Purgro electronics Grobot evo 3.12 User manual

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GroBot

Evolution

Robotic Automation for Hydroponic Growers

December 26, 2011

GroBot Evo 3.12

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Table of Contents

START HERE................................................................................................................... 4

FIRST: M

AKE SURE YOU

’

VE GOT EVERYTHING

............................................................... 4

SECOND: C

ONNECT TO YOUR NETWORK

....................................................................... 5

FINALLY: I

NSTALL

EVO

IN YOUR

ROW

OOM

.................................... 6

WEB INTERFACE GUIDE............................................................................................. 9

OME

............................................................................................................................... 9

Grow / Stop ............................................................................................................... 10

Status Line................................................................................................................. 10

AMERAS

....................................................................................................................... 11

ALENDAR

..................................................................................................................... 13

Grow Week and Day ................................................................................................. 13

Sixteen Week Grow Calendar ................................................................................... 14

External Devices – Part I.......................................................................................... 15

External Devices – Part II ........................................................................................ 17

Nutrient Pumps ......................................................................................................... 19

MAIL

............................................................................................................................ 21

Email ......................................................................................................................... 21

Internet...................................................................................................................... 22

Security ..................................................................................................................... 23

ETUP

– P

ART

I.............................................................................................................. 25

•

Date & Time...................................................................................................... 26

•

pH...................................................................................................................... 26

•

TDS ................................................................................................................... 26

ETUP

– P

ART

II............................................................................................................. 27

•

Channel Test ..................................................................................................... 28

•

Cleaning Cycle.................................................................................................. 28

•

Update............................................................................................................... 28

•

Reboot ............................................................................................................... 28

CONNECTING EXTERNAL DEVICES ..................................................................... 29

PUTTING YOUR GROBOT EVO ON THE INTERNET......................................... 30

WIRELESS PANELBOARD......................................................................................... 35

TECHNICAL DATA / PERIODIC MAINTENANCE ............................................... 37

PDATE

ATE AND

CCURACY

..................................................................................... 37

OFTWARE

PDATES

..................................................................................................... 37

EMOVABLE

OSING

ONTAINERS

................................................................................ 38

H.................................................................................................................................. 38

TDS............................................................................................................................... 38

XTERNAL

LARMS

....................................................................................................... 39

XTERNAL

UMP

ACK

ABLE

...................................................................................... 39

OSING

ONTAINERS

..................................................................................................... 40

ENSOR

PECIFICATIONS

............................................................................................... 40

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TROUBLESHOOTING ................................................................................................. 41

OTHER GOODIES YOU MIGHT WANT.................................................................. 46

XTRA

OSING

ONTAINERS

......................................................................................... 46

WIRELESS PANELBOARD......................................................................................... 46

TRADEMARKS

......................................................................................................... 47

WARRANTY................................................................................................................... 47

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START Here

Welcome to the state of the art in Computer Controlled Growing!

This is the ADD / Quick Start section to get you up and going FAST.

If you printed this manual yourself, keep in mind that it’s intended to be a spiral-bound book so the

pages with the screenshots are next to the pages with the text about them. Makes it easier!

FIRST: Make sure you’ve got everything

• GroBot EVO controller

• Plug-in wall transformer

• pH probe

• TDS probe

• Water level sensor

• Pluggable Relay

• Circulating pump

• Replacement silicone o-rings and sealing washers for dosing containers

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SECOND: Connect to your network

The GroBot EVO comes out of the box with it’s own wireless web server. All you have to do is:

• If you don’t already have it, download Firefox at http://firefox.com and use this as your

browser for the GroBot. Safari works fine too, but Internet Explorer is just too buggy

under Ajax so we don’t support it. Firefox is fast, free and it works.

• Plug in the Wall Transformer and power up the ‘Bot. Wait 2-3 minutes for the network to

come online, then:

• Search for wireless networks in range on your computer or phone. EVO makes it’s own

wireless hotspot, so look for it like you were connecting to a new network like in the pic

below:

• Connect to the one that says GroBot EVO

• Open Firefox and check out your new GroBot

EVO! Doesn’t matter what URL you enter, this

network only goes one place. ☺

• While you have the GroBot up and running, now is

a good time to check out the Setup page and

calibrate your pH and TDS probes.

Remember to put the pH probe back in the storage

solution when you’re done!

• Once you’ve looked through the interface, have

calibrated the probes, it’s time to check out the

Pluggable relays and install the ‘Bot in your grow

room.

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FINALLY: Install The GroBot EVO in your Grow Room

• Mount the GroBot about chest high in your grow room where she can sample the air for

Temperature, Humidity and CO2 measurements. Plug in the wall transformer and connect

it to the GroBot.

• Install the circulating pump in your reservoir and plumb it to the GroBot EVO with ½” or

¾” flexible tubing. We recommend 90 degrees elbows to attach your tubing to fit the

GroBot’s ¾” female NPT threads. The pump input is on the LEFT, the return to your

reservoir is on the RIGHT.

Leave the pump unplugged, you’ll be doing that next.

• Mount the Water Level sensor down low near the bottom of your reservoir.

The BEST way to do this is to drill a hole in the side of

the res and install a bulkhead fitting with ½” NPT

threads. Screw the sensor into the fitting and tighten it

down. If that’s not possible, you can Tee it into your

drain line. The sensor measures the WEIGHT of the

water column as pressure, and requires no setup or

calibration.

Do NOT toss the sensor in the reservoir! The wiring

needs to be on the outside of the res, the stainless steel

diaphragm on the inside.

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• Remove the four screws on the back of the GroBot EVO and remove the back cover.

Install and hand-tighten the pH sensor and TDS sensor. No wrenches, please!

Once the sensors are installed, plug in the circulating pump and check for leaks.

NOTE: pH sensors are best stored wet. If you are going to shutdown your GroBot’s

circulating pump for more than a day or so, remove the sensor and put it in a

storage solution.

• For each external device (fan, light, CO2 valve, pump) configure a Pluggable Relay and

plug it in to power. Make sure to test each channel on the Setup page before firing up the

system in Grow mode. You don’t want to guess what will happen, you want to KNOW.

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Before plugging in the circulating pump, remember that it DOES matter which direction water

flows through the EVO. The pH sensor, like all such devices, reacts slowly when driven with

strong acids or alkalis. We make sure this doesn’t happen by pumping water from Left to Right,

since the sensor is on the left.

Fire up the circulating pump that came with your EVO and make sure nothing leaks and

everything is clean and secured. Pump pressure comes in on the left, return hose to your res on the

right. Make sure there is nothing else in the return hose (like a chiller) that could cause

backpressure on the EVO.

So:

Your GroBot Evo should now be powered up, wireless network running, probes installed, with

water circulating through it with no leaks.

Take a look at the next section to see how it all works!

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Web Interface Guide

GroBot is operated via a Web interface which can be used on a laptop, tablet or mobile device like an

iPhone. The Home page is where you’ll be checking in on the system for status, and is sized for a

mobile phone. The setup screens are larger and are easier to use on a laptop, although you can scroll

through them on your mobile if need be. We recommend using a laptop to set everything up, and then

use your phone or whatever you like best to run and monitor the system. During setup, the more you

can see, the easier it is.

Home

The Home page shows today’s date and time, and a run down of what’s going on in the grow room or

greenhouse. From here, you can look at the Cameras, set up your grow Calendar, Email or various

calibration functions in Setup. The Home page updates every five (5) seconds and looks like this:

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Grow / Stop

Growing indicates that your GroBot is running and cycling the lights, CO2, fans,

running drain and fill cycles, maintaining pH and Nutrient levels and whatever else

you have defined. This symbol means GroBot is up, running and may switch things

on or off. Important safety tip – Growing means GroBot may power up something

you are working on, which brings us to this symbol:

Stopped means that GroBot is not going to turn anything else on or off, which is a real

help when you’re inside working on the pumps and don’t want the ‘Bot soaking you

down.

When you click on the Growing symbol and the potted plant turns into the Stopped symbol, GroBot

does a few things to stabilize the system before just stopping cold:

• Fill Channel, Drain Channel, Foliar Pump, Nutrient Pump (if using Ebb/Flow), CO2, Heat,

Cool, Humidify and Dehumidify Channels are powered OFF so you can work on them.

All other channels stay in whatever state they were in, so if you’re running an Aeroponic or DWC

system GroBot’s not going to shut down your pumps, or drop the lights and leave you in the dark.

Status Line

Just below the PurGro logo is the status line that tells you what your ‘Bot is doing.

• Initializing …

• Flooding tables for: NN sec (where NN is seconds left to flood)

• Flood wait for: NN sec (where NN is seconds left to drain back after flood)

• CO2 Enrich

• CO2 Purge

• Injecting Nutrients

• Adjusting pH

• Draining

• Filling

• Manual Injection

• Circulating Injection Five (5) minute mixing period after manual injection

• Blank – running and watching

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Cameras

Growers are hands-on kind of folk, and seeing your plants growing is just as important as making sure

no one is prowling around your facility. Most network cameras like the Panasonic or Axis come with

a pile of software so you can set up as many as you like, arrange them in a matrix, zoom in and out,

etc. The Axis even has audio so you can talk back and forth to someone in the room!

When you click on Cameras, the ‘Bot brings up the URL you specified which will drive over to your

camera page. Enter whatever URL you are using to view your camera per the cameras instructions.

GroBot Sunflowers

Webcam image courtesy of Atlantis Hydroponics, Atlanta GA

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This page is also blank.

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Calendar

Grow Week and Day

GroBot runs a 16 week grow calendar, and regardless of what the calendar on the walls says,

what’s counts is where you are in the Grow Calendar. Week 3, Day 6 is a lot more meaningful to a

growing plant than 15 December. Enter a week from 1 – 16, and a Day from 1 - 7.

Grow Hour is the same as the hour on the clock UNLESS you are running a shorter than 24 hour

day, as some growers do. This is the hour in your current Grow Day, which might be only 18

hours long! Set this to the current Grow Hour if you need to adjust it.

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Sixteen Week Grow Calendar

This is where all the heavy lifting happens, so let’s take each element one at a time.

The Green Bar

The bar moves to highlight whichever week is the current week. You can change this by altering

Grow Week and Grow Day above if you need to move your schedule around.

Lights On / Lights Off

Choose a time for your lights to come on and off. If you leave Lights Off blank, the Bot will turn

them on when you say and never turn them off. Remember – blank means “Don’t do anything

here”

Foliar Feed

Foliar starts when the lights go out, as specified in the External Devices section on Foliar Feeding.

GroBot will maintain any pH setting between 3.0 and 9.0 for you. A blank pH target means “leave

it alone” and GroBot will not attempt to control pH for that week.

PPM

Set your PPM (nutrient concentration) target for this week here. Enter a number between 100 and

3000 and GroBot will maintain this level for you too. A blank or zero PPM target means “Don’t

do anything here” and GroBot will not inject nutrients to control PPM.

PPM is typically computed using the NaCl (table salt) coefficient of 500 from Electrical

Conductivity (EC). You can calibrate your GroBot to read in any units you want.

Air Temp

Set your desired air temperature here.

Rel Humidity

Set point for your humidity control devices defined on the External Devices panel below.

CO2

Most growers want something in the 1200-1500 range. GroBot assumes anything above 2000 or

below 400 is a mistake and will reset to blank.

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External Devices – Part I

This panel has all the details on how your Grow Room is set up and what’s connected where. The

documentation is right on the screen, but a few tips that may come in handy:

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• Grow Week we thought it would be convenient to have this here too.

• Network Number is to keep multiple GroBots on separate channels. If you only have one

‘Bot, set this number to 1. All your Pluggable Relays need to be set to the Network Number

you choose here.

Each Pluggable has a channel you set to match whatever you choose for each device here.

Channel 0 is unused and means “don’t do anything here”.

• Lights are associated with clock time (am and pm) you entered on the Setup page. Everything

else on this page (Foliar, CO2, Nutrient Pump, Drain/Fill) has a run time or a number of days

associated. Run time uses an internal stopwatch, so changing date, time or Grow Week doesn’t

screw up the timing. We do this so changing your Grow Calendar doesn’t do things you

wouldn’t want or expect.

• Foliar Feed is based on an every N day cycle, which starts counting On Grow Day 1. Keep in

mind this is based on Grow Days, which may have less than 24 hours.

• Heating and Cooling can use either a GroBot Thermostat interface, which wires up just like a

regular thermostat to your HVAC system, or individual Pluggable relays fro Heat and Cool.

• Humidity Control is run woth two Pluggables or a radio Panelboard on individual channels.

• CO2 enriches for N hours and then purges the room for some number of minutes. This starts

at lights on and continues to lights off. If you want continuous CO2 with no purge, just set the

CO2 Enrich time to 24 and it will run until lights out. You can also optionally purge at light

out as some growers do.

There’s quite a lot that can be done with this section even if you aren’t using CO2. Set it up to

run your fresh air fans every so many hours, for example.

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External Devices – Part II

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• Nutrient Pump runs on a timer for Ebb & Flow or Drain To Waste systems, or runs all the

time for Aeroponic, DWC and similar. Check the one that is closest to what you are doing.

If you’re running Ebb & Flow (on a timer), you have up to four (4) separate feeding schedules

you can run each day. The simplest thing is to choose a Start Time, Set Minutes to Feed and

Every hh:mm to what you want, like:

This starts pumping a

8:00 am and feeds for 6

minutes every 2 hours

and 15 minutes.

So you’ll feed for 6

minutes at 8:00, 10:15,

12:30, etc.

If you want to change cycles timing during the day, add more Start Times and GroBot will feed

on the schedule you set by breaking the day into parts. This is common in greenhouses where

you want to feed more often as the sun climbs higher and the greenhouse heats up. Daily

Feeding can optionally stop at the time you choose, and some growers maintain there’s no

point in feeding at night. If you leave it blank, that means feed 24/7.

After feeding, the GroBot waits 15 minutes for the waste to drain back before refilling and re-

dosing the reservoir.

• Drain / Refill counts down the number of days until drain, and starts that cycle at whatever

time you specify. You choose a number of days from now to repeat the cycle

GroBot EVO drains your res until it gets to 2 inches of water, then keeps draining until there is

no change in level for approximately three (3) minutes. This allows GroBot to pump the res

dry without burning up your pumps. You have a total of 60 minutes to drain or the ‘Bot

assumes something went wrong and will abort the drain cycle and email you about it. It will

also set your Drain Channel to 0 so that it won’t try to drain again until you fix the pumps.

Water Level has a minimum, and it’s four (4) inches. If you enter a smaller number, GroBot

will change it to 4.00 to prevent setting the FULL level so low that nothing works. Ebb &

Flow flooding will still happen with a disconnected sensor, but Drain / Refill and automatic

level maintenance will not. You’ll get an email on it. You have a total of 60 minutes to Fill

your reservoir or GroBot assumes something went wrong and will abort the fill cycle and email

you about it. It will also set your Fill Channel to 0 so that it won’t try to fill again until you get

things fixed.

• External Timers run Day, Night or Both for the On time and Off time you set. Great for

aeroponic misters, air stones, that sort of thing.

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Nutrient Pumps

Your GroBot EVO has four removable dosing containers, and you can add another four by

plugging in an external dosing rack. This panel is where you set up what’s in each container.

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• Dosing containers count from Left to Right, with #1 being the first one on the left facing the

GroBot.

• Containers #1 and #2 may not be used for pH Up or pH Down. THIS IS IMPORTANT.

The pH sensor takes much longer to react when dosed with acid or alkali, and will slow down

your pH adjustments by A LOT. Make sure you put you pH control solutions in #3, #4 or an

external pump rack if you want. So – anyplace is fine cool but NOT in 1 or 2.

• USE CLEAR NUTRIENTS IN YOUR PUMP RACK. Muddy nutes dry out to be hard and

crusty, and you’ll end up having to clean out your pumps if you let the nutrient jars run dry.

Use clear nutes and you’ll run clean.

• If you set up multiple containers with the same type of material, say two marked NUTRIENTS,

GroBot will inject equal amounts from both and treat them as one container. Just the thing for

A/B nutes, or things you use a lot of.

• Dosing Ratios are really very nice to work with. If you have Nutrients that you mix A/B or

A/B/C with additives, just enter the ratios from the supplier and you’re all set. GroBot will

inject them according to ratio every time it needs to raise PPM. Just type in your “formula”

and the ‘Bot will mix it that way.

• pH controls are done automatically by sensor. Just tell the ‘Bot where the Up and Down are.

• Manual Dosing is great for those times you just want to shoot a little bit of something in the

reservoir. Just type in how many milliliters, hit OK, and the ‘Bot will inject it for you. This is

an approximate amount, so please keep in mind that it may not be very precise.

Also keep in mind that you can only run a manual injection when you are Growing, and

nothing else is being injected.

• You can add an External Pump Rack if you want to put another four (4) dosing containers

online. They’re available from PurGro and can connect directly to 6 gallon cans!

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