Setting Up

Setting up an FARMBOX system is like starting a happy farm game, although in the virtual world and effect to the real world. Thankfully it is not as hard as the real farming and you get to do a trial too!

Implementation requires the implementer to take a step back and set aside some time to do this right. This is usually not a couple-of-hours, after-work kind of a farm.

  1. The Setup Farm


Choose "+" on the top header to create a new farm

Choose kind of farm want to create


The FARMBOX Apps supports two ways to create a farm

Normal way

Choose kind of farm (home, greenhouse, mushroom, hydroponic) want to create and Input your farm information and choose "ADD" to create a new farm




Smart way

In the full packages, we have a special QR on the warranty card, you can use this QR code to create a new farm by smart way. By using the smart way, you don't need to activate device by device for your farm as normal way.

Choose "CONTAINER" and Scan QR code on the warranty card and choose "ACTIVATE" to create

Input your farm information and choose "ADD" to edit the farm information


After creating the new farm success, you will be navigated to the setup season page

  1. The Setup Season


Choose "+" on the season header to create a new season

Input the season information

Choose the kind of plant want to grow from the plant database

Choose "Start date" of the season

Input "Plant age" as the current age of the plant of this season

Input "Production" forecast of the season

Choose "ADD" to create a new season



After creating a new season successful, you will be navigated back to dashboard page and the new season information

  1. The Activate Device

After creating a new farm and new season, you can activate the devices include sensor, smart plug, smart remote, camera for your farm.

Choose "+" on the top header to activate a new device

Choose "DEVICE"

FInd the QR code of the device want to activate and scan it to get the device serial number

Choose "ACTIVATE" to activate the device



When the device is activated, depend on the kind of your device, you will see one kind of the screen as below to input the device custom name

For the sensor and general devices, you can input the device custom name

For the smart plug, beside of the device custom name, you mush choose the kind of the device, which you want to control such as lamp, water pump, misting pump, fan ...

Choose "SET" to complete the

  1. The Setup Device

After activating all devices, you will need to setup into your farm. Our hardwares are very simple to setup, just "PLUG", "PLAY" and "GROW". You just need turning on the device and they will auto connect to our gateway.

Soil Sensor

Specification

Connection
BLE 4.0
Power
CR2032 battery
Life time
Over 1 year for a coin battery

Function
Monitor your greenhouse about light, air temperature, soil moisture and soil nutrient

Light
0 lux - 100,000 lux

Air temperature
-10°C - 50°C

Soil moisture
0% - 100%

Soil nutrient
0 - 20,000 ppm
Waterproof
IP5
Brand

Xiaomi



Setting up



Open the back cover of sensor, you will see the CR2032 battery, the transparent plastic cover and the orange rubber

The soil sensor is protected by the orange rubber and It has waterproof IP5 standard. The battery is protected by the transparent plastic cover. To turn on the sensor, you just need to remove the plastic cover.



Close the back cover to begin using

Finally, plug the soil sensor into the plant pot and done





Notes: The gateway and the soil sensor communicate via BLE 2.4Ghz. To ensure the connectivity performance, the face of soil sensor must face to the gateway.


Air Sensor

Specification

Connection
BLE 4.0
Power
CR2450 battery
Life time
Over 2 year for a coin battery

Function
Monitor air temperature and air humidity of your mushroom

Air temperature
-10°C - 50°C

Air humidity
0% - 99%
Waterproof
IP5
Brand

Axaet



Setting up


Bottom of the air sensor is the power button and the LED indicator

To turn on or off the sensor, you just need to press and hold the power button until the LED is changed color. The LED has 2 colors: RED - turn off and GREEN - turn on



Put the sensor to any place you want to measure








Air Sensor Pro

Specification

Connection
BLE 4.0
Power
AAA battery
Screen
Black LCD
Life time
Over 1 year for a coin battery

Function
Monitor air temperature and air humidity of your mushroom

Air temperature
-10°C - 50°C

Air humidity
0% - 99%
Brand

Xiaomi



Setting up


Open the back cover to insert the AAA battery

Insert the AAA battery


Close the back cover to begin using


Put the sensor to any place you want to measure






Smart Plug

Specification

Connection
WiFi 2.4GHz
Power
110 - 240VAC
Load
2500W
Life time
500,000 times on, off

Function
Remote turn on or off the device such as lamp, pump, fan, humidifier

State
On or Off

Working
0% - 80%
Brand

Broadlink



Setting up


The smart plug supports the CN plug type as default. Depend on your country, you must use an adapter to convert the CN plug to other plug such US, EU, UK, AU...

Plug the smart plug into your socket to power the smart plug


Finally, plug your device wants to control to the smart plug.

For the high load device (>10A), you must use a contactor and the smart plug will control the contactor






Smart Remote

Specification

Connection
WiFi 2.4GHz
Power
5V - 500mAh
Infrared frequency
38K
Infrared direction
360°
Life time
Over 10 years

Function
Remote control the device, which supports IR such as air conditioner, curtain, fan, RGB LED  

Working
0% - 80%
Brand

Broadlink



Setting up


Power the smart remote by usb cable and the phone power charge

Use your current remote to setup IR codes for the smart remote


After the smart remote joins into the Sense Hub gateway, you can setup IR codes for the smart remote.

Switch to "Learning" mode and select the function wants to teach IR code





When the LED state of the smart remote is the white, you can press the key of your remote

If the smart remote is received the IR code, the dashboard will show a message "LEARNING SUCCESSFULLY". Repeat the procedure for other functions. To verify the IR code works as expected, you can switch to "RUNNING" mode and press the key.



IP Camera

Specification

Connection
WiFi 2.4GHz, LAN
Power
12V - 2A
Video
HD 960P
Playback
MicroSD Card Max 64G, Cloud
Night view
Supported

Waterproof
IP6  

Working
0% - 80%
Brand

Dahua



Setting up



Packing List

1. Network port

2. Power port

3. Camera


1. Reset/WPS

2. Indicator light 1

3. Lower cover

4. Micro SD card slot

5. Indicator light 2

6. Waterproof ring

7. WiFi antenna

8. Locking screw


For reset, long press for 8 seconds and then the light off; For WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), one quick press.

 

Indicator light status

Device status

Red light normally on

Booting

Green light slow flashing

Booting completed, await wifi config, enter smart config status;

Green light quick flashing

Wifi smart config in progress, including WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), management frame and etc.

Green light normally on

Wifi connection succeeded, operate normally.

Red and green lights flash alternately

Device upgrade

Red light slow flashing

Network connection failure or disconnection after network connection success.

Red light quick flashing

Device malfunction, fail to boot up; alarm or SD card malfunction








To setup camera, please follow below steps:

Insert SD card into SD card slot

Use screws to fix the camera on the wall

Plug internet cable into network port

Finally, plug power




Smart hydroponic controller

Specification

Connection
WiFi 2.4GHz
Power
220 - 240VAC
Load
2500W
Calibrate time
Wash and calibrate the sensor probes each 3 months

Function
Monitor your hydroponic tank such as pH, EC and water level
Auto dosing nutrient for your hydroponic tank for every plant and growth plant
Remote control water pump, water valve in and valve out

Working
0% - 80%
Brand

Fiot



Setting up


Packaging

Components

1. Hydroponic controller 2. Calibrate solution EC 2.76 mS/cm 3. Calibrate solution pH 4.01 4. Calibrate solution pH 10.01 5. Electric valve 12V DC x2 6. EC probe 7. pH probe 8. Water leak sensor 9. Water level sensor 10. Power cable


11. Power plug 12. Connectors:

P1: Water pump

P2: Mixing nutrient pump

V1: Valve In

V2: Valve Out

Dosing pump direction setup


13. Water leak sensor connector 14. Water level sensor connector 15. EC probe connector 16. pH probe connector 17. pH calibrate button 18. Reset button 19. EC calibrate button

20. Local IP address 21. EC value 22. CO2 value 23. Mixing pump state 24. Valve in state 25. Valve out state 26. Water pump state 27. Water level value 28. pH value 29. Working Mode:

RUN: running

IDLE: rest time

WASH: washing

NUT: calibrating nutrient


Setup system

30. Hydroponic controller 31. Valve out 32. Valve in 33. EC probe 34. pH probe 35. Dosing tubes 36. Water level sensor 37. Water pump

Water level setup

SHOULD: Place at no obstacle object

o D1 distance between sensor and water o D2 Height of water

o Note: D1 + D2 <= 450cm


Plug power and hydroponic controller is started

Hydroponic controller will auto connect with Sense Hub gateway


Hydroponic controller is connected Sense Hub and read data



Gateway

Specification

Connection
WiFi 2.4GHz, BLE 4.2
Power
110 - 240VAC EU
WiFi distance
30m
BLE distance
50m
Life time
Over 10 years

Function
Smart farming gateway removes the gap between farmer and technologies. SENSE HUB combines smart sensors and smart controllers from many partners to work together by simplest way.

Working
0% - 80%
Brand

AGRHUB



Setting up


Plug gateway into the socket. The LED light indicates the gateway state. RED - not connect; BLUE - configuration mode and GREEN - running mode

Press and hold the smart button in 3s to switch the gateway to configuration mode



Connect to WiFi "SENSE HUB" with default password "12345678"

Open the dashboard page with URL "http://192.168.4.1" by browser such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox ...





Navigate to "DASHBOARD" tab to configure WiFi device such as smart plug, smart remote, hydroponic nutrient controller ...

If anything works well, you can navigate to "SETTING" tab to setup WiFi connection for the gateway by select "WiFi Name" and "WiFi Password". Choose "CONNECT" to test your password.


If WiFi password is right, the dashboard will show message "CONNECT SUCCESSFULLY" and you can choose "REBOOT GATEWAY" to switch the gateway to running mode. If not, please check your password and repeat.

If you want to know more information about gateway, you can navigate to "INFORMATION" tab.


  1. The Setup Farm Profile

With FARMBOX, you can easy control the devices anywhere and anytime. We try binging the modern technologies for farmer in the simplest way. FARMBOX can meet any your requirement. FARMBOX supports up to 4 controlling modes and you can easy to change the mode.

Choose Gear icon on the navigation bar to view the farm profile setting page

Manual mode is default for a new farm. Depend on the kind of farm, you will see different settings  

Home garden profile setting

Mushroom profile setting

Greenhouse profile setting


Hydroponic profile setting


Manual mode

Manual mode is default for a new farm. Farmer is a main actor of farm. Based on their experiences, they decide turning on or turning off device. To protect the system, the device will be automatic turned off if farmer doesn't have any action. They can re-turn on if needing.


Device is turned on

Device is turned off



Threshold mode

In the setting profile page, you can edit the threshold for each condition and on time range for each device on your farm

Setting threshold

Setting device on time



Notes:

Setting

Description

Unit

Range

Light

the Ambient Light Sensing (ALS) devices approximate the human eye response to light under a variety of lighting conditions. The devices have a wide range of performance allowing accurate ALS measurements in lighting environments ranging from low-light to bright sunlight up to 220K flux

FLUX

0 - 100,000 LUX

Air temperature

Air temperature is a measure of how hot or cold the air is. Air temperature affects the growth and reproduction of plants and animals, with warmer temperatures promoting biological growth. Air temperature also affects nearly all other weather parameters

°C

0 - 56°C

Air humidity

Humidity, the amount of water vapour in the air. It is the most variable characteristic of the atmosphere and constitutes a major factor in climate and weather

%

0 - 100%

Soil humidity

Soil moisture is the volumetric water content in soil.

%

0 - 100%

Soil nutrition

Soil electrical conductivity (EC) is a measurement that correlates with soil properties that affect crop productivity, including soil texture, cation exchange capacity (CEC), drainage conditions, organic matter level, salinity, and subsoil characteristics.

PPM

0 - 20,000 PPM

Water pH

The pH level of water measures how acidic it is (pH stands for potential hydrogen, referring to how much hydrogen is mixed with the water.) 7 is a balanced pH for water. Anything below 7 indicates the water is acidic, and if it’s above 7 it is alkaline

--

0.00 - 14.00

Water nutrition

An EC meter measures the potential for an electrical current to be transported through water. This is known as molar conductivity (electrolytic conductivity) and is measured in siemens (S). Electrons are able to flow through the water from one set of electrodes to another not because of the water molecules themselves, but because of the ions dissolved in the water. It is these ions that transport the electrons.

mS/cm

0 - 20 mS/cm

Water level

Percent of water in the hydroponic tank

%

0 - 100%

Nutrition formula

Percent of nutrient elements in a hydroponic tank

%

A + B + C = 100%

Water volume

Water volume of the hydroponic tank

L


Liquid volume

Water volume of the nutrient container

ML


Water tank height

Measure height of the hydroponic tank from the bottom to top

CM

20 - 300 CM

Water sensor height

Measure the distance between the water level sensor to the top of the hydroponic tank

CM

20 - 100 CM

Washing schedule

Schedule time for washing the hydroponic tank. The water in the tank will be removed by valve out and added new water by valve in. After that, based on the nutrition formula, the hydroponic controller will calibrate the hydroponic nutrient by the dosing pumps

--

A time in a week

Lamp time

Time to allow turning on the lamp in your farm

--

On hour - Off hour

Water pump time

Time to allow turning on the water pump in your farm

--

On hour - Off hour

Misting pump time

Time to allow turning on the misting pump in your farm

--

On hour - Off hour

Fan time

Time to allow turning on the fan in your farm

--

On hour - Off hour

CO2 valve time

Time to allow turning on the CO2 valve in your farm

--

On hour - Off hour

AC time

Time to allow turning on the air conditioner in your farm

--

On hour - Off hour


Automation Mode

We are building a plant scientist database. For each plant, we define the good profile for each plant growing. Based on the profiles, real-time sensor data and local weather forecast, our server will remote control your devices to make a good climate for your plant. Default, the farm will apply this mode if the plant has detail the growing profiles. If not, the farm will run in manual mode.

Hybrid Mode

The hybrid mode is combine of all above modes. The climate will be controlled based on the default growing profile, your profile setting and user actions

  1. The Setup Farm Visibility

Choose "Settings" from navigation menu

Choose

Toggle your farms want to show or hide
  1. The Setup Device Visibility

N/A

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