homebridge-growcontrol

Automated grow-tent management for Homebridge

A Homebridge platform plugin that automates a complete grow-tent environment — irrigation, lighting, UVB, climate monitoring, and adaptive exhaust — all controlled through Zigbee smart devices via deCONZ/Phoscon.

Features

• 💧 Irrigation — saturation cycles with configurable pump / pause / cycles per growth phase
• 🛡️ Watchdog — hard timeout per pump-on slot, emergency shutoff on hang
• 🚰 Drain sensor — optional contact sensor stops the pump when drainage is detected
• 📅 Scheduler — minute-precision cron for pump times, UVB window, and light day/night cycle
• 🌡️ Climate monitoring — polls temperature + humidity sensors, calculates VPD
• 💨 Adaptive exhaust — VPD-based pulse control with smoothing, cold-weather protection, and a state machine (idle → pulsing → cooldown)
• 📊 Dashboard UI — 5-tab custom Homebridge UI with live charts, device status chips, and a plant progress card

Dashboard

| Tab | Content | |-----|---------| | Overview | Plant card (photo + progress reveal) · climate tiles · device chips · phase timeline | | Irrigation | Active phase metrics · start / abort · live progress | | Log | 14-day bar chart · pump log · event log | | Climate | VPD / Temp / rH smooth charts with target zones · exhaust switching history | | Settings | Phase scheduler · plant profile · device assignment · HB connection |

Plant Card

Climate Charts

All charts use Catmull-Rom spline smoothing. The Climate tab shows:

• VPD, Temperature, and rH as individual smooth lines with colored target-zone bands
• Exhaust switching history — step chart (blue = fan on, dark = idle) that makes the adaptive smoothing behavior visible over time

Color Coding

Values are colored against per-phase target zones stored in the plant profile:

| Color | Meaning | |-------|---------| | 🟢 Green | Within target range | | 🩵 Light blue | Slightly below target | | 🔵 Blue | Well below target | | 🟠 Orange | Slightly above target | | 🔴 Red | Well above target |

Requirements

Hardware

• Raspberry Pi 3 or newer
• ConBee II (or compatible) Zigbee stick with deCONZ / Phoscon
• Zigbee smart plugs for: pump, exhaust fan, lights, UVB lamp
• Zigbee temperature/humidity sensor
• Optional: Zigbee contact sensor for drain detection

Software

• Homebridge ≥ 1.6.0
• Node.js ≥ 18
• deCONZ / Phoscon running locally
• homebridge-deconz (exposes Zigbee devices to Homebridge)

Installation

Install via the Homebridge UI plugin search, or manually:

npm install -g homebridge-growcontrol
sudo systemctl restart homebridge

Then add to your Homebridge config.json:

{
  "platform": "GrowControl",
  "name":  "GrowControl",
  "homebridgeUser": "admin",
  "homebridgePass": "yourpassword"
}

Open Homebridge UI → GrowControl → Settings to assign your Zigbee devices and configure growth phases.

Growth Phases

Three sequential phases, fully configurable in the UI:

| Phase | Default VPD target | Pump on | Cycles | |-------|--------------------|---------|--------| | Seedling | 0.4 – 0.8 kPa | 5 s | 3× | | Growth | 0.8 – 1.2 kPa | 8 s | 5× | | Bloom | 1.2 – 1.6 kPa | 12 s | 8× |

Each phase has its own:

• Pump schedule (times + days)
• Light schedule (on/off times)
• UVB window
• Climate target zones (VPD, temperature, humidity)
• Exhaust control mode (adaptive / off)

Adaptive Exhaust Control

The exhaust runs a VPD-based pulse state machine:

1. Climate is polled every 10 minutes
2. VPD deviation from target is calculated with exponential smoothing (smoothingSteps)
3. Pulse duration scales with deviation (pulseScaleSec)
4. After each pulse a cooldown period prevents rapid cycling
5. Cold-outdoor protection detects temperature drops after exhaust runs and reduces pulse duration

All parameters are tunable per phase in the Settings tab.

Storage

Data is stored in /var/lib/homebridge/growcontrol/:

| File | Contents | |------|---------| | pump.json | Phase config, device IDs, scheduler templates, pump log | | climate.json | Climate time series — ring buffer, ~7 days at 10 min intervals | | plant.json | Plant profile, phase history, climate targets, saved profiles | | events.json | Event log (phase changes, watchdog triggers, VPD status changes) |

Architecture

index.js                    ← Platform entry, Valve accessory, starts Scheduler + Climate
core/homebridge.js          ← HB REST API wrapper, JWT auto-refresh
core/store.js               ← JSON storage, synchronous flush, ring buffers
modules/pump/pump.js        ← Saturation cycles, watchdog, drain sensor
modules/pump/schedule.js    ← DeviceScheduler: pump, UVB, lights (minute cron)
modules/climate/climate.js  ← ClimateMonitor, VPD calculation, event logging
modules/climate/exhaust.js  ← AdaptiveExhaustControl state machine
homebridge-ui/server.js     ← Custom UI IPC server
homebridge-ui/public/       ← Dashboard (Bootstrap 5, Tabler Icons, SVG charts)

License

MIT © 2026