I am a newb at electronics but it seems that it is a part of the solution for what I want to accomplish. My self imposed goal is to create a model for a hydroponics setup for city folks to use in their home. If I am successful, my presentation will include something like "one cubic meter of space can produce enough vegetables for an average adult." Not sure if that number is correct - that is what I hope to discover in the next 3 years.
Each hydroponic "cube" will have at least 3 sets of lights, pumps, heaters, fans and valves to control. The idea is to be able to connect them, to daisy chain them, so that each "cube" can use the same controller. I know there is the raspberry pi, android boxes and a few other objects that can be used as controllers.
My question: I am looking for some kind of controller that will allow me to control a multitude of devices - possibly as many as 16 per cube, that can be expanded to control other cubes, each with as many as 16 devices, that is "easiest" ( I know that it might not be easy so I choose the relative form of the word) to program, and will provide the lowest overall cost after expansion (some systems I have seen are cheap to buy the initial unit but expansions are more expensive). use of wifi would be nice but I also realize that it will probably raise the cost significantly and probably make management of the system even more complex.
Each hydroponic "cube" will have at least 3 sets of lights, pumps, heaters, fans and valves to control. The idea is to be able to connect them, to daisy chain them, so that each "cube" can use the same controller. I know there is the raspberry pi, android boxes and a few other objects that can be used as controllers.
My question: I am looking for some kind of controller that will allow me to control a multitude of devices - possibly as many as 16 per cube, that can be expanded to control other cubes, each with as many as 16 devices, that is "easiest" ( I know that it might not be easy so I choose the relative form of the word) to program, and will provide the lowest overall cost after expansion (some systems I have seen are cheap to buy the initial unit but expansions are more expensive). use of wifi would be nice but I also realize that it will probably raise the cost significantly and probably make management of the system even more complex.