Man that is one damn ingenious grow cab. I grew in a cabinet years ago and by comparison I was painting on the walls of a cave. Nice work 
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Very cool rig brother!!!
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Wow, hey, way to make a weirdo feel welcome everybody, thanks so much for stopping by!
@Joker, @7lpdwcaw, @Solowolf, @ChronicMcBudz, and @Bullitt, thank you guys for the kind words, glad you like it and I hope I can bring an entertaining round in for you all.
@Gpaw and @pufferfishfiend, thanks so much, glad you like it, original prototype wiring and all! One day there will be a final brain, custom etched PCB, everything super clean. But for now she’s still growing…
I’ll have some more to drop on my Motherbrain and Mycodo. I may be going crazy all out with my implementation but dont let that scare you. It doesn’t need to be anywhere near as crazy as mine. For most grows you would get a huge amount of value building a really simple system with nothing more than a couple of temp humidity sensors and a cheap 4 or 8 relay breakout board. Wiring that much up is really quite easy, there are endless resources available to get you on the right track. I’ll be putting another Mycodo brain together real soon… guess maybe I’ll have to document it this time. One of the reasons I joined Overgrow was to make myself document my build better, so no time like the present I guess. I’ll try and get some of that together in the next week or two, show some robot brains all splayed out on the workbench!
@pufferfishfiend, you say it looks like something you were trying to do yourself, well that’s where I started. Did so many searches on DIY garden controllers and Arduino garden controllers, thought for sure I would end up having to hand code something custom. I was really surprised, a few months of looking and I kept thinking “someone must have done a decent version of this already” but I just never had it come up. Then I’m scrolling through hackaday.com one morning and it just lands in front of me, exactly what I’d been looking for. Funny how that works out sometimes.
@Instg8ter, thanks for dropping in. I tried to follow the link to your garden but it didn’t seem to work for me. Found your grow diary anyhow, I’ll get caught up and see if I can offer any help.
@Olbrannon dropping the classic Bowie! Much obliged man, he was an original. And what an exit…
Everybody the day Blackstar dropped
“Wow, happy 69th birthday! I dont get your new album though…”
Everybody 2days later when Bowie drops and we all find out he’d secretly had cancer all along “Oh… wow. Now I get it. Daaaaaaaaaaaaammmn”
In answer to your questions sir, no I don’t have any overhead lighting, just the central stack, although when they are young and short I can keep all the light higher than their heads to encourage stretch, or lower down to try and throttle it back later.
And…uhhh… wait what, I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “distance to the lights”?
DO people do that? Leave distance to their lights, as if they were sane and rational growers? I thought we all just let them over veg and smush their fat swollen nugs up against the Lexan till they can’t take it anymore and start foxtailing? Then we swear at them. Am I not doing this right?
So realistically you certainly should maintain more distance from the plants to the bulbs than I have in there, especially around the back. This was even more true when I had 14.5W bulbs in there, instead of the 10w bulbs I have now. I’ve had a bleached out foxtail or two in my day, and yeah its not optimal. Can’t remember the exact measurements, I’ll check, you’ll laugh and say that’s ridiculous, and I’ll agree with you. But if you feed em right they’ll eat it up apparently, and since LED’s don’t toss that directional infrared heat like HID’s the leaf surface temps stay cooler. It is an insane and arguably unsound approach though, but it’s worked out great for me so far! And the stack will be replaced/improved in time, plans are in the works.
And last but not least @ReikoX. Thanks so much for stopping by, can’t say how glad I am to have you aboard the UFO. Your tincture thread is changing the game in my house, got me zeroing in on more effective medicine for the wife than I’ve ever made before. I’m not all dialed yet but my early tests have been extremely promising, and thanks to you I’m heading in the right direction. Truthfully, needing to get on here and thank you personally for the knowledge you dropped there was the final thing that pushed me over the edge to join Overgrow. Your thread has made a difference for my family and I couldn’t be more grateful.
And good luck with the upgrades to your space, can’t say I’m not a little envious. I love my grow cab but one day I want to build my real grow lab. I’ll be watching your build come together for sure.
Oh wow! Look at the time! I have ladies I have to attend to! Thanks all for the warm welcome, I’m working on a couple more things I hope you’ll find amusing, gonna try and get em up in the next few days here. And hopefully a few more pics tonight… we shall see…
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A little bit of day 25 flowering in the UFO …
Were running 3 Diamond Kush and a Strawberry Cough on this flight of the UFO. I went in to get some laughable measurements for @Olbrannon… the actual surface of the diodes is about an inch behind the lexan on 5 out of 6 layers🤣
And a couple of pressed up windowlickers in the back already… The top layer of diodes are still the 14.5w bulbs, and they’re longer than the 10w bulbs in the layers below. That spot where a leaf is squished up and bleached in the middle? That’s the surface of the lexan, so about 5/8" from the diode surface! Deeply inappropriate behaviour, I’ll have to tie em back again.
Noticed it was way too leafy in there…
So it was time for some serious defoliation. Swear I went to town on em just the other day, but things happen fast in here. I’m going pretty hard on the Diamonds, but they can take it and they need taming.
On the left side we’ve got a monster Diamond in the back, and a Strawberry Cough in the front.
My first run with the Strawberry, but she is looking good and running sweet. She’s looking like a far more favourable stature for the UFO, a well sized passenger. We’ll see if she’s got what it takes for a return visit in the end. I do quite like how my training has been shaping up on her though…
And some measurements on the left.
That bud is just two inches from the lexan, 'bout three to the diode surface. It’s eating it up with a spoon and loving life!
This leaf was in the bottom right of the previous shot, just brushing the lexan with a tip. Surface temp not as scary as you’d guess.
Remember though…
I’m not advocating mad science, hacked builds, and lunacy to anybody here. It’s just that it’s always worked for me.
Theses are not reasonable distances. This is not a sane or wholly advisable approach. I’ve pulled it off when I had the 14.5 watters in there, and the ship seems to be handling far more manageably running the 10 watters this time around.
But basically we’re buzzing the surface of a star in a flying saucer just to catch a tan, a buzz, and a little more knowledge.
Maybe we’ll bring home the treasure.
Maybe we’ll crash and burn.
Either way we’re gonna learn some shit. 
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Hey, missed you before, welcome aboard! UBC chemo is a strain that takes me waaaaay back man. Would I be correct to assume someone who would choose that name has been down the stairs to Wreck Beach a couple times?
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Dammn… those Diamonds get wild, just found a cluster of pistils glued to my elbow. Forearms are itchy and I’m up too late. I’m having that problem again.
I don’t wanna do it. I don’t want to have to do it. But there’s still time now, it’s not too late yet… I really should. I’ll only wish I had later, when it’s too late and I regret it.
But I can’t. I just can’t hit that button. I wont even look em up in my real world logins, where I’ve ordered lights and nutes and all kinds of obvious shit. But this? Do I really need THIS going down next to my name in the great Orwellian corporate surveillance state servers…???
Allergy season is building, the air is full of spring pollens and I am full of histamines. Soon the Diamonds will be swelling and gushing with essential oils and my arms will end up getting itchy as hell when I have to reach into the back of the cab.
I should buy them. I’ll wish I had.
I’ll wish I had a pair of gloves designed for reaching into a large ruminant mammals vagina.
But when I finally say those words to myself it’s the same answer everytime.
Fuck it.
I’ll just get the wife to wrap me in saran wrap again.
This is fine. 
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I’m currently building a Rasp Pi based sensor computer. I noticed you plan on integrating some Atlas sensors, I’m running the pH and EC sensors on my computer, along with water temp, air temp and humidity.
I’m currently working on a final form factor for the device itself, and will eventually integrate a CO2 sensor and one of those nice Apogee light sensors, once I can save the money.
I’m also planning on getting down with some peristaltic pumps and build a dosing computer as well.
I’m glad there’s another person on here that is seriously working on automation. I’m sure there’s a bunch of people, but the more the merrier!
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Thanks for that last tour Rick.
I’d say you got the light intensity/plant spacing question nailed.
Minimal damage pressed up to the plexi. Solid Brother. 
Cheers
G
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Actually, arguably even worse, those gloves are designed for rectal palpation. I won’t go into detail on how it’s done.
Growing nicely in there.
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Damn dude I’m pulling up a lazy-boy for this grow show extraordinaire …you have allready given me answers on basic parts of my build that will save me a ton of testing , thanks sir and I love your STYLE…jump in and do it, knowing that every little failure is a win in the cranial data base…,laying out the dab rig, this is gonna be a binge read this weekend:metal:
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Pretty damn amazing. You are truly an evil genious…lol
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Very Cool stuff here ginger rick
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From my perspective only humidity/temp need to trigger changes …likely +/- for a fan Most of this stuff is steady state. With that much data all formatted and should be easy to dial in eh?
Somehow I feel it only appropriate you should be growing one of the Apollo’s
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A buddy I know, when his son was going onto college a few years back got into biology, figured he’d work in “biotech”.
Got himself a nice little internship at a biotech company that moved some seriously high end product.
High end bull spooge that is. Y’know, genetics work.
His job as unpaid intern was of course manning “The Catcher”
He had to bring it by the workshop one afternoon to grind the burrs off the edge on the bench grinder, keep it comfy for the studs. His dad was so proud to see his boy growing up!
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I have friends that are into quarter horses. They have said champion quarter horse spooge is some serious coin!!
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I don’t mean to be too forward, I know we just met but,
do my balls look ripe to you?
Now Ginger Rick is a mature man of the multiverse, and of course he know how mak babby. His big jug of home brewed CS is working a treat apparently. But truth be told?
I’ve never met a male I haven’t murdered.
@Mr.Sparkle, @ReikoX? You’ve both been down the reversal road before, right? Accomplished pollen wranglers, yeah? I just have no idea when these things are gonna go off, and I’m curious if I’m getting close. They look swollen…
This is my first reversal, it seems to be going well, but it’s also the first time I have actually held a developed male flower in my hands. It feels like a bomb that’s about to go off in my face and I dont totally understand it’s intentions and if I’m not careful it has the power to ruin my whole life. And yet somehow, I’m drawn to it.
Wow, writing that out, it occurs to me how often as a young male ape I must have caused the ladies to feel this way without ever realizing it. In the most mundane of situations sometimes, and I was totally oblivious to it. I’m just feeling it on behalf of my ladies, who I want so much to keep safe from this young rogues careless spray.
It’s a wonder the girls would come anywhere near us in high school… terrifying. 
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@Ginger_Rick thanks for sharing all of your amazing knowledge in this grow diary. I admire your ability to harness nature with electronics and sensors, etc. I am a self-taught geek and your project intrigues me and inspires me to try to incorporate some of what you have developed in to my grows also. I will be following this closely, thanks again for sharing.
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they will start to yellow then split open, if they are green looking they still arent ready yet.
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Man, if you are already running with a raspberry pi you should just grab an extra sd card, drop the latest raspbian on there and give mycodo a try. Installation is simple, and it supports all that beautiful Atlas Scientific stuff right out the gate. He’s even built in a calibration function for the probes already. As long as you know what GPIO pins you’ve connected to setup is super simple. If you’ve already got things wired to the pi you’ll be switched over in no time!
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That looks like it would be a lovely thing to run in there. Oh man, these bean threads… can’t wait till I can get myself into all of that a bit more. Coming up on my first chuck, any day now!
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