DIY vivarium controller ideas

[happy]

I've been mulling this idea over for a long time.... and hoping some one has thought of it before me....
they have... all the hard parts done.
i know there are boxes you can buy for it... but...
thoughts?


http://www.raspiviv.com/

 

[Numeralse7en]

I am looking into this myself. I just cant bring myself to buy the 500$ box, that is limited on the features that i want.

I'm very heavily considering doing this build. I would also love to know if anyone on here has done it yet? My cham would love it, as would i.

Right now i have a problem with my timer for the mister. It does seconds, which is great. But it only allows 8 cycles per day. Which for a 12 hour day period, is every 1.5 hours. But i live somewhere with no humidity, so i feel like 8 is not working well for me.

Second, is that i have LED lights for my plants, and the LED plug is so big it takes up 2 spots no matter where i plug it in, so i could use this system for both of my problems. I could even use it to control and run the heating system for my mister.

Plus i could have the system view-able with my phone, no matter where i am. Wirelessly connected online, Full control of the settings, and timers. AND if desired, have a camera/mic system. I could talk to him while i'm at work, or see what hes up to.

All of this would cost less than half of the ECO400S. And some time. I'm getting more and more ready to pull the trigger.

I'm very curious why this hasn't already been done...

 

[happy]

i'm slowly purchasing the pieces myself.... i too, was put off by the cost of one of the "high end" controllers. They look pretty, but..... pretty isn't every thing... just need a friend with a 3d printer to print me a "box" for it....

 

[Rock75]

WOW! Happy, this has got to be my next project!! I love this kind of stuff and have been eyeing either the Raspberry PI or Arduino to start playing around with. I will definitely be following this thread and hope more cham/eletronic enthusiasts jump on to discuss.

It's off to eBay and Amazon to start putting together a shopping list!
SSHHH~~~ don't tell my wife

 

[Rock75]

Okay... I went and did it! Got everything ordered tonight to start this. Looking forward to this build. I've been wanting to do some sort of build thread for a while so I am going to try and find the time to do so with this. I hope this turns out! It looks like it will be a fun build!
Wish me luck!

 

[happy]

Outstanding. Please post images, and all steps. let us know what you did for a project box... let us know i changes or things you decide are going to or not going to work.... Im on a very tight budget... so mine will be a few weeks...

on a side note, if you need some help setting up your router or network for use with this... let me know. i've got a few tricks...

 

[Rock75]

Will do Happy... I picked up a few things today and most items were delivered yesterday (gota love Amazon Prime!!, I think I am addicted ). Pretty excited to get started on this but my wife's birth is tomorrow and I have a couple other projects to wrap up before I can start this one.. I am thinking I can start posting some some beginning pics and progress by Sunday or early next week.

I have already thought of some additions to this like remote video monitoring. I already have some mini cameras for fpv video for my quad copter that I think wold work well for this. Just need to figure out how to integrate that into the system any thoughts on that?

As for the "project box" I was thinking this would give me a great excuse to get that 3D printer I have been eying but then my wife would just make me use it to build my "dog house" to live in lol. A buddy of mine has a great wood shop set up so I am thinking to build something out of some nice wood to mount everything in. We'll see how everything comes together on that side, first I need to get it all working

If I run into troubles on the networking side I will definately hit you up for help

 

[happy]

so, as far as video goes, i believe that with the pi's its supposed to be almost plug and play.... just a quick google-fu, http://blog.miguelgrinberg.com/post...amera-to-web-browsers-even-on-ios-and-android

my intentions, i want to use one of the arduino water level sensors to control a pump for a dripper. i want to include several hygrometers, several temp sensors, and a few uv sensors. the couple i have found, were tuned almost exclusively towards uvb, but as i posted in another thread, im not sure i would trust until i had it next to a known good working standalone uvb meter.
the best part about doing this: data logging. if a person were to use a barcode scanner and barcode every thing they use to handle a chameleon, you could log feedings, supplement schedules, temps, humidity, if a person had a scale, it could be logged...... and control, i know most of us arent going to mist a chameleon while away from home, but the possibility is there. and if a person were so inclined, they could in effect mirror the natural conditions of any chameleons natural habitat all on the fly. most weather websites have an api for pulling weather data from almost any locale.

any ways.... im jealous... 3d printers..... i live near enough to a large electronics store, they have 3d printers, but price... way to much....

 

[Numeralse7en]

I got a raspberry pi 2, which had hdmi. I hooked it to my monitor and used my keyboard and mouse from my PC. On the raspberry I setup my wifi usb, connected it to my network. Then i started a VNC server on the pi. Went back to my PC and linked up to the VNC. From this point on, i dont need to hook up a monitor, or keyboard, or mouse to the pi. I just use my PC.

I have the 3 sensors working perfectly, I have relays hooked up that i can use to click on or off my lights.

I don't know enough programming to get much farther. I have my lights, where they should come on at 8 and go off at 8. Beyond that i'm grasping at straws. I can find a line of code here or there that helps me, but i need to be making files, and pages.. Following the website was easy, but changing his code from frogs to chameleons, is beyond me. =(

 

[happy]

If you like, pm me. id like to take a look, not really a fan of advertising me personal details.