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  • ✇NekoJonez's Gaming Blog
  • Gamer’s Thoughts: How I write my game articles?NekoJonez
    Every writer has their own creation process. These processes are rarely to never set in stone. People change, and their habits and routines can change as well. Now for a few weeks now, I have been thinking… What is my process? How do I decide on which game to write, and how do my actual thoughts get into an article? So, I think it would be fun to explore some of those things in this article. While I have written a similar article back in 2018, I also think it would be fun to just start this
     
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Gamer’s Thoughts: How I write my game articles?

✇NekoJonez's Gaming Blog
Od: NekoJonez
20. Duben 2024 v 17:47

Every writer has their own creation process. These processes are rarely to never set in stone. People change, and their habits and routines can change as well. Now for a few weeks now, I have been thinking… What is my process? How do I decide on which game to write, and how do my actual thoughts get into an article? So, I think it would be fun to explore some of those things in this article. While I have written a similar article back in 2018, I also think it would be fun to just start this article as if I have never written that article. So, here we go, from choosing the game to clicking on the button “publish”… How do I do it?

Choosing the subject

When I look at the taglines I have chosen for my blog in the past, most of them have one thing in common. They represent in a way what this blog actually is. This blog is a public diary of a Belgian game collector who shares his opinions on the games he plays. Sometimes I play with the idea to create series, where I look at each game from a series or look at several games I have played in the past.

While that could be fun, I don’t like forcing myself to play a certain game because I have to write an article about it. That’s because I might not enjoy the game since I need to rush my play through, so I can have an article out. On top of that, it might reflect in my article as well. I like to take my time when writing about a certain game. Writing about a game right away without giving it time to let things settle is such a risky idea. Since, you never know if you are overreacting on something or not.

Now, when I’m playing games, I have a rule. I never go into playing a game thinking how to turn it into an article. The only exception I make to that rule is when a developer requests me to write an article about their game. While playing the game, I let myself enjoy the game. Now, there comes a moment while playing the game, where I think… “Should I write an article about this game or not?”.

In the past, I used to have a long list of games where I answered yes to that question. When my writing day arrived, I opened the list and picked a game from that list and started the process of writing an article. But, I felt that, that system didn’t work for me anymore. I can’t tell you exactly when I stopped using that system, but I wanted to write more in-depth articles, so I wanted to more research on the game I was writing about and that was taking a lot more time compared to just having a list of games I want to write about.

So, the decision of choosing the game for the next article is a bit more complicated. Sometimes I have a game in mind that I want to write about, and sometimes I don’t. When I have a game in mind, it’s easy to move on to the next process. When I don’t, I look at the games I have played in the past months/weeks and decide from there.

Now, what do I take in consideration when deciding if a game can become a good article? The first question I ask myself is this, what can I say about this game? There are several games I play that don’t have enough things going on for me to write about. Even when they are fascinating like Yeti Quest, it’s your typical match three game like Bejeweled. But in this game, you can choose between three different play styles on the fly in this genre, and that makes it more interesting. But, besides that, there is not too much else going on. Maybe I might turn them in a short game quicky. But I find writing and creating shorter articles about a game less rewarding than writing a longer article about them.

The second question I ask myself is the same question as the first but in a different direction. The first question is actually more, how much is there to talk about, and the second question is what is there to talk about. Something I dislike writing is very negative articles. I don’t want to write an article where I just rip into the game and only talk about the weak points of a game. I also don’t enjoy reading those articles myself, and I personally rather write and read a balanced article over an overly positive or negative article any day of the week.

Now, when a developer requests an article from me and I notice that I’m going to write mostly a negative article… I actually scrap the article. From talking to various developers, I learned how much time and effort goes into creating games, and it takes a lot of courage reaching out to the press to show off your game. People sometimes base their decision on this kind of articles, and I don’t want to turn people away if the game doesn’t click with me or if I’m not the correct person to review the game. But, I do give a list of feedback back to the developer. This feedback exists out of bugs/issues I found or suggestions for improvement. That’s the least I can do for declining the article.

While I answer both of these questions, I start coming up with the theme of the actual article. What will be the core of my message? On what do I want to focus the article? The music, the game mechanics, the visuals, the writing style? It’s mostly now that I come up with the subtitle of the article. A great recent example is how I came up with the core of the Another Code – Recollection article. While playing that game and streaming it with Klamath, I remembered that I wrote an article about that game in the past. One of the game’s core story mechanics is how memory works and how people grow with them. At that moment, I decided to make that the main focus of my article. To show how I have grown as a writer, while using the memories of the past game and articles to take a new look at the game.

The actual review process

Now that I decided on which game I want to review or write about, it’s time to talk about the actual process of preparing the article.

The first thing I start to look at is the story of this game. The reason why I start with the story is simple, it’s one of the best ways to start your article, in my honest opinion. With that, you can set the scene for your readers and explain the mechanics, visuals amongst other things more easily as well. I have tried several times to write about the mechanics or something else first, but I felt that these articles didn’t flow well enough, and I rewrote the whole article. By now, it has become a habit of mine that I don’t know how to change and even if I should change it.

Then, depending on the message I have chosen of my article, I chose something else next. In most cases, that is the pacing or the gameplay, but it can also be the world building or the visuals. Besides having a core message, I also want the article to flow well. My main goal in writing these articles is not only to inform and entertain those who are reading my articles, but also as a way to easily share my opinion on the games I’m playing.

When you read my articles, you’ll notice that I don’t focus on the same things that most big reviewing outlets do. For example, I don’t focus on how realistic the visuals are or if the game is using the latest technology or running at the highest frame rate. Personally, I don’t really care about those things too much. I rather focus on the actual game over those things.

Now, when I’m looking at the visuals for example for my article… I look more at how consistent everything is. How well does everything fit together and fit together with the story and themes of the game. Are there models and moments that look rough or unpolished? Are there animations that look out of place and unnatural? Now, since I sometimes review a retro game, I take in consideration the technology of the time and the size of the studio that developed the game.

I mostly put my focus when writing about a game on the whole package. For example, if you introduce a certain mechanic in a game… how often is it used and what does it bring to the gameplay. There is nothing that annoys me more than having a mechanic in a game that is underused when it’s shown off with a lot of potential. I’m looking at you, for example, Death Mark II. There were some mechanics like the shop or the hidden teeth that were just underused. If a mechanic is going to be underused, don’t put so much focus on it.

Something I also find very important is consistency. While it can be interesting to break consistency in a game to surprise the player to keep them on their toes, there is no excuse to have an inconsistent game. I’m talking for example about huge difficulty spikes or the UI having different ways of working in the game. Let me give you a specific example, in Suikoden Tierkreis, the final boss of the game is so much stronger than all previous enemies, and it felt just unfair. Without any warning, you also had to know you had to grind certain characters and build them in a certain way. Maybe it might be less of a problem now that I know that, but it felt like a slap into the face after the balance of the game being very consistent.

So, do I take notes while I play through the game I’m going to write about? In the past I used to do that, but I stopped doing that. I started to have this bad habit of only writing down the negatives moments or just trying to work everything in from my notes and forcing some sections in. I do have an alternative when writing about a game now.

First, I play the game for at least an hour before I write about it. So, things are fresh in my mind. Also, I leave the game running while I’m writing my article. In case I’m hesitating on something, I can quickly jump in the game and replay to test something out.

And second, I’m abusing my visual memory. I have a very strong visual memory when it comes to games and I found out that when I play the soundtrack of the game, I start to remember quite a lot of things. I can’t write an article without playing the soundtrack of the game.

Sadly, a lot of things in a review are extremely subjective. The biggest thing here is finding a right balance for me. For example, if I didn’t enjoy certain tracks in the soundtrack of a game but I don’t see that complaint while doing some research, I mention it that way in my article. That it might be that the tracks didn’t click with me but that the overall impression of the soundtrack is positive.

The final part I usually do before I sit down and write is doing my research. This research consists out of just looking up this game in Google, reading through other articles, reading through press material, looking at the voice actors, looking at other projects of the developers… I have a whole list of things I want to answer and know about the game. Like how big was the studio that developed it? How long was the game in development? Sometimes reading up on the game helps to clear up things on why certain creative decisions where taken.

Writing the article

Now that I have chosen the game, played through (most of) it and did some research it’s time to start writing the article. The first thing I do is put in the title and it’s subtitle. And then, I create the subtitles and screenshots for the article. In case of a game review, I write in brackets the main themes of that section. For example: (gameplay, controls, music).

Then I put on the soundtrack of the game and I start writing the introduction and just continue to write. While writing, I look at the flow of the article and when I notice that a certain section would fit better in an earlier section, I move it. Now, when I remember a certain detail that fits in a later section, I add a small note in that section before returning to the point I was writing.

I don’t like writing out of order, since I find it more difficult to make sure my core message shines through or the flow/theme of my article stays consistent. So, that’s why I’m doing the article editing somewhat at the same time. When I’m finished with a paragraph, I re-read what I have written and think about the flow of the article and when it doesn’t fit, I just remove the whole paragraph and rewrite it. Now, I also read my paragraph again since my mother tounge isn’t English and sometimes I use certain expressions that don’t exist in English or just make silly typo’s.

While I use two spelling correctors to help me to avoid mistakes, I rather review it myself as well. Too many times I see that spellings correctors fail at understanding gaming terms or make the strangest corrections. While I know that my articles contain grammar issues and typo’s in the end, I try to catch as many as I can before they go live. During some breaks, I spend a couple of hours going through old contect and correcting typo’s and grammar issues. Also, when readers point them out to me, I try to fix them right away. Since, you start to read over your own mistakes way too easily.

While writing, I usually try to not take a break. I find it quite important to do everything in one go while writing. Apart from refilling my glass or taking a quick bathroom break, I try to keep writing. Usually, the whole writing process takes me around 4 hours on average.

After I have fully written my article, I copy it from the WordPress editor to Microsoft Word and let it check again for typo’s and grammar mistakes I missed. I also quickly skim through my article to make sure I haven’t left a paragraph on something stupid like an incomplete thought or sentence.

Now, if you would ask me what I enjoy the least in this whole process… I have to answer the whole SEO process. It’s one repetitive task that is just boring to do in my honest opinion. Looking for the right keywords, pasting the links everywhere and making sure you did everything to make the article appear in search engines. I’m always happy when that process is over and done with.

The opposite question is a more difficult to answer. I can’t really say what I enjoy the most in writing gaming articles. At one hand, I love the interaction with people who read my blog. The developers who found my blog by reading my articles and decide to request a review from me. It’s a rewarding feeling that people enjoy your creative hobby and are able to relax or find new games.

I also love talking about underrated or forgotten games. I just love when I get a reaction from people: “I totally forgot about this game! This game was part of my childhood.” It’s a great way to connect with people and make new friends and/or discover new games.

But, I also just love writing itself. I just love being creative and trying to entertain people and I find that writing and just using languages in creative ways is something I love doing the most. I love telling stories and being able to tell them through a game article without it overpowering the actual article is just a lot of fun to do.

Of course, playing the actual games is quite a lot of fun as well. Since I have such a broad taste in games, I play so many different games and it’s just a blast. I love discovering things about games and how they are developed and how the whole creative process works behind it. Especially since people don’t always stand still by the fact that a lot of things have to come together perfectly in order for a game, movie, album or any creative work to get created.

I just enjoy the whole process. If I have to give an average on how much time one article takes, I have to say that it takes at least 20 to 30 hours. And that’s when everything goes perfect. When I don’t have a writers block or when I don’t have other things going on in my personal life. I’m happy that I found this hobby for me and I’m surprised at how much you are all enjoying it. It still surprises me that some students of the school I work for discovered certain games through my blog and talk to me about them. I even have coworkers who come and ask me for game advice for themselves or their childern. Besides that, I get a lot of reaction through Discord and other platforms and it makes me just happy. Being able to make someones day or just help them (re)discover games and/or entertaining them… It’s one of the main goals of this blog and that’s just perfect.

Now, I think I have said everything wanted to say about this for now. Know that what I talked about in this article is my personal process and feel free to copy (parts of) my process but I highly advice you to make sure that your process works for you. Since, if it doesn’t work for you, you’ll hit a brick wall eventually and either burn out or just loose interest. Enjoy the process and stay true to yourself. That’s how I managed to write around ~ 600 articles over almost 15 years.

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. What is your creative process or did you learn something from this article? I’m curious to know, so feel free to leave a comment in the comment section down below. I’m also curious if I’ll be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

New version of pigrow remote - added support for rpicam allowing use of the picam3

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
10. Červenec 2024 v 23:12

The new gui can be found here - https://github.com/Pragmatismo/pigrow_windows_remote/blob/master/test_guiWin_008.zip

This includes picam3 support with rpicam, they’re great cameras and make focusing much easer - really good for close up work where depth of field makes focal distance important.

Also Venv support which is required in Bookworm, the newest version of raspberry pi OS which is required for the picam3, pi5 and a few other new things. If using bookworm then set up the venv before running the install wizard or installing any python modules.

Note - using bookworm there may be other changes they’ve made, for example the location of the /boot/config.txt file has changed so the boot config tools in system_pnl wil not work, i’ll fix them but for now make any required changes manually (e.g. i2c baudrate, 1wire config)

The timelapse and localfiles panel have a few small updates and fixes, and there are a couple of other minor improvements.

I’ll keep testing with bookworm and fix anything that needs it but hopefully will be able to focus on moving over the graphs tab so we can finally reorder everything. I’ve got a few projects up and running that will gathering timelapse while i’m away, i’ll also be using some of the time i’m away to work on finishing some designs so hopefully i’ll have a load of new stuff to add soon.

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My solution to bookworm forcing us to use a venv for pip, still testing;

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
6. Červenec 2024 v 14:27

If you're not interested in technical details don't worry I'll sort this all out and make it automatic so you can focus on growing good plants, it only applies to using the new bookworm version of the OS and i'll make every effort to ensure changes i make won't affect existing installs.

The new raspberry pi OS, version Bookworm, requires the use of venv (a Virtual Environment for python) when installing modules with pip, although some modules can be installed via apt a lot of the modules we use aren't available. Using a direct connection to the pi with a screen and keyboard it's pretty simple to use, 

python3 -m venv test source test/bin/activate

you'll now see (test) at the start of your prompt, anything you run will now use the python version and modules stored in ~/test/ which is really useful when running things with awkward version dependencies which is common with the neural nets and computer vision projects. It's also a bit awkward because if you want to run a script from cron then it'll use the system version of python and it's modules which won't include the ones you installed... likewise when you open an ssh connection (such as from the remote gui) then it'll want to use the system wide one.

We can of course explicitly tell it which version to use in cron but this would break all our tools and make it ugly, we can instead add a line like 

PATH=/home/pi/test/bin:$PATH

this puts out version of python at the start of the path list for cron so when it goes looking for which version of python to use it'll use the one in our venv rather than the system version

For ssh there's two things we can do; the first is to add a similar line to bashrc, this is a script which runs when a new connection is made or a shell opened, there are two options at the end of the line we can add one of either

export PATH="/home/pi/test/bin:$PATH"

is the same thing as we did with cron, or 

source test/bin/activate

which does pretty much the same thing, the environment we created is enabled which means requests for python go to it instead of the system version unless explicitly stated.

I'll have to edit the gui because ssh via paramiko won't trigger the bashrc file unless a shell is created, again it's nothing huge just check to see the version of the OS it's using and enable the environment if it's required.

unfortunately these will still require me to edit pretty much every script on the pigrow because to make them executable the first line is '#!/usr/bin/python3' which is an explicit path to the system version of python... it's a fairly easy fix thankfully though instead of replacing it with a strict call to the venv which would break systems currently running without a venv or any future installs on an os other than bookworm... I'll instead make an sh script which checks which version or for the presence of a venvpigrow or whatever i name it and if present runs the script using that python, if not runs it with system python. - i've tested it and it seems to work, just got to do a clean implementation of everything and the tools to put them in (i'll add to the install dialogue wizard)

Anyone that knows about this sort of thing love to hear your opinions or suggestions, i've read way to much documentation and it's fried my brain back to not understanding anything. I also have a suspicion they'll make some changes in future versions because this seems to be pretty unpopular,

I'll have this done and a new version out this week because i'll be away for a few weeks, all my video projects have been on hold while i work on the new version but i've got a few test boxes up and running and some interesting projects ready to start running so when i get back in august i'll have loads of stuff and hopefully soon after be ready to launch the coding contest i mentioned before for image analysis tools.

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  • ✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
  • Update on the picam3 and Bookworm updates／u／The3rdWorld
    To use the picam3 and other newer CSI port cameras I'm having to write a new capture script as they've switched to the module picamera2. I thought this would be a simple case of copying picamcap to picam2cap and changing a few lines, adding in some cool new functionalities and it'd be done in a weekend. The new camera tools are better, give more control and a greater range of features which are especially useful for some things i want to play with and we'll be able to have a live preview window
     
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Update on the picam3 and Bookworm updates

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
6. Květen 2024 v 20:05

To use the picam3 and other newer CSI port cameras I'm having to write a new capture script as they've switched to the module picamera2. I thought this would be a simple case of copying picamcap to picam2cap and changing a few lines, adding in some cool new functionalities and it'd be done in a weekend.

The new camera tools are better, give more control and a greater range of features which are especially useful for some things i want to play with and we'll be able to have a live preview window remotely when focusing and framing the image, so i'm happy for and fully support the change.

It's super awkward and annoying though, i won't bore you with details but so far i've found about ten ways to totally lock the system when taking pics (to the point of needing to power cycle the pi to get ssh back) and a dozen ways of getting an uncatchable error when setting controls or config - also the controls all need to be set in their own special way as ints, floats, tuples, tuples of 4, using an imported enumerator... all of which makes it so much more complex than just letting me give them a string. Fswebcam handles a much more complex situation far more elegantly, but it's nothing unsolvable - i was trying to make it flexible so when they inevitably bring out a camera with a new feature which requires a new control i wouldn't need to change anything to use it but there have ended up being so many special case lookup tables it'll better if start fresh and just use a table from the start instead of polling for settings and things. I still might check for extra setting and note them to the user or something but i'm just going to focus on getting it working with the cameras i've got - not even tried it with the ardu cam yet,,,

So yeah long story short the picam3 is the camera i'm building into sagemoss so i need to get this sorted before i can get that set up and i really want to get that set up it's had far too many delays already.

oh and the other bookworm stuff like the pip issue will be fixed when i release the version of the gui with the picam3 update in, for now just use the prior version of the OS unless you want to manually install pip packages.

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Windows GUI not opening

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／mdshield
3. Květen 2024 v 15:40

I can’t get the Windows GUI to open, I have tried the (4.9 ?) and the test 07. It just opens a console window which closes right away without me being able to see the output. Nothing else happens. Do I need to have additional software/python libraries I need to install?

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due to changes in Raspberry Pi OS and Pip the install tool might not install python packages, if so you'll have to install them manually. I'll get a fix out as soon as possible.

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
9. Duben 2024 v 23:19

a lot of the python packages are installed via apt so it won't break everything, if you see the error message 'This environment is externally managed' then you'll have to ssh in or use a screen and keyboard to install the package you require.

i've also ordered a Picam 3 which can't use picam cap - i'll be testing that (i imagine it works with fswebcam but don't know) and updating the libcam capture tool to properly make use of it's autofocus and etc. I think they've finished the python integration for it so i'll look into that and try to find the best options for controlling it.

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How can I wire multiple I2C Chirp soil moisture sensors to a Raspberry PI

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／Edht2
1. Duben 2024 v 21:35

Hi, I have six Chirp soil moisture sensors (v2.8.7) that need to be wired to one PI. I have connected one and have got it working. I am using Pin (3v3) for power, SDA, SCL and ground pin7. I saw someone using the GPIO pins to power the sensors and then wiring the SDA and SCL bus in parallel. I'm new to pi stuff so ELI5. Thanks in advance!

submitted by /u/Edht2
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How to setup different conditions depending on

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／lukascalda
22. Leden 2024 v 16:15

Hello,

I have bought a heater, since I have switched from HPS to LED lights. Now there is no heat from lights and it gets cold in my box.

Is it possible to set different conditions depending on lights? Lets say I want some temperature during lights on and less temperature while lights off.

Thanks

​

submitted by /u/lukascalda
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New version of the Pigrow Windows Remote including the upgraded timelapse tab and some minor fixes (most in the camera tab)

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
17. Leden 2024 v 19:12

https://github.com/Pragmatismo/pigrow_windows_remote/blob/master/test_guiWin_007.zip

You can copy your gui settings file and frompigrow folder to carry everything over. To make and play timelapse you'll need MPV installed and in your $PATH (or with the mpv executable in the same folder as the gui exe).

It doesn't currently have the overlay log feature as that will be added when the Graphing is (because it uses the same log loading mechanism).

As it's still too cold to paint or pour resin I still can't finish my growbox which means i'll probably have the user logs and graphs tabs ported into the new gui soon - also i'll be making a video explaining how to make tools for the timelapse tool.

Here's an example of one of the new analyse tools; https://imgur.com/a/UtOPgz4 it makes it very easy to see missing images, light level changes, etc. Depending on your computer it may take a long time with bigger image sets.

new graph too, https://imgur.com/a/uPmVQrT it's seconds since the first image was taken, a smooth ramp means even spacing and any sudden steps suggest a missing period.

I'll be adding a few more upgrades and new tools, any suggestions or ideas i'd love to hear them.

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  • ✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
  • Hardware issue／u／lukascalda
    Hi, first of all I would like to thank u/The3rdWorld for Pigrow as it is an amazing piece of software. I really like it and it works as it should be. The issue I am experiencing is hardware related. I have been using DHT22 before and it worked only sometimes. Got tired using it and bought BME280. Got it running too, but only to the point when relay module get switched. Then it is all over (No I2C device at address: 0x77). If I turn raspberry off and on again, pigrow reads the data well. Until i
     
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Hardware issue

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／lukascalda
11. Prosinec 2023 v 18:06

Hi,

first of all I would like to thank u/The3rdWorld for Pigrow as it is an amazing piece of software. I really like it and it works as it should be.

The issue I am experiencing is hardware related. I have been using DHT22 before and it worked only sometimes. Got tired using it and bought BME280. Got it running too, but only to the point when relay module get switched. Then it is all over (No I2C device at address: 0x77). If I turn raspberry off and on again, pigrow reads the data well. Until it switches the relay module.

I am using quite obsolete hardware - Pi , model B, rev. 2. Could newer raspberry solve the problem? Or should I buy new relay module? Or can be the new bme280 faulty? Dont know.

Any ideas?

Thanks a lot.

Lukas

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Trigger_watcher.py not running.

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／bvickers122
23. Listopad 2023 v 22:39

Very new to python and this project for a 4x4 grow space. Using pi zero 2w. I have installed pigrow and set up a dht22 using the remote windows gui. It shows that trigger watcher is in use but that it is not running. I have tried several reboots and reinstalls but the issue is still not resolved. Any guidance would be very appreciated.

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New version of the Pi released, pigrow should work fine with it though we don't really need any of the extra performance so i still prefer the 3 and Zero

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
29. Září 2023 v 13:43

There are a couple of cool features that i'll be testing out at some point, they now have two dual use camera and display ports which will make it much easier to make a camera that measures photosynthesis (using a regular and IR camera next to each other) - you might have seen be doing this before using two zeros which worked but was awkward, this should make it much easier and maybe we can film a spring timelapse of a landscape changing.

the new PCIe access is likely to bring some interesting new additions to the Pi ecosystem, while a lot of focus is likely to be on crypto we'll no doubt see a lot of GPU/Compute modules tailed to AI which might be fun to play with plus some of the performance upgrades already help that a lot which hopefully will allow us to start building some interesting Computer Vision tools into the pigrow, maybe even experiment with some robotics control if and when cheap and useful tools make that fun.

I can't see any fundamental changes which will require changes to the Pigrow, i assume the new dual cam ports will work with the new libcam tools so that shouldn't be a problem but of course until i'm able to test it i won't be able to say for sure and as it's expensive i doubt i'll purchase one until i have a justified use case (probably the stereo camera)

Pigrow Development News: currently filming testing and set up of water sensors for sagemoss testbox, will be making a datawall script for that and checking through everything for improvements in how it handles a cycling water system (as used in hydro grows) so hopefully that video will be out soon and close followed by others finalizing my sagemos testbox.

submitted by /u/The3rdWorld
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ideas wanted for new feature -- grow progress and comparison display

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
12. Srpen 2023 v 17:52

I’m trying to design a feature i’ve wanted for a while, it tracks the progress of your grow to make it easy to see things like ‘these said they take 12 weeks from flower to finishing, yours have been in 13 weeks now…’ as well as compare them to prior grows and get info like ‘you’ve grown these seeds 6 times and with the new lights it’s growing much faster’ or ‘this variety is growing faster than any other you’ve tried but the yield is lower’ as well as things like ‘grows where the temperature dipped below 10C took 12% longer on average to flower’ (all those are random numbers btw).

I’d like to have it so the log and gui tools are generated based on a template file, there’d be an online repo which you can select templates from or upload your own to for others to use, hopefully we’d get a good selection of useful options that way and it could be great for doing citizen science community projects like all recording the same log info then comparing at the end.

Here’s how i see it working for users;

User presses a button to start a new plant log, they select a template based on the plant type (preloaded, downloaded or custom) this loads a blank form with the initial questions ready to be filled in (appropriate type for the field - dropdown, date picker, text input, check boxes).

When the initial information is input the program generates a simple graphic display showing progress, as time progresses the user reports events (either through the GUI, messaging apps, or etc) which get added to the log and displayed in the graphic - also optionally included is log information from the growbox, high-low temps, humidity, soil moisture level, watering times, etc.

There will also be optional features to have periodic visual inspections, it will message the user through the selected means (in app notifications, push notifications, message to reddit/lemmy user, LED activation, etc) the user will then input the required information - for example; leaf / node count, height, general health / appearance, etc. This allows creation of more interesting data-points to graph and can hopefully be integrated with tools like CV node counting at a future date. The idea is to log things which can help compare future grows of the same seed type or to compare variants.

When the grow is complete the user will select the option to end grow (selecting if it was harvested, moved, failed optionally selection a rating) the data is packaged with other appropriate data and stored. When the user starts the same type of grow again they will be able to show comparisons with other grows - e.g. drawing out markers when prior grows were switched to flower and how long after that until they were harvested. This should make it much easier to notice what negatively and positively affects growing, what certain traits are associated with and seeing how new equipment (especially lights) changes the growth rate and yield. example

Plant log

plant type : Cannabis - photoperiod (name of the form preset used) plant name / ID : sum23cheese1 (unique plant identifier, default suggestion is autogen from date, type and numeric) seed origin : named seedbank seed type : the strain name, feminised notes: a text string used to put any info about the plant worth noting, copy paste of seed blurb or important details

grow medium : soil

expected growth duration : seed - 1-2 weeks veg - 2 months flower - 2 months

seed planting date : 14th June 2023

stuff logged through duration –

date transfer into current box : [cultivation, veg, flower]

prune log : date + what was done [trim, top, tie] + notes

date light duration change : aug302023 - 12:12 new ratio (on:off)

observation log : [problem noticed [bugs, discolouration, mold], new features [first true leaves, first flowers]

user measured : [every week] height = 45cm

harvested date : [date of actual harvest] opinion based rating : 7/10 final plant weight : optional dried yield weight : optional

crossposted from https://slrpnk.net/post/1249169 i'll be checking both so reply in either

submitted by /u/The3rdWorld
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New pigrow page on Lemmy, come and sub if you're joining the federation...

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
21. Červen 2023 v 17:17

I'll be duplicating posts here that i make on Lemmy and checking comments and messages regularly so there's no need to change, but if you're moving away from reddit then come join us here;

https://slrpnk.net/c/pigrow

As you may know i have a few tools in the pigrow that integrate with reddit, allowing you to send notifications to your reddit account is probably the most useful but the wiki updating bot was great while i was using it and i had been hoping to improve it to work with datawalls as they become more established however reddit is not the site it used to be, way back when they did the original redesign they messed up wikis so a lot of users couldn't see them and they were never clear or accurate in their statements about this which is why the wiki updating stuff got sidelined, it was unclear if everything was about to change or not. The current API pricing changes would not affect most the bots that i have written for reddit but it's increasingly obvious that the owners aren't interested in anything but money so not is the future of any work uncertain but it makes me reluctant to support them.

The functionality to receive alerts through reddit will stay as long as it's possible but as it stands i'm going to be diverting my efforts to platforms that i can see growing beyond themselves in the future - i'm a strong believer in open-source and the power of community (this is what brought me to reddit in the first place) so i will be trying out and working to improve more open communities such as Lemmy. (though i'm only starting to explore and experiment with it so there may be better options i switch and would love to hear any ideas or comments on where to go)

For more information on what lemmy is visit - https://join-lemmy.org/

I've set up pigrow on the solarpunk instance mostly because it seems to fit well, i don't know if it'll stay there or if the server will stay up so things might change in the future - if you're on a different server then you can still view and post to pigrow.

From what i've seen Lemmy seems like a really promising and interesting platform, it's a little nicer to use than reddit both on desktop and mobile, as of yet there's not many communities and it's a bit quiet in many areas but it's gaining users fast and i can really see a lot of scope for growth both technically and socially far beyond what reddit is capable of. Give it a go and lets build an internet for users not corporations.

submitted by /u/The3rdWorld
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New GUI version released; this includes the new install system, start of the display tab, and various other improvements and additions.

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／The3rdWorld
13. Květen 2023 v 20:33

I've finally finished the new install system, i've done a lot of testing and it seems to all work properly though of course any bugs or issues you run into please let me know as soon as possible.

My final testing step was recording the install process for a video i'll now start making, this will be a quick introduction to my new timelapse environment and demonstrate the new install plus setting up switches and LEDs

I'll also start working on writing the new install instructions on the github wiki, updating the reddit wiki to point to the new instructions and rechecking everything.

https://github.com/Pragmatismo/pigrow_windows_remote/blob/master/test_guiWin_006.zip

Hopefully when all this is done i can get back to adding more interesting and useful features, extra sensor support, and etc.

I now 'just' need to bring over the timelapse tab, graph tab, user log tab, and a couple of other small bits, finish updating all the existing scripts, rework a few things to work in line with how everything now works and then we'll be able to get rid of the old gui forever and focus entirely on cool new stuff.

submitted by /u/The3rdWorld
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  • ✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
  • My Pigrow Cabinet／u／Helpiamilliterate
    Close to harvest time, figure I should show the setup. All discretely contained in a locking cabinet that makes a slight humming noise in my garage. I'm in California so I don't have to worry, I just like being discrete. Temps have been a little cold so I was low on VPD so buds are a bit fluffy but otherwise setup is working as planned. Thanks for the software, it made this setup possible. I have had some challenges with the Pigrow windows software, but I used to use Linux a lot so my prim
     
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My Pigrow Cabinet

✇Home of the Pigrow Growbox and Garden Automation Project
Od: ／u／Helpiamilliterate
23. Březen 2023 v 19:52
My Pigrow Cabinet

Close to harvest time, figure I should show the setup. All discretely contained in a locking cabinet that makes a slight humming noise in my garage. I'm in California so I don't have to worry, I just like being discrete. Temps have been a little cold so I was low on VPD so buds are a bit fluffy but otherwise setup is working as planned.

Thanks for the software, it made this setup possible. I have had some challenges with the Pigrow windows software, but I used to use Linux a lot so my primary method of checking and changing settings is by using ssh on my phone to make edits to the crontab and just cat dumping my bme sensor log since I haven't been able to figure out graphs. Also the picam script gave me issues with color tone so I made my own scrip that I have a daily cron setup to snap a photo.

Thanks u/the3rdworld !

submitted by /u/Helpiamilliterate
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