*NEW* Seed Bed Environmental Control Project

I have been working on a new project. I call it the Seed Bed Environmental Control Project, or SBEC for short. It is an embedded system I have created that monitors and controls the environment for our new seedling starting beds for gardening. Moisture, temperature, imaging, lighting, even wind is controlled by algorithms that are accessible from remote, or left to run autonomously without my intervention.

I have thrown and spent a lot of resources at this simple project because this project has become the template for all my new embedded systems projects. That means that even though the task needed is simple, the frame work is very, very complicated.

There are so many wonderful things I have discovered during the research and development stage that this blog series will read like a book basically. From installing Debian Linux on the BeagleBone Black, setting up system necessities, to wired and wireless communication to all the subsystems involved. I will be writing about developing C++ daemons running on Debian Linux, on a Raspberry Pi, Cross Compiling, wireless 2.4 GHz transceivers, watchdog hand-holding to maintain system stability, display components and subsystems, interactive subsystems, software involved in logging and maintaining, and serving up database data, wired and wireless networking configurations, hardware interfacing, and numerous platforms including Windows 7, Debian Linux on Intel, ARM on the Raspberry Pi AND BeagleBone Black, Teensy 3.0 and 3.1, Arduino Pro Mini, the chipKit Max32, and the various IDE's used to develop each subsystem software.

There is so much to write, I have no idea where to start. So, I'll begin with the idea I guess, and then touch on each subsystem. After we put all that together, I'll expand on each subsystem to bring to light the hurdles that were breached in order to complete that subsystem.

There has been so much I have learned on this journey that has helped other grid-locked projects I have waiting. My step-daughter's failing Seagate hard drive (MAC FS) and how to diagnose its issues and recover data. Yeah, that issue was solved via this line of research!!

This project has consumed every moment of my free time. Thank God for the endless support and encouragement from my wonderful wife and lifetime companion! I never would have come this far without her!!!

More coming. I hope it peels the layers of reality back for you that it has for me.

Hop