Could you recommend a thermometer/Hygrometer

[iluvpills]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, i have read loads of your posts in the Mycology section. Just to say, its brilliant reading and most informative, i have alot to learn but at the same time i can't wait to become involved.

I was wondering if you could recommend what the best value and most user friendly thermometer/hygrometer is for using in mushroom cultivation?

If you could specify models, brands and where to buy that would be brilliant.

I have never grown before and rather than buy the wrong equipment at the start, i'm hoping that you can steer me in the right direction to begin with and i can draw on your experience.

I would prefer digital with a hi and low daily temp setting. I have never used a Hygrometer but from reading your postings i understand that it would be benificial to have one especially at the casing stage, so i figure i might as well combine the two. Is the Hygrometer necessary?

Also, special thanks to Rev, he pointed me to this site after i had been trying to log into Ethnobotany Australia and didn't realie the site was down. Thanks..............

:D

[Brero]

i saw a pretty good lookin one at dick smith the other day. $50 a bit of an outlay but perfect for the application. Note the extended sensor.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefro...duct/View/Y5189

PEACE

[iluvpills]

i saw a pretty good lookin one at dick smith the other day. $50 a bit of an outlay but perfect for the application. Note the extended sensor.

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefro...duct/View/Y5189

PEACE

Thanks.

Hey i just picked up one on Ebay for $13.50 US / less than $20.00 AUD

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WEATHER-STATION-CLO...4QQcmdZViewItem

Not sure what the quality is like but hey for less than $20.00 bucks, it's worth a go.

[AndyAmine.]

I would suggest you get a nice one from a hydro shop, I got mine for about $40 and it does Temp/Humidity records hi/lo and also converts between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Let me know if you cant find one and Ill hunt it down for you.

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, i have read loads of your posts in the Mycology section. Just to say, its brilliant reading and most informative, i have alot to learn but at the same time i can't wait to become involved.

I was wondering if you could recommend what the best value and most user friendly thermometer/hygrometer is for using in mushroom cultivation?

If you could specify models, brands and where to buy that would be brilliant.

I have never grown before and rather than buy the wrong equipment at the start, i'm hoping that you can steer me in the right direction to begin with and i can draw on your experience.

I would prefer digital with a hi and low daily temp setting. I have never used a Hygrometer but from reading your postings i understand that it would be benificial to have one especially at the casing stage, so i figure i might as well combine the two. Is the Hygrometer necessary?

Also, special thanks to Rev, he pointed me to this site after i had been trying to log into Ethnobotany Australia and didn't realie the site was down. Thanks..............

:D

[reshroomED]

Something I posted long ago at Mycotopia before the bullshit drove me away.

 

Wrote this due to reading the humidity cal procedure in the archives

OK we all know that you don't have to be super-accurate with your growth parameters to be a successful shroom-grower. Shit, I've had very few contams (compared to what I read of) with only steam-sterilisation, poor temp control, and hand-misting.

But some people like to create the perfect grow environment. If you're interested enough to try this you'll be (more than likely) using domestic instrumentation to fulfill your measurement needs. Now don't get me wrong, but most of this stuff is crap. Not all but 99%. Temperature measurement is about the only readily available field in which you can feel comfortable with a domestic meter.

As a general note: When buying instumentation, go for old analogue gear. Everyone likes a digital display reading to several decimal places. Mostly you'll find that these displays offer more mis-information than not.

Humidity Measurement

General Measurement

Most forms of measurement are inferential (ie they rely upon the often indirect relationship between two physical conditions), and relative humidity falls into this category. The nature of such measurement is inherrantly non-linear and innaccurate, due to this. A simple thermometer relies upon the fact that liquids will expand/contract at a certain rate per increase/decrease of temperature. If the internal bore of the thermometer is perfectly true the liquid in the bulb will be driven up the bore (seemingly) at an even rate and, if a scale is marked on it, will be proportional to temperature change. But as the liquid level in the bulb decreases so does the head pressure upon it, causing increasing errors as the temperature increases. The error here is negligable but it's a very simple example of error in inferential measurement.

Relative Humidity(RH)

RH measurement also suffers from poor response-time and hence makes short -term fluctuations difficult to detect.

Most old analogue hygrometers measured the expansion/contraction of a peice of horse-hair and related this to relative humidity. Modern digital meters will measure the capacitance or resistance of a specific semiconductor and relate this to relative humidity. Either way, you're still stuck with the problem of inaccuracies due to inferential measurement.

The most accurate and cheap way to do this is buy, or even build, a psychrometer and associated psychrometric tables.

If you've got a hygrometer already and want some degree of accuracy (don't even think decimal places) here's as good a calibration procedure as the average person can perform at home:

Basic Adjustments

There are two basic adjustments to be made for a simple calibration: zero and span (or range). The zero adjustment acts as if moving the scale linearly up or down (ie a meter with a zero adjustment of +5% would read 5% at true zero and 105% at true 100%). The span adjustment acts as if to elasticize the scale (ie a 5% span increase could cause the meter to indicate a negative value at true 0% and one well in excess of 100% when at true 100%). In an analogue meter the zero adjust will be a screw driving a small gear that is part of the needle, or the needle must be physically removed from it's shaft and repositioned accordingly. To acheive this use two small flat-blade screwdrivers to gently lever off the pointer The span adjust will be a telescopic or extending linkage of some sort in the 'works' of the gauge , possibly only accessible by removing glass, pointer, and face-plate. In a digital meter there should be at least two potentiometers (hopefully labelled) that will look like little plastic boxes with screws in the top or end (if no labelling on board, contact manufacturer's service dept). These adjustments are interactive and so the cal procedure must be repeated several times.

Procedure

1. Place in buffer #1and allow to stabilize.

2. Note reading and adjust zero to suit.

3. Place in buffer #2 and allow to stabilise.

4. Note reading and adjust span to suit.

5. Repeat until desired accuracy obtained.

Buffer solutions

Mineral salts, when in a saturated solution in a contained environment, will maintain a constant humidity dependent on temperature. So the idea is to add salt to distilled water in a small tupperware-type container until no more will dissolve (whilst stirring) and then add a little more . You should be seeing undissolved salt crystals on the bottom of the container.

Place this in a larger container with an air-tight lid and allow to stabilize for a few hours. (All standards are based on 25C so doing this in your grow-chamber should meet temp requirements.)

Place meter in large container and seal, taking care not to contaminate meter by direct contact with solution, and allow to stabilize.In the case of analogue gauges, calibrate in the position that the instrument will live in, ie if it will be vertical calibrate it in this position.

Take note of reading and adjust accordingly

Buffer #1

POTASSIUM CHLORIDE 84.34%RH @ 25C

Buffer #2

POTASSIUM SULFATE 97.30%RH @ 25C

This procedure is very basic and little accuracy will be acheived, but at the very least it will give you an idea as to the accuracy of your hygrometer.

ed

[iluvpills]

Sound advice Ed, thanks.

If i do buy a Hygrometer i will give what you suggest a go, that's if my brain can figure it out . By reading what you have written your knowledge of this type of equipment is on a totally different level to mine, i'm just mastering the IN & OUT reading on my new thermometer.

Thanks for your hep.

[Rev]

bah

hygrometers have limited usefulness

just set up a good combo humidification and aertaion setup and it all looks after itself

did i ever go through that halobubbler setup? not yet?

thermometers

i have a few in the shop

buy from me or else they have similar -10/110 in brew shops and hydro shops

[gerbil]

did i ever go through that halobubbler setup? not yet?

Nope, not yet.

from the thread you mentioned it in

The halobubbler is

1 x 2L glass jar with screw lid

3 x rubber o-rings used for homebrew fermentors

1 x aquarium air pump

tubing

air stone

thread tape

water 1l

table salt 60g

1. melt/drill a sufficiently size hole to place 2 o-rings in the jar lid

2. Run some tube through each hole. one should reach to the bottm of the jar and the other should end 3/4 of the way up the jar

3. Put air stone on the long piece

4. Put thread tape on the jar

5. Fill jar 1/2 full with the 60g/L salt solution

6. screw on lid

7. plug long tube to pump and insert freespace dangling one to the terrarium via a hole drilled and sealed with teh third o-ring

8. flick swith

mechanism

air is sucked through the pump , forced through a stone, through the water and into the enclosed headspace . this makes a postive pressure that escapes through the tube into the terrarium

the outgoing air has been filtered and humidified and remains fresh which means easy aeration and humidification in one

this system works very well

the salt part i just made up and havent tested but will be asap.

i figure that only fungi and bacteria who can tolerate water nearly twice as salty as the sea can handle this environment _ shark bay in WA can get this salty and some snapper still get by in it..

i had messed with h202 and antbacterials with varying success. this way i figure that itl be alive (maybe) and if so these organisms will maybe feed on or otherwise exclude species that get blown in and cant handle the salt

anyway thats the halobubbler

ill insert some pictures when i get time

Hey what's thread tape? I don't understand that step.

Did you find the salt 60g/L effective?

I made one out of a large cordial bottle but it didn't seem to do anything at all, am going to remake one tomorrow with those nice round coffee nescafe jars they used to make, damn I wish they would come back, make fantastic spawn jars, about 1.75litre I think they are.

hmm can't copy the drawing,

here 'tis

http://www.shaman-australis.com.au/cgi-bin...c;f=12;t=000580

[Rev]

i think u need the tape for the positive pressure else it just leaks out

those coffee jars would work well i think

the thread tape is gasfitters or plumbers tape. it comes in a roll and cost a few bucks at the hardware store

yellow is for gas, white for plumbing

you wrap it around the thread o the jar so the lid fits tight

no i havent trialled the salt in earnest yet

been tied up with other things

it works well without it though - just water

ive tried disinfectant and povidone iodine - no good - bubbles

i thought about potassium permanganate as well

i will definitely put a photo shoot and writeup back the top of the list to do

[gerbil]

ah yep that's the stuff thanks for clearing that up, I've got some lying around.