Beta 3 service manual · Servers
1U Automation Server
The 1U Automation Server switches things for you. Each channel drives whatever its control cable reaches, on a timer or by rule.
| Category | Automation |
|---|---|
| Rack height | 1U |
| Price | $260 |
| Ports | PSU1, PSU2, ETH0, and one jack per channel |
| Ships with | Ember E1 processor, one 4 GB DIMM, 150 W flex PSU, two 40 mm fans, a 4-channel I/O card |
| Slots | 1 processor, 2 memory, 1 PSU, 2 fans, 4 I/O cards |
Channels
I/O cards give the server channels. The card it ships with gives CH1 to CH4. 8-channel and 16-channel cards fit the other slots.
Hook something up
Run a control cable from a channel's jack to anything with a CTL jack:
- a grow bed's light, sprinkler, feeder, hose or clip fan
- an aquarium's auto-feeder
- a lamp or a neon sign
- any rack device: the channel switches its power
- the water tap's valve
That cable is the whole hookup. Nothing is wireless. To reach another room, patch the channel into a patch panel and trunk it to a panel in that room.
Programs
- OFF and ON. A switch.
- TIMER. Grow-clock hours. 0 to 18 keeps a bed in veg, 0 to 12 flowers it.
- INTERVAL. On for some seconds, off for some seconds.
- RULE. On while every line holds: this channel's reading, another channel's, or the lab's (grow hour, the clock, an outage, the bill, heat, an intrusion, open faults).
- BAND. A thermostat. Start below one line, stop above another.
band this.water 40 80waters only the plants that need it.
Programs act only while the server runs and the channel has a card and a cable behind it. Otherwise the thing holds its last state.
Terminal
auto lists every channel. auto <server> ch3 preset watered, timer 0 18, band this.water 40 80, when this.tank < 30.
See also: Automation · Farming · 1U 8-Port Patch Panel.