Ivuue - The Easiest IoT Cloud Dashboard for Raspberry Pi

Introduction

Microgro came about from a new and exciting development in growing microgreens.

The main problem in growing microgreens is that they need to be watered at least twice a day, every day until they are finally ready to be harvested.

This is a big overhead for growers, many of whom become exhausted and tired of the constant work with little or no breaks or holidays and eventually throw in the towel.

The upcoming microgro system eliminates this daily watering requirement and thereby releases growers from this arduous and grinding task and allows them to be free from the actual growing facility for days at a time.

And this is where ivuue comes in as the grower still needs to keep an eye on the critical environmental conditions that the finicky microgreens require to thrive, such as temperature, humidity, light and carbon dioxide.

With ivuue, the grower gets peace of mind with the ability to remotely monitor and control the environment to the required conditions and be alerted to any growing system failure for quick resolution.

So, what is ivuue and how to set it up.

Ivuue utilizes the very popular node-RED graphical programming platform installed on Raspberry Pi (RPi) to produce ‘flows’ that interface with the sensor and control peripherals using Modbus and Wi-Fi.

These ivuue flows also have node-RED’s Dashboard ‘nodes’ for the graphical user interface to display the sensor values, historical logs and control lighting schedules. You can see ivuue in action with the following live demo..

https://ivuue.microgro.co/ui

Username= user Password = microgro

To setup ivuue is simplicity itself. Download the ivuue RPi image file and the technical manual from microgro.co and follow the installation instructions.

The RPi image file already has node-RED installed complete with the ivuue flows and Dashboard GUI.

The technical manual will also give instructions on how to setup the cloud aspect of ivuue for remote monitoring and control of your system.

And that is basically all there is to it. You are free to adopt and expand your ivuue system to your own requirements and usage.

Ivuue System Schematic

The following schematic shows a typical ivuue system layout ..

This layout is for our microgro microgreen growing set up but as you can see, it is easily applicable to any IoT smart building controls requirement.

The really exciting aspect of this ivuue system is that it does away with expensive and proprietary input/output (i/o) controllers that can be over 10 times the cost.

Plus with Wi-Fi as an integral part of the system, this also reduces wiring and installation costs.

And, if you need to expand the system, simply add as many Raspberry Pi's as you want as the ivuue node-RED platform has all the capacity you require.

Smart Versatility

Ivuue does not specifically need to be applied to just growing microgreens and can easily be used in any of the following fields; Smart Cities, Smart Buildings, Smart Home, Smart Farming and so on.