FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I've played with a number of Astronomical timers for turning my plant-lights on and off at Sunrise and Sunset.
None of them were exactly what I was looking for.

I wanted controllable offset on either side of Sunrise and Sunset.
For example, turn the lights on 30 minutes before Sunrise and turn them off 30 minutes after Sunset.

I also wanted multiple zones of control.
I wanted one set of lights to turn on and off at local Sunrise and Sunset, 43North 88West, with offset available.
I wanted one zone for my Southeast USA Gulf Coast and Subtropical plants, about 30N.
I wanted a zone for warm Subtropical species, around 15N.
I included a zone for equatorial Tropical stuff at 5N.
I tossed in a Southern hemisphere zone for my Aussies at 22.5South. These see their longest days in December.
I added a zone of unchanging 16 hour photoperiod for cuttings and seedlings, every day the same.

This sounds like a tall order for any store-bought timer.
So I thought, "Let's throw a Pi at it!".

Raspberry PI is a credit card sized computer with real world inputs and outputs.
It can turn on relays to control your lights.
It can accept switches and sensors to control programs and measure data.
It can be programmed by elementary schoolkids and 60 year old curmudgeons.
The latest model costs about $35.
A smaller stripped down version is available for $10.

I bought one of each and started to teach myself to program.
Hundreds of Google searches and dozens of library books later, I have a working prototype that does everything I want.
I've lost track of the hours spent on this project, but I believe time spent in learning is never wasted.

It has 8 zones programmed in with lots of room for more.
My prototype is currently turning a bank of 8 LEDs on and off at the correct times.
I bought a heavy duty single relay and a board of 8 relays that will be controlled by the PI to switch 120 Volts AC for my plant lights.

That's enough for now.
I don't know if there is any interest out there for more details on this project.
Is there?

Good growing,
Mike

very interesting MIke. I was thinking of doing something like this in the future with a dosing pump controller but this is much much more affordable.

love it, I've built a few cool things from pi's in the past and a few that were prototyped out that I never actually made since my brother closed his store down (and they were for his shop!)

including a headless music jukebox with 4 line LCD screen, and buttons for controls that could be controlled from any web browser

a lighted sign controller from a pi zero that ran a series of 10 LED lit letters to flash them and program them to a specific series of user controlled or automatic running functions 24/7

and then some random starter projects with the kid!

the timer should be a pretty simple one to get going once you figure out the languages needed! that was my big issue learning from scratch!!

the headless media player prototype:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnUvVwp-puI