Watering system help

[Autodev]

Been thinking up this watering system in my head. Need someone to either point me in the right direction or point out any big flaws...

I currently run organic(ish) soil with drip watering and transitioning to full drain to waste.


System defines 1 or more of
1. A liquid source which is a smart socket/pump plus a normally closed solenoid valve
2. liquid destination which is a nc solenoid

Systems works by powering both source(s) and destination(s) to perform a job such as
-drip feed nutrients
-drip feed water
-fill nutrient res from water res
-fill supplement bucket with water/nutrients
-feed contents of supplement bucket through drip system (ipm drench, pk boost, beneficial microbes, etc)

Additional benefits would be
-attach water wand as a destination and hand water/feed on demand
-easily flush any destination with water if I go a little heavy handed on the feeds which I have done plenty of times
-fine tune delivery time/ratios to multiple independent destinations (smaller destination get 4 sec water, 8 sec nutrients, large destination gets 30 sec nutrients, etc)



Need help with solenoids
- esp8266/32 or arduino to drive a multi channel relay to control the valves? Or multiple smart sockets to 12v power adapter to drive them and manage them in home assistant?

Anybody have a good/cheap source on the solenoids that’s they recommend?

[Gromyjoe]

youll need some sort of feedback to tell the system when you reach desired ph or EC value. IMO stick with LED gardeners system for dosing. Thats what ill be doing anyways.. only major difference with my system is ill have more supplemental nutrients and a different room setup.

[LEDG]

I'd run the solenoids off a relay board and use outputs from an arduino to control the relays. You could easily set an ESP up to do this using ESPHome so you can manage this through Home Assistant.

I was surprised at how much pressure is required to properly open a normally closed solenoid and how much it clamps down the water flow. I have an 800gph pump (vivosun, so take rating with a grain of salt) feeding a 1/2" NC solenoid just to pump water and it still trickles out fairly slowly. Mine are cheapo solenoids from amazon. What size solenoid are you using?

[Autodev]

Auto Dosing/ph are going to potentially be a future project.

Ledg, That’s disappointing to hear as I just purchased that same vivosun pump and a bunch of those cheap 12v solenoids from eBay. Guess I’ll be trying to cancel that pump order and going for a beefier pump. Any recommendation on size? I’d like to stick with 1/2 inch tubing/valves.

[jaysal]

Auto Dosing/ph are going to potentially be a future project.

Ledg, That’s disappointing to hear as I just purchased that same vivosun pump and a bunch of those cheap 12v solenoids from eBay. Guess I’ll be trying to cancel that pump order and going for a beefier pump. Any recommendation on size? I’d like to stick with 1/2 inch tubing/valves.

I think the main issue here is the submersible pumps do not have or are meant to have pressure that is why they are rated in GPH. I think what you need is something that offers some real PSI like this https://tinylink.net/m9BXc

[rik94566]

Same issue I ran into for this project:
https://makezine.com/projects/aquaponic-garden/

Problem is solved with this valve:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/291562271665?

I used the 1" - but there are other options and Esa is a good resource on everything valves so reach to him if you need cheaper or smaller versions in plastic - ping me and I can provide contact information for anyone interested.

rik

[Autodev]

Thanks for the links. Motorized Ball valves, Didn't know those were a thing; a bit pricier than the solenoids though which might be a tough sell for me. I found some solenoids on ebay that said they were for gravity drip (much lower PSI rating) I might order a few of those just to try as well; although the low psi rating on those might scare me as well. I think biggest priority is that nothing starts randomly flooding.

Thanks for reminding me about diaphragm pumps; I actually have one from a previous project that never got off the ground, so I'll have that on hand as a backup.

[jaysal]

Same issue I ran into for this project:
https://makezine.com/projects/aquaponic-garden/

Problem is solved with this valve:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/291562271665?

I used the 1" - but there are other options and Esa is a good resource on everything valves so reach to him if you need cheaper or smaller versions in plastic - ping me and I can provide contact information for anyone interested.

rik

What would be the main difference with the valve that you got on ebay and say something like this? https://tinyurl.com/yb4y4as6

I am just getting into hydro and I have no experience with all the different types of gear.

[rik94566]

Depends on your situation as always the case.

Reading through the reviews the valve does not work when used in no to very low pressure situations and it is my understanding all solenoid valves have a pressure required to open the diaphragm and the valve is NOT bi-directional, so if you need that then this valve could be a problem - if not then not a problem.

The valve is brass as well, in my situation (using in aquaponics systems) brass valves and fittings will kill the fish if used. So I need stainless valves (they cost more) or plastic valves (have not found any motorized ones yet). Being that most, if not all aquaponics systems are gravity flow setups with little to no pressure solenoid valves will not work.

If you need motorized ball valves (for reasons stated above) at a better price point maybe there might be an option for you here:
https://www.aliexpress.com/popular/moto ... valve.html

[Gromyjoe]

What if we designed one for someone on here to build? It would be very simple to adapt our own to clamp on various types of valves.
Control it using a heavy duty metal servo and an esp8266. Either stamp the parts out of metal or have them 3d printed.

If yous are interested I'll start sketching some ideas right now.