Below you will find a series of screen shots to give you an idea of how powerful this application is. Some PLC providers will try to tell you that you can’t run an application like this from a PC, that you must have one of their expensive PLC’s. Well, our experience is exactly the opposite. If you start with a good quality PC then 5 years without failure is not unrealistic, and in fact we have done that with a system at the University of Queensland. The secret is in never turning the PC off, so it is not warming and cooling it’s delicate insides every day. Our PC’s, built for us by Spotty Dog Computer Services, are by no means top end as they don’t need to be, but they are constructed with quality parts. The two units at Fancyleaf live in hot, humid nutrient sheds, and anyone with hydroponic experience will be able to tell you how corrosive this environment is. Yet they perform year in year out with no problem.
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Posted in Hydroponics
i am in the process of setting up an ebb an flow hydroponics system and i’m lookin for a dosing machine
Hi, we have 8 different hydroponics systems with 8 independent tanks. I need to control the ph and EC of each tank but in the main time I would like to link all controllers to one computer for central monitoring and control. The distance between the controllers and the control room where the main computer will be located is varies from 200 meters. I would like to use a wireless system to link between the controllers and the central computer if possible.
For that
1.I need your advice based on the capabilities on your controller
2.Quotations for 8 controllers including communication devises if you suggest any.
I am based in qatar.
I look forward to your replay with my kindest regards
Ahmed
Hello Ahmed,
More info please.
Yes what you require can be done but it gets expensive
No doubt your hydro farm has evolved as you hav grown your business, as most in this country have. This leaves us with a scattered tank area which makes management more difficult. On our own farm with 19 systems we concentrated everything in 2 tight areas so control was not so difficult.
This means we have a centralised area for 10 systems and another for 9.
In this area we use a pair of ec and ph sensors (for security, ph sensors drift after about a year) and some solenoids. This means we can use the same dosing pumps for all systems in hat area.
What you are suggessting is 8 seperate dosing systems which gets expensiv.
We have no seperate controllers as such, our application runs straight out of a PC, using a very strong communications bus.
This by far the most foolproof way to do things our A and B tanks are 1000 ltrs for instance.
Can you do a map of your farm please with approximate distances between tanks and email it to me, this would give m mor info to better advise you
William