1) What is a Hydroid?
2) Who stands to benefit from hydroponic automation?
3) Do I need to be a pro gardener or computer expert to use a Hydroid?
4) What equipment does the Hydroid include?
5) What kind of warranty does the Hydroid carry?
6) I have an “XYZ” style hydroponic garden. Can the Hydroid automate my specific configuration?
7) How many hydroponic systems can one Hydroid control?
8) What kind of devices can the AuxBox operate?
9) What is the SensorBox for?
10) How does your injection system work?
11) You say your EC and pH probes are “impervious to RF interference.” What’s that mean exactly?
12) What kinds of nutrient solutions can I use with your system?
1) What is a Hydroid?
The Hydroid is a micro-processor controlled system that monitors and adjusts the environment in which your plants grow. You tell the computer how you want the garden maintained, and the Hydroid will do exactly as you instruct. It will automatically and precisely adjust the nutrient concentration of your nutrient solution, the pH, and if you have accessories in your garden (eg. CO2 generator, dehumidifier, pumps, fans etc.) it’ll turn those on and off as necessary too. The Hydroid is designed to control a system that is inherently unstable, and it makes it fun and easy with high-tech, touch screen controls.
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2) Who stands to benefit from hydroponic automation?
There are a number of reasons why one would want to automate a hydroponic system, but the two biggest are: Stability and simplicity. The Hydroid is supposed to improve yields by keeping tighter control over environmental conditions, as well as remove the tedious labor required for that fine control. You can have your cake and eat it too.
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3) Do I need to be a pro gardener or computer expert to use a Hydroid?
Absolutely not. If you can make a phone call on your smart phone, you can set up a Hydroid to control your garden. Setting up and running a Hydroid requires no cutting/splicing of wires, no network configuring, and no cursing. The graphical interface actually walks you through setting up the Hydroid for the first time! And of course, we’re always happy to help any of our customers that still need assistance! The Hydroid was specifically designed to be as simple and straightforward to operate as possible.
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4) What equipment does the Hydroid include?
The Hydroid comes with:
- The Hydroid nutrient injection unit, which includes the 5 1-gallon tanks that hold concentrated nutrients and pH modifiers
- A touch screen tablet computer for interfacing with the Hydroid
- Custom designed EC and pH circuits and high quality probes that are totally impervious to RF interference
- Air temperature, water temperature, CO2 concentration, humidity, and water level sensors
- One AuxBox, which may be used to switch on/off devices within the garden
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5) What kind of warranty does the Hydroid carry?
The Hydroid carries a 1-year warranty from the date of purchase. The combination of materials and components used in our Hydroid are the product of nearly two years of testing, and are designed to easily outlast our warranty period. However, if anything does happen to fail under normal use within the first year please contact us immediately and we will service or replace your Hydroid as quickly and painlessly as possible.
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6) I have an “XYZ” style hydroponic garden. Can the Hydroid automate my specific configuration?
The short answer here is yes, it will. The real question though, is what are you looking to automate?
From an automation standpoint hydroponic systems more or less fall into two categories: Ones that require a pump of some kind running all the time (eg. DWC, NFT, aeroponics, etc.), and then there are ones that require a pump be activated to a specific schedule (eg. drain to waste, ebb and flow, etc). Since the former don’t require any real automation (they’re on all the time!), it’s really the latter example that requires some control. The Hydroid can control pumps based on something as simple as time (i.e. set the pumping interval and duration for each event), or it can use some sensor input (like a moisture sensor) to indicate when the pumps need to operate.
If you’re still not sure whether the Hydroid can automate your hydroponic system contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss the details with you.
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7) How many hydroponic systems can one Hydroid control?
Each Hydroid has the ability to control one hydroponic system. This is due to the fact that each Hydroid can only accept one EC probe, and one pH probe. If we could connect more probes to the unit, then we’d have the ability to control more hydroponic systems. So really the limitation is how many EC and pH probes we can read at once.
To illustrate the point, if you have for instance, one hydroponic system for vegging, and another for flowering, then you’d need two Hydroids to automate each hydroponic system independently.
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8) What kind of devices can the AuxBox operate?
The AuxBoxes are really just switches. They’re designed to turn devices in your garden on and off. So hypothetically, the AuxBox can operate anything that accepts 120v power. You can hook up light ballasts, CO2 generators, pumps, fans, solenoids, heaters, dehumidifiers, water chillers…you get the point. The only limitation is that the devices cannot have a power consumption in excess of 1000W.
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9) What is the SensorBox for?
The SensorBox is used to report environmental conditions to the Hydroid. The SensorBox houses temperature, humidity, and CO2 sensors. You can put the SensorBox anywhere in your garden and it will constantly update the Hydroid with the current conditions in your grow area.
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10) How does your injection system work?
The Hydroid uses a pneumatic injection system to introduce nutrients into hydroponic systems. Nutrients and pH modifiers are placed in the custom designed HDPE containers, and a small air compressor maintains pressure in the system. When nutrients need to flow, solenoid valves open to allow fluid to pass into the Hydroponic system. The strategy is not that different from the electronic fuel injection system in most cars on the road today.
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11) You say your EC and pH probes are “impervious to RF interference.” What’s that mean exactly?
RF interference is a result of errant electrical noise emitted typically from some high power devices. In a growing environment, the most common sources of RF noise are from digital ballasts. The problem is, this electrical noise can actually skew the readings from many EC and pH testers. As you can imagine, if you can’t properly measure the EC or pH of your hydroponic solution, your plants are in trouble. Please note that when pH and/or EC meters are affected by RF interference, this is not a function of the probes used. The problem is in how the signal is processed by the meter itself.
Our EC and pH measurement systems were both custom designed to “cancel out” RF interference through clever circuit design, which means their dependability in noisy electrical environments is very good.
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12) What kinds of nutrient solutions can I use with your system?
You may use just about any nutrient solution that doesn’t have suspended organic matter in it. If nutrient solution has bits of organic matter in it, it probably won’t play well with the solenoid valves used in the Hydroid. The solenoid valves have small, precision orifices within them, and any organic matter stands the chance of clogging them.
We recommend using ‘clean’ nutrients as they’ll flow the best. If you’re not sure if your fertilizer is suitable for use with the Hydroid contact us and we’ll help you make the determination.
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