/growlab

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growlab

A global contest to grow seeds and share your progress with the Raspberry Pi

My green beans

A capture from phototimer of my seed tray with a wide-angle camera positioned above

New Live stream - 27th April 16:30 BST

Got started already, or just want to learn more? Tune into the live stream Grow your own with Raspberry Pi - Alex Ellis & Richard Gee

How it works

  1. Read the launch blog post: Join the Grow Lab Challenge.
  2. Order your kit, or decide you're taking part by sending a PR and adding yourself to the "growlab Technicians" section below.
  3. Build your own #growlab using one of the designs, or customise it. And start growing and recording a timelapse.
  4. Use the #growlab hashtag and share as many pictures as you like.
  5. Send a Pull Request and link to each Tweet to unlock each level.
  6. At the conclusion of the growing period, we'll send some prizes from OpenFaaS Ltd and Pimoroni to entries at random for different tiers.

Prizes to be provided by: OpenFaaS Ltd and Pimoroni. Want to sponsor or provide prizes? Send an email to alex@openfaas.com

Unlock each level

Before you get started with your build, send a PR to list yourself as a "lab technician".

Bronze - assemble your #growlab using one of the recommend designs or customise it. Tweet a photo of your build fully assembled.

Silver - install the software and capture your first photo of your seed tray or pots. Tweet the photo.

Gold - Wait until at least one of your seeds has germinated and grown into a seedling - around 2-3cm in height. Tweet the photo taken by the timelapse software.

Platinum - use the phototimer or seeds2 software to capture images over 14 days. Compile the images into a timelapse and upload it to YouTube. We recommend one photo every 10 minutes. Feel free to exclude any photos prior to the seeds germinating. Tweet a link to the video.

Making your timelapse

If you're using phototimer, then you can run the following:

echo $(echo $(find ./Desktop/image/ | sort -V|grep jpg)) | xargs cat | ffmpeg  -framerate 10 -f image2pipe -vcodec mjpeg -i - -vcodec libx264 out.mp4

iMovie is also relatively easy to use, by dragging the images into the timeline and changing the time between images to ~ 0.1s

Here's a sample from 9th-22nd April you can watch on YouTube:

Click here to watch my video timelapse

Extra points and taking things further

Self-watering system

A self-watering system

  • Overlay temperature and humidity data with an BME280 sensor
  • Add a self-watering system with a small pump and capacitive soil sensor
  • Try a garden RGB grow-light to give your seeds a little more help
  • Experiment with hydroponics
  • Install your lab in an outdoor greenhouse, shed or cold-frame
  • Use a light sensor / LDR or UV sensor measure available light
  • Try a suitable solar panel and battery capacity to run your experiment outdoors or in a room without a socket

Growlab Technicians

Technicians work in laboratories, and you are no different, so if you've bought your kit, or have decided to join, then add your details below so that we can encourage each other and see how many people are participating. If you don't have a Twitter or GitHub handle just put N/a.

# Name Twitter GitHub Live preview URL
1 Alex Ellis @alexellisuk alexellis Live preview with the growlab app
2 Simon Emms @MrSimonEmms MrSimonEmms Images captured by phototimer
3 Richard Gee @rgee0 rgee0 Most recently captured image
4 Jakob Waibel @jakobwaibel JakWai01 Live preview with the growlab app
5 Florian Clanet @FlolightC Flolight
6 Felix Pojtinger @pojntfx pojntfx
7 Sam Perrin @sam_perrin sam-perrin
8 Philippe Charrière @k33g_org k33g
9 John McCabe @mccabejohn johnmccabe
10 Adam Craggs @abigpancake agcraggs
11 Martin Woodward @martinwoodward martinwoodward Live preview
12 Jérôme Velociter @jvelo jvelo
13 Philippe Ensarguet @p_ensarguet pensarguet
14 Sander Vanhove @SanderWaylay SanderVanhove Live preview
15 Sergei Vasilev @nblpblc sergevas

Live preview URLs

A live preview URL keeps things interesting and lets the community get a view inside your lab.

See the new growlab app for your Raspberry Pi

Contest entries #growlab 🥇🥈🥉

Name Bronze Silver Gold Platinum
Alex Ellis Bronze Silver Gold Platinum
Richard Gee Bronze Silver Gold Platinum
Simon Emms Bronze Silver Gold Platinum
Florian Clanet Bronze Silver
Philippe Charrière
John McCabe Bronze
Adam Craggs
Jakob Waibel Bronze Silver Gold Platinum
Sander Vanhove Bronze

Official growlab app

Community projects and add-ons