Growerbot Kit Assembly videos

37 Replies

Here’s 2.5+ hours of video to address pretty much any issue that you might have while assembling growerbot from kit form:

 

Please comment with any remaining questions; thanks!

37 thoughts on “Growerbot Kit Assembly videos”

    1. Jim

      Hello, I am looking into getting one of these kits. It seems pretty nifty. I was curious about the feasibility of expansion. How many lights can it control, how many pumps, fans, heaters, ac ect. Some posted spec about what the grower bot can do out of the gate, and than what you can do with the included pcbs would be nice. Thanks

      Reply ↓
      1. luke iseman Post author

        Hi Jim,

        Out of the gate, you have control of 2 AC outlets that’ll handle ~10 amps each. With expansion, you can add *many* more. Without much complication, you can scale to at least another 10 outlets!

        Thanks,
        Luke

        Reply ↓
  3. Kevyn Watkins

    Sorry I have more questions. Where do I get the growerbot sketch from? I watched the programming video and I’m pretty sure you just said you already had it loaded. It seems my chip is either damaged or not programmed, I have a chip I can swap into it and program if I get the sketch, wihle I wait I will burn a bootloader onto this chip using my FTDI friend. It’s going to be super slow….

    Reply ↓
    1. Kevyn Watkins

      OK, to answer my question for other’s who find themselves looking too, the growerbot sketch is in lukes github repository https://github.com/liseman/growerbot

      you will also need the time library http://www.arduino.cc/playground/uploads/Code/Time.zip
      Adafruits Lux sensor library https://github.com/adafruit/TSL2561-Arduino-Library
      Adafruits DHT sensor library https://github.com/adafruit/DHT-sensor-library

      once those three are added to the library folder of the Arduino IDE the gbot1219.ino compiled and uploaded nicely.

      For the record, bitbanging a bootloader onto my growerbot then uploading the sketch using adafruits FTDI friend was super easy and not nearly as slow as I thought. Now I need to work out what I’ve done wrong with my LCD, but the serial monitor shows the unit is working nicely. Can’t wait to get it all rigged up, I will update my photo album when it’s done for others to check out 😀

      Reply ↓
      1. luke iseman Post author

        Thanks Kevyn; I should have noted the needed libraries myself. Let me know if you’d like a spare LCD and I’ll get you one at my expense.

        Reply ↓
  4. Bob Bedinsky

    Hi Luke,
    I’ve have used a standard arduino power adapter to test growerbot and I think I’ve damaged something. It is my fault because I did not realized that power adapter shipped with growerbot has different polarity output. However I’ve replaced 7805 voltage regulator on growerbot because I thought it has been overheated. Do you think that I’ve damaged also arduino chip ?
    Led does not turn on when I power the growerbot and I’m not able to read expected voltage from growerbot pins. I’ve tested 5V-GND output and I’m reading only 1.5 volts, I expect to read 5volts. Please give me some hints to understand if my growerbot board is not broken.

    Reply ↓
  6. Bob Bedinsky

    HELP WITH LCD . I’ve uploaded growerbot sketch. I can see that growerbot is running from serial output. Lcd is not showing anything. turning potentiometer i can see only a row of black squares. Please help me for troubleshooting. lcd is SD1602H but i cannot find how to test on a breadboard to check if it is broken. Moreover I would like to test with i different lcd 1602 but i do not know how to connect to growerbot. regards

    Reply ↓
    1. Kevyn Watkins

      I have the exact same symptoms here bob. If love to know if you work it out. I might have a little time today to play with it.

      Reply ↓
      1. Bob Bedinsky

        I confirm that LCD is not working . I’ve found this diagram
        http://blogimg.goo.ne.jp/user_image/67/89/2abe97ee7aae31c4b2e13fa2416781b3.jpg

        I’ve put growerbot lcd on a breadboard with same wiring

        i’ve run an LCD hello world with
        LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2);
        Turning potentiometer i can see only a row of black squares.

        @luke please help me to change lcd, i’ve already an lcd 1602 with ic2
        i need to know were is sda scl pin on growerpot

        Reply ↓
      2. Bob Bedinsky

        Hi Kevyn,
        I’ve connected a common LCD 16×2 1602 HD44780 and it worked fine.
        Now I can read messages from growerbot on lcd.
        Unfortunately I found that humidity/temp sensor shows only zero values.
        I’ve found already 2 components broken lcd and DHT22 and I’m quite disappointed.
        I have to make a larger hole to mount HD44780 lcd and de-solder sensor to test another one, that is quite annoying.

        Reply ↓
        1. Kevyn Watkins

          Thats odd because I compiled mine with the adafruit library and the temp and humidity has been working (Although the humidity has an issue in that it reads 99.90% all night until morning, then it’ll drop down to a normal level. My temps are from 26 during the day to 18 at night, all within spec)

          Reply ↓
          1. Luke Iseman

            Hi Kevyn and Bob,

            Thanks for your work on this; sounds like you’ve got everything working now?

            The 99.90% humidity reading is surprising. Will you try the sensor at a different angle and let me know if this still happens? My guess is that you’re getting condensation inside of the sensor itself.

            Let me know any replacement parts either of you would like and I’ll get them in the mail this week at my expense.

            -Luke

          2. Kevyn Watkins

            I’ve tried it inside as well as outside in the garden worth the same result. Not sore why it’s reading high. I’ll try Bob’s library next week when I get back home.

            The screen and its breakout board should get me all sorted, thanks Luke.

    1. luke iseman Post author

      Hi Allen,

      Sorry to hear you’re having trouble.

      The LCD maps to the following:
      LCD1 -> D5
      LCD2 -> D6
      LCD3 -> D7
      LCD4 -> D8
      LCD5 -> D9
      LCD6 -> D10
      LCD7 -> GND
      LCD8 -> 5V

      Pin 1 is the farthest to the left if you are looking at the side of the LCD breakout such that the silkscreen is readable.

      Here’s the exact lumex LCD I used: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/LCM-S01602DTR%2FM/67-1781-ND/469805 . And the datasheet: http://www.lumex.com/specs/LCM-S01602DTR%20M.pdf .

      Let me know how testing goes. I’ve had a couple of the LCDs break in-transit; if this happened, I’ll get you a new one ASAP.

      Thanks,
      Luke

      Reply ↓
      1. bedinsky

        Hi Luke,
        I’m sure that my lumex lcd is not working. I can see only a row of black squares that means that it cannot be initialized. In the arduino sketch I’ve added a delay of 2 sec before calling lcd.init but it does not work. I’ve tried another lcd 1602a and it works, this lcd needs backlight to be fully readable and back light pins are not available on lcd breakout.
        Could send me a new lcd ?

        Reply ↓
        1. luke iseman Post author

          hi,

          i sent the replacement lcd a coupla weeks ago. if it’s not there by the end of this week, let me know and i’ll send one some other service than government post…

          thanks,
          luke

          Reply ↓
          1. Bob Bedinsky

            Hi Luke,
            Thank you very much! I’ve received replacement lcd yesterday but I’ve not tested yet. I’ll keep you informed.

    2. Kevyn Watkins

      Allen, I soldered a female header to my (replacement) backpack board. As you can see in the photo I found the pinouts on my LCD did not match the standard HD44780 type LCD (Pins 15 and 16 are placed before pin 1) so I offset the pins and now it works. Before I was getting errors like Bob is describing, black bars and glyphs.

      https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-hhX51Oeug0s/UX-v3sh8U9I/AAAAAAAAChE/ObiIwF4c0bQ/w1095-h821/IMAG0270.jpg

      Note the pin nearest to the Trim pot on the backpack goes to the pin nearest to the SD Card socket.

      Reply ↓
      2. Bob Bedinsky

        Hi Kevyn,
        definitely offet pins did the job ! I’ve got a new lcd from Luke and it works !
        Datasheet says that pin 15 and 16 are disconnected so it needs to have them not connected to lcd breakout.
        Many thanks.

        Reply ↓
  8. Paulius Tranavicius

    Dear Luke,

    Would you ship outside the US?
    Looking forward receiving my first growerbot kit to Lithuania (EU).

    Please let me know the costs, I can provide a dhl import code for your convenience.

    Reply ↓
    1. luke iseman Post author

      Hi Paulius,

      I’m happy to ship to EU at cost. Easiest is if you place your order and then I’ll invoice you for the difference.

      Thanks,
      Luke

      Reply ↓

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  10. Miles

    The audio on your video is reprehensible. I really like what you are doing but your media abilities are unacceptable.

    Reply ↓
    1. luke iseman Post author

      Sorry you feel that way, Miles! If you’d like to help on media, I’d be happy to provide you with a kit and production credits for you trouble:)

      Reply ↓
      1. Alfred

        You know he’s right in a way, I’d say it would do justice to your (awesome) product to film horizontally. You’d get the most out of that vertical space of video instead of black areas, and the visitor would also be gratified with more to see. As you never appear on your videos yourself, best to try inputting your sound from a mic (el cheapo chatting headset mics or usb mic) instead of the camera. And that’s about it. Your setup on cardboard is really neat, and media abilities are otherwise great 😉

        Keep it up!

        Reply ↓

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  12. David Mintz

    Luke-

    I am assembling a growebot for my sons teacher and ham having trouble with the LCD much like those described above. Could you please send me a replacement to try.

    I am also confused and concerned about the comments describing offsetting the pin placement. Could you please also send, or post a picture of the proper orientation for assembly, it is hard to see on the video.

    Thank you,
    David

    Reply ↓
    1. luke iseman Post author

      Hi David,

      I’m happy to send you a replacement if the LCD doesn’t work. Apologies; I’m quite unhappy with the quality of this component and won’t be using it on future projects.

      Thanks,
      Luke

      Reply ↓
  13. chris

    Do you have a video with better audio? I can’t hear it and the youtube subtitles although hilarious aren’t very illuminating.

    Reply ↓
  14. George K

    Hi Luke, I purchased your kit some 3 years ago, initially I messed up my LCD assembly, you kindly sent me a replacement (thanks!), and I got sidetracked and everything just sat there. As part of my new year’s resolution to finish things up, I decided to complete my GrowerBot 1.0 project.

    I programmed the Blink example into the GrowerBot, all looks to be working fine, but am having lots of weird compile errors. I know I’ve added the 3 libraries properly, so that’s not my problem. I then tried older versions of the IDE, and each version gave me a completely different set of errors!

    I’m hoping you can tell me what version of the IDE you used when you coded/tested GrowerBot 1.0.

    And finally, I see that you have GrowerBot 1.5 sourceode, but I should stick to the original release, right?

    thanks,
    George

    Reply ↓

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