Raspberry Pi 4B expansion board question?

[DirectorGunner]

I am a super noob boob!
What do I need to order to be able to read the output from 9 of these flow sensors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077H8BCJJ/

and control 9 of these solenoids?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018WRJYOU/

On one Raspi 4B?

I'm wanting to become Farmer Gunner for healthy fresh veggies for my family.
Just need some electronics guidance.
This is far outside my wheel house.

 

[Montoya]

Day 6 of quarantine: I have decided to become a farmer!

 

[BUTUZ]

I am a super noob boob!
What do I need to order to be able to read the output from 9 of these flow sensors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077H8BCJJ/
View attachment 15438
and control 9 of these solenoids?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018WRJYOU/
View attachment 15439

On one Raspi 4B?

I'm wanting to become Farmer Gunner for healthy fresh veggies for my family.
Just need some electronics guidance.
This is far outside my wheel house.

Have you bought loads of lamps and upgraded your electric supply to 240v?

 

[Sirus7264]

I am a super noob boob!
What do I need to order to be able to read the output from 9 of these flow sensors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077H8BCJJ/
View attachment 15438
and control 9 of these solenoids?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018WRJYOU/
View attachment 15439

On one Raspi 4B?

I'm wanting to become Farmer Gunner for healthy fresh veggies for my family.
Just need some electronics guidance.
This is far outside my wheel house.

Amazon.com : OpenSprinkler Pi (Sprinkler Board for Raspberry Pi; 24VAC Power Adapter Included) : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : OpenSprinkler Pi (Sprinkler Board for Raspberry Pi; 24VAC Power Adapter Included) : Garden & Outdoor

www.amazon.com

Annnnnnnd

Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board - An Irrigation Control HAT for Raspberry Pi - BC Robotics

The Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board is a DIY add-on for the Raspberry Pi designed to handle just about anything you could need in a basic irrigation system.

www.bc-robotics.com

Last but not least an article which is right up your alley.

Raspberry Pi Irrigation Control - Part 1 - BC Robotics

In this multipart project tutorial we will be building a Raspberry Pi based Irrigation Controller using our Raspberry Pi IrrigationHAT. We wanted to create a functional project for people to dip their toes into the world of smart devices – and an irrigation controller seemed like a great choice...

www.bc-robotics.com

 

[Sirus7264]

Another article as those were for older rasp

Raspberry Pi Solenoid Tutorial

This tutorial shows how to operate a solenoid with a raspberry pi, including a video, circuit diagram, images and code.

www.raspberrypitime.com

 

[Bambooza]

I am a super noob boob!
What do I need to order to be able to read the output from 9 of these flow sensors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077H8BCJJ/
View attachment 15438
and control 9 of these solenoids?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018WRJYOU/
View attachment 15439

On one Raspi 4B?

I'm wanting to become Farmer Gunner for healthy fresh veggies for my family.
Just need some electronics guidance.
This is far outside my wheel house.

Because the solenoids are 12V DC you'll need external power and relays to control them. The flow sensor does require 5 vdc but this can be provided by an external power supply preferred if you don't use the onboard power supply.

An ok youtube video shows how to wire it up

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JXd-2_zJQ0

And another

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMrSYEAVLwM


Looks like they are all pretty much the same.

Just be careful as the one you linked needs an external resistor

"Model HA-1033 does not include a pull-up resistor but model HA-1045 includes a pull-up resistor in the flow meter itself. " I personally would go with the HA-1045 then you just have to worry about the three wires instead of adding a resistor as documented in this pic.

Back to the solenoids

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaf_zQcrg7g

Amazon.com: SainSmart 8-Channel Relay Module

Amazon.com: SainSmart 8-Channel Relay Module

www.amazon.com

 

[Bambooza]

Amazon.com : OpenSprinkler Pi (Sprinkler Board for Raspberry Pi; 24VAC Power Adapter Included) : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : OpenSprinkler Pi (Sprinkler Board for Raspberry Pi; 24VAC Power Adapter Included) : Garden & Outdoor

www.amazon.com

Annnnnnnd

Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board - An Irrigation Control HAT for Raspberry Pi - BC Robotics

The Raspberry Pi Irrigation Board is a DIY add-on for the Raspberry Pi designed to handle just about anything you could need in a basic irrigation system.

www.bc-robotics.com

Last but not least an article which is right up your alley.

Raspberry Pi Irrigation Control - Part 1 - BC Robotics

In this multipart project tutorial we will be building a Raspberry Pi based Irrigation Controller using our Raspberry Pi IrrigationHAT. We wanted to create a functional project for people to dip their toes into the world of smart devices – and an irrigation controller seemed like a great choice...

www.bc-robotics.com

Ahh openSprinkler is pure win.

I personally have one of these controlling my sprinkler/drip irrigation systems and its so easy to add expansion cards to.

OpenSprinkler | OpenSprinkler

Improve your lawn, garden, or farm irrigation. Create custom programs. Use automatic weather-driven algorithms. Access and control your sprinklers from anywhere.

opensprinkler.com

 

[Sirus7264]

Ahh openSprinkler is pure win.

I personally have one of these controlling my sprinkler/drip irrigation systems and its so easy to add expansion cards to.

OpenSprinkler | OpenSprinkler

Improve your lawn, garden, or farm irrigation. Create custom programs. Use automatic weather-driven algorithms. Access and control your sprinklers from anywhere.

opensprinkler.com

Problem is it only supports up to Rasp pi 3b and he has a 4b it may or may not work.

 

[DirectorGunner]

Thank you so much guys! I've got a lot of reading to do and watching to do, I'll catch up and come back when I have more questions, thank you!
BTW, this is for a mini microgreens farm. I got the vertical aeroponics figured out with digital outlet timers.
But with microgreens, stagnant water = disease quick for the plants.
So I planned out a way to cycle the water from a shallow top tray to a larger bottom tray which the bottom tray has a UV sterilizer light and pump.
The challenge is cycling the water between the shallow top tray and bottom tray, and dumping it and refilling it from a clean reservoir, for unattended loving.
And then also using 360 microsprayers in the lid for the germination stage.

Basically, trying to poor man robo microgreen farm.

Vertical aeroponics is easy, this microgreen farming is more delicate due to most methods involve stagnant water which gives way to bacteria/fungus infestations and sometimes root rot.
Just all around bad stuff, I don't want that, I want to keep them pristine healthy. Water in motion helps, and the sealed UV sterilizer in the bottom try will nuke those nasties.

 

[Montoya]

Thank you so much guys! I've got a lot of reading to do and watching to do, I'll catch up and come back when I have more questions, thank you!

Be honest here, you are creating Tegridy Farms IRL!

 

[Sirus7264]

Thank you so much guys! I've got a lot of reading to do and watching to do, I'll catch up and come back when I have more questions, thank you!
BTW, this is for a mini microgreens farm. I got the vertical aeroponics figured out with digital outlet timers.
But with microgreens, stagnant water = disease quick for the plants.
So I planned out a way to cycle the water from a shallow top tray to a larger bottom tray which the bottom tray has a UV sterilizer light and pump.
The challenge is cycling the water between the shallow top tray and bottom tray, and dumping it and refilling it from a clean reservoir, for unattended loving.
And then also using 360 microsprayers in the lid for the germination stage.

Basically, trying to poor man robo microgreen farm.

Vertical aeroponics is easy, this microgreen farming is more delicate due to most methods involve stagnant water which gives way to bacteria/fungus infestations and sometimes root rot.
Just all around bad stuff, I don't want that, I want to keep them pristine healthy. Water in motion helps, and the sealed UV sterilizer in the bottom try will nuke those nasties.

Ive never heard of aeroponics looks interesting and a good concept i thought you would aim for something like hydroponics.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Hydroponics/comments/bvd6ud View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hydroponics/comments/bvd6ud/experimenting_with_hydroponic_microgreens/

 

[DirectorGunner]

I guess the company that made the stackable 8 relay boards (up to 64 relays on one RPI) is out of business and couldn't find some.
So is this a decent choice?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057OC66U/

I've read that there's no documentation and that the board is designed somewhat poorly.

But it's the best rated above 8 relays board I found. Yay or nay?

 

[Sirus7264]

I guess the company that made the stackable 8 relay boards (up to 64 relays on one RPI) is out of business and couldn't find some.
So is this a decent choice?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057OC66U/
View attachment 15442

I've read that there's no documentation and that the board is designed somewhat poorly.

But it's the best rated above 8 relays board I found. Yay or nay?

from what im reading on amazon this board has issues with the raspi due to the 3.3v the rasp provides when the board requires 5v. There looks to be a few different work arounds but if you dont do it right you may fry your raspi. all of those people who talked about this though were using the raspi 3b though so maybe the raspi 4b will be different.

 

[Tei]

I've read that there's no documentation and that the board is designed somewhat poorly.

But it's the best rated above 8 relays board I found. Yay or nay?

You could also go for distributed system with multiple ESP8266 talking to Pi over wi-fi, I heard some good opinions about similar solution, although I do not have first hand experience.
ESP8266 is super cheap and really capable.

 

[Bambooza]

I guess the company that made the stackable 8 relay boards (up to 64 relays on one RPI) is out of business and couldn't find some.
So is this a decent choice?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0057OC66U/
View attachment 15442

I've read that there's no documentation and that the board is designed somewhat poorly.

But it's the best rated above 8 relays board I found. Yay or nay?

it will work but you will need to add a step up converter (sometimes called a boost converter) to step up the 3.3 GPIO to the relays control board power requirements of 5VDC. Would need to look into the draw on the relay card and see if it will be more then the raspberrypi's gpio supply of a maximum of 16mA per pin with the total current from all pins not exceeding 51mA.

You can try and build your own

Or buy something like this.

A good source for further reading

Power a 5V relay from GPIO pins

I have a bank of relays (5) that I'm looking to run from my Pi. I'm using 5V TE Connectivity relays, powered by Sparkfun's high power relay kits, which use a NPN transistor to trigger the relay. ...

raspberrypi.stackexchange.com

 

[Sraika]

i just came into this thread to tell you how much i liked pie
...mmmmm, pie

 

[Bambooza]

mmm. now I want a homemade apple pie.

A mix berry pie will work.

 

[vahadar]

Thank you so much guys! I've got a lot of reading to do and watching to do, I'll catch up and come back when I have more questions, thank you!
BTW, this is for a mini microgreens farm. I got the vertical aeroponics figured out with digital outlet timers.
But with microgreens, stagnant water = disease quick for the plants.
So I planned out a way to cycle the water from a shallow top tray to a larger bottom tray which the bottom tray has a UV sterilizer light and pump.
The challenge is cycling the water between the shallow top tray and bottom tray, and dumping it and refilling it from a clean reservoir, for unattended loving.
And then also using 360 microsprayers in the lid for the germination stage.

Basically, trying to poor man robo microgreen farm.

Vertical aeroponics is easy, this microgreen farming is more delicate due to most methods involve stagnant water which gives way to bacteria/fungus infestations and sometimes root rot.
Just all around bad stuff, I don't want that, I want to keep them pristine healthy. Water in motion helps, and the sealed UV sterilizer in the bottom try will nuke those nasties.

I am very interested by this project of yours. Since i am a total newb regarding all this, and when you manage to finish this project, would you care to share what you did in details?

 

[DirectorGunner]

I am very interested by this project of yours. Since i am a total newb regarding all this, and when you manage to finish this project, would you care to share what you did in details?

It may be a long while... I only just started germinating some buttercrunch lettuce and cabbage.
Once these start, they go in the aeroponic towers.

That's aerogarden brand sponge, not wild about it. Once they start, I'll put these packed in clay ball substrate in 2" grow pots in the towers.

 

[vahadar]

It is LED or hallogen heater above that i see in reflection?