.IOT, rik94566.Tags: aquaponic automation, aquaponic devices, aquaponic electronics, aquaponic sensors, aquaponics, DS18B20, DS18B20 aquaponics, ds18b20 water proof, Internet-of-Farming, rik, rik-dyi-IOT, rik94566, sensors
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Working with the resistor module is making things much easier and a lot less work on my part. I am liking what I am seeing from a development standpoint and can see a real time savings that will deliver consistent results. First step is understanding what is found on the board and which end goes with which connection.
Miniature Test Leads – which ones work best for my projects July 20, 2019
Posted by rik94566 in adafruit, agponics.com, aquaponic automation, aquaponic systems, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, Instructables, internet of farming, Internet-of-Farming, IoT aquaponics, rik kretzinger, rik.diy.IOT, rik94566.Tags: aquapnic devices, aquaponic system parts, aquaponics, DIY aquaponics, Internet-of-Farming, jameco electronics, rik, rik94566, sensor
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I wanted to move away from alligator clips because they were much large when working with small gauge wire. They did not work for me in very small areas. So was looking for a better solution. Found this miniature test leads at Jameco Electronics when I was picking up an order, they were a good solution for me.
When first using these miniature test leads they worked very well. But after a little time using these leads and problems surfaced. The problem was that they were cheaply made. The connection of the wire and the metal insert probe would break off without much stress placed on them. One or two is understandable, but 5 out of 10 was not the experience I was looking for.
When doing a search for a new product on the Adafruit site I found these test leads
These leads are a little larger than the Jameco test leads, but still were small enough for my use. Construction and connections were of high quality and work perfectly and held up with repeated use. So these are my new go to test leads for my development efforts. They will be seen in a number of up coming Instructables that I am working on and all my testing of sensors and connectors.
800 X 480 – 5″ HDMI display – Jessie with Pixel – resolution issue – Raspberry Pi March 16, 2017
Posted by rik94566 in 800 X 480 display, adafruit, aquaponic automation, aquaponics electronics, Balcony Garden, DIY aquaponics, Electronic Componets, indoor aquaponics, Instructables, IoT aquaponics, Raspberry PI, rik kretzinger, rik94566.add a comment
This display was purchased to allow a graphical interface element to the automation effort of aquaponic systems. So I was very happy to find this display and it could easily be integrated into the overall design with a very small footprint.
ADAFRUIT is quite clear that that this 5″ HDMI display will not work without changes to the “config.txt” file to set-up for the different display size. In this case 800 X 480 resolution. The documentation to make these changes is very good and works as documented.
THAT IS UNTIL A NEW RELEASE OF RASPBERRY PI OS —
As always technology never stands still. Advances are made almost daily when it comes to Raspberry Pi and the OS is no exception. In late 2016 a new upgrade was rolled out called “JESSIE” with Pixel. There was a lot of buzz about this new upgrade and it does look and perform much better over all. Once you upgrade or update there is no going back.
The problem with the “JESSIE” upgrade is that now the solution provide by ADAFRUIT for the 5″ HDMI display no longer worked very well and was unusable as a display on the Balcony Gardens.
A fix was needed, but since “JESSIE” was so new no one was really aware of this resolution issue and the resolution issue was not even being talked about on ADAFRUIT site or in the Raspberry Pi forums.
After a lot of searching and months later a solution was found.
Long story so I will not go into details of the issue, but have documented it all in an Instructable that can be found here:
Instructable – 800 X 480 5″ HDMI display – resolution issue
HERE IS THE FIX AND LINK TO THE SOLUTION:
Actual changes needed in the “config.txt” file for use:
In the file /boot/config.txt add the following text to the end of the file:
#increase HDMI signal strength
config_hdmi_boost=4
#remove black borders
disable_overscan=1
#set specific CVT mode
hdmi_cvt 800 480 60 6 0 0 0
#set CVT as default
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
dtoverlay=ads7846,cs=1,penirq=25,penirq_pull=2,speed=50000,keep_vref
_on=0,swapxy=0,pmax=255,xohms=150,xmin=200,xmax=3900,
ymin=200,ymax=3900
dtoverlay=w1-gpio-pullup,gpiopin=4,extpullup=1
Save the config file and then do this: (see note below about this one)
sudo apt -get install xinput-calibrator
I have not tried using the above install command, because I was able to gain the results I needed without it. I believe like Auvy that sometimes less is more!
HERE IS THE LINK TO THE SOLUTION AS SHOWN ABOVE:
AMAZON SOLUTION – 5″ HDMI display – JESSIE – Pixel – resolution issue
Technology is complicated — May 8, 2015
Posted by rik94566 in Controlled Environment Agriculture, DIY aquaponics, Electronic Componets, indoor aquaponics, IoT aquaponics, Temperature Probe.Tags: agponics, aquaponic automation, aquaponics, arduino, arduino sketch, automation, DIY aquaponics, indoors aquaponics, microcontroller, rik kretzinger, Temboo, YUN
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I say this because I will be displaying my aquaponic – IoT – Balcony Unit at Maker Faire next week in San Mateo. To accomplish the IoT part of the build I have to use technology that allows for internet communication thus IoT! Well there are many options available to accomplish this task – some not so easy and others not enough features to be effective for this project.
So my choice in this case is the Arduino YUN —
I made this choice because I had one (but had not used it as yet) and the fact that documentation on it is easy to find. The other fact is that Temboo www.temboo.com uses the YUN as one of its options for their solution to the Internet of Things and I am working with them on this open source project so many others will be able to get up and running in short order and have simpler options to add additional capability based on the persons needs and I will not have to supply the customer support for any aspect of the code other than give everyone a stating point.
WELL – that is where things got interesting.
Had to work through getting the YUN on the network of choice. Not a big deal but it took some time and many attempts to get it dialed in because the Arduino instructions tell you to go to arduino.local to find the individual unit. Well this only works about 60% of the time. So the solution is to use the IP address of 192.168.24.1 now I could configure the thing to my liking. Once configured it would not show up in the Arduino IDE at all. Major issue for me as I had no idea if the unit configured or not. I finally when on to my wireless router to see if the board was being recognized. Had to dig out all the USER ID and PASSWORD info and then work through all the menus to determine what in fact was connected to the router. There is was — YEA
Now I had to research out why it was not listed as a port option in my Arduino IDE. Well after some time and deep research I found that Arduino IDE only works some times for the YUN on wireless. So the uploading from Arudino IDE to the board is not an option as most of the YouTube videos demonstrate quite well. This becomes an issue because I found out that as configured the YUN does not have enough on board memory, so a SD card is needed.
Using an SD card with the YUN requires that the card be format using the YUN. To do that you need to know that the YUN is connected to the internet and working properly which is very hard to know if it is or not.
So once you know the YUN is connected and you have it connected through cable to your computer you need a file called ” YunDiskSpaceExpander” found on the Arduino site. Once uploaded you access it through the Serial Monitor of the Arduino IDE. If all goes well you answer a bunch of cryptic questions and bingo the thing kicks off. Once do you have a formated YUN SD enabled board.
Now I am ready for the real fun stuff to generate code to be used through Temboo so I will have “Streaming Data” and text messaging in short order – lets hope!
The good news in all of this is that I will be documenting all of this for the instructions to the Balcony unit for all to use and save anyone interested in building one or gets a kit from me that will be up and running in short order.
See you all at Maker Faire next Saturday if you make it there!
TOWER SYSTEM – set-up at Maker Faire 2014 May 22, 2014
Posted by rik94566 in adafruit, agponics.com, arduino, DIY aquaponics, DS18B20, Electronic Componets, indoor aquaponics, indoor gardens, indoor growing, Internet-of-Farming, IoT aquaponics, One-wire, Raspberry PI, Tower System, Tower Tubes.Tags: agponics, aquaponics, automation, Controlled Environment Agriculture, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, IoT, Maker Faire, microcontroller, rik kretzinger, sensor
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EDITOR’S CHOICE – not once – but 3 times @ Maker Faire – WOW May 21, 2014
Posted by rik94566 in agponics.com, aquaponic automation, aquaponics, aquaponics electronics, arduino, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, indoor gardens, indoor growing, Internet-of-Farming, IoT aquaponics, Raspberry PI, sensor, Tower System.Tags: aquaponic automation, aquaponics, automation, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, microcontroller, rik kretzinger
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Very few displays achieve 3 EDITOR CHOICE AWARDS —
RADIAL FLOW FILTER – just completed April 2, 2014
Posted by rik94566 in agponics.com, aquaponic automation, aquaponics, aquaponics electronics, Controlled Environment Agriculture, DIY aquaponics, Electronic Componets, indoor aquaponics, Internet-of-Farming, IoT aquaponics, PRODUCTS, radial flow filter, Tower System.Tags: aquaponic automation, automation, Controlled Environment Agriculture, DIY aquaponics, indoors aquaponics, IoT, microcontroller, rik kretzinger
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Since first conceiving of the Tower unit as a concept I knew they needed to be operated differently than DWC and Media bed in how you deal with the solids from the fish. Media beds — it has not been that big a deal for me because my rule is that any tank size smaller than 350 I filter the water and break-up the solids and then put back into solution by pumping back into the grow beds. This way I lose no nutrients that the fish produce. Has worked well for over 3 years now. In the testing that I have done with the towers I found that solids need to be dealt with or things will plug up. I still will be reintroducing the broken up solids back into the system put it will take place downstream of the bio-filter component and re-injected into the new buffer tank that stabilizes fish tank water volume and height. This all came out of research I was doing on how best to handle solids in aquaponics. As designed this radial flow filter can handle up to and maybe a bit more than a 1000 gallons of fish tank water. The only thing left to figure out on this radial flow filter now is where I will be locating the outlet for the clean water. That will be dependent on fish tank water level. Should have fish tank completed this coming weekend and make the determination on this aspect of the build.
I put together a youtube slide show if you want to see more detail of the radial flow filter:
IT’S OFFICIAL – Maker Faire 2014 – we will be there with a booth to show case Tower unit March 24, 2014
Posted by rik94566 in adafruit, agponic MD, agponicMD, agponics.com, aquaponic automation, aquaponics, aquaponics electronics, arduino, DIY aquaponics, DS18B20, indoor aquaponics, Internet-of-Farming, IoT aquaponics, One-wire, PRODUCTS, sensor, Stainless Steel Temp Probe, Tower Pocket Block, Tower Tubes, Yourduino.Tags: aquaponic automation, arduino sketch, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, microcontroller, rik kretzinger
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IT’S OFFICIAL NOW:
I’ve been accepted to exhibit at @MakerFaire Bay Area on May 17 & 18, 2014 http://makerfaire.com/
#20475 – internet of farming arduino-based aquaponics
Will be able to show case a number of new leading edge things that I have been developing.
Here are just a few of them:
Design of a “Radial Flow Filter” for the tower unit system ( will be blogging and doing a Youtube video about it shortly”
Venturi DIY design that will replace air pumps on my systems.
Aquaponic Fog Unit that I have just completed and in testing mode now.
Have fully working Tower unit with totally enabled IoT features that show case the latest developments in this technology as related to aquaponics.
agponic – MD — air supply feature March 1, 2014
Posted by rik94566 in agponic MD, agponicMD, agponics.com, aquaponic automation, aquaponics, aquaponics electronics, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, IoT aquaponics, plumbing, PRODUCTS.Tags: aquaponic automation, automation, DIY aquaponics, indoor aquaponics, rik kretzinger
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A lot of aquaponic systems use air pumps. So what is a aquaponic automation simulator without a air pump! Here is how it is handled and how it is connected up. This air pump comes standard on all the versions. The extra air line is for the planned 12V back-up configuration that is part of the pro version. Well underway on that unit and will have details soon.
Aquaponic DIY Automation Blog 