Hydroponics Automated
Hydroponics Automated
By nature, hydroponic growing systems lend themselves very well to automation and robotisation. The various parameters of the system, such as nutrient concentration and reservoir water levels, can be measured quite easily electronically. Modern low cost microprocessors can be used to read those sensors, and you can check the health of your system conveniently using an app on your phone or tablet, or through the browser on your laptop or PC. These apps can also issue alerts that you have to add water, or that your nutrients get depleted and need to be topped up.
Why automation?
We are all busy people, and it is hard to check on the system every single day. It is also the most boring part of growing, and to make matters worse there are often business trips and other reasons we can't maintain our plants for a period of time. This is where automation comes in play. It allows you to check on your systems when you're out, it can send you alerts when some action has to be taken, and more advanced systems can even take the required action by themselves.
HydroMonitor by City Hydroponics
This is what we at City Hydroponics aim to achieve with the HydroMonitor. It will come in various editions, with the Basic monitor being able to keep track of what happens in and around your grower, and the Pro monitor even having the option to do something about it, such as automatically adding water and nutrients to the system. That way all you have to do is plant the seeds, watch your plants grow, and harvest the results. Away for a week or two on business trip? No problem, come back to a healthy crop that is ready to harvest, as it grows while you're not watching.
It has never been easier to grow your own, in the city!
HydroMonitor is Open Source!
All the source code of the software that operates the system including the mobile phone app, and all electrical schematics of HydroMonitor are available to anyone for free. This means you can build your own HydroMonitor from scratch.
Are we crazy? Giving away all the hard work? No, of course not. We at City Hydroponics strongly believe in the open source development model, allowing everyone and their dog to have a look at the inner workings of the system and benefit from that. We believe that there are many people out there with all kinds of wonderful ideas about what this system can do. By opening it up we allow them to actually make it happen, and in the end everyone can benefit.
Not a hacker? Don't worry. Open source doesn't mean you have to take out a soldering iron or start writing code. You, the non-hacker, are our main target. We aim to make a system that just works, that is easy install, and easy to use. When installing it, all you have to do is tell it the model of grower you are using and the kind of crop you want to grow, and the HydroMonitor has all it needs to know. You can also use it with other systems, it is flexible enough for that.