Fodder growth cabinets have become popular. The animal feed that comes from it is very nutritious and is simply made by germinating seeds and growing sprouts for 7 days. It is very economical on water use, making it ideal for use in dry areas.
This is a rather complex system where a batch of dry seeds are loaded daily on the one end and where the 7-day old sprouts are taken out at the other end.
The controller has the following features:
- touch screen HMI
- over 40 digital I/O's
- 6 water level sensors
- duty/standby climate control system
- modulating fresh air control
- provision for evaporative cooling
- 5-channels of water sprayers that can each be adjusted for spray and delay times
- 4 channels of lighting each with separate on and delay times.
- dual tank level control
- dual solar tracker system
- automatic generator changeover with automatic start.
This application cannot be done with generic controllers as the programming software is too rigid and limited. It can for example not do the complex timer functions required - which is one of the core functions of this controller.
Further more, the cost of a generic controller with this amount of I/O's is quite high.
Only on hardware, this is a much more affordable solution and software wise it makes it possible to have a single integrated controller. It also saves lots of wiring as the controller outputs is now purpose designed and needs no conversions.
This controller is not for resale.