PAR dashboard tips from Leo van Uffelen

This post is a translation of "Tips voor een PAR Dashboard" written by Leo van Uffelen. 

It can be a challenge for a grower to get sufficient PAR light insights that are collected with the 30MHz sensors. So I have created a dashboard model where the PAR Light data in combination with other sensor values are visualized. 

My goal is to achieve a high growth speed with the right quality for my customers. Important metrics are Light in micromole and averages per day and week in mol/m2/seconds to achieve this. I think the following layout is most suitable to get these PAR Light insights: 

As a consultant, I aim to create optimal conditions for the crop and avoid high peaks. With too many peaks in these conditions, the leaves of your crop will turn yellow and you will need to screen to avoid this. If you can’t control your peaks, you will probably lower your total PAR sum to keep the colors of the leaves in the right condition. 

If you can flatten your peaks, you can work with a higher PAR sum. This will result in a better crop quality and a higher growth speed.

An important component is the combination of PAR sum per day with the 24h average temperature. If you can reach a higher PAR sum, you can realize a higher 24h average temperature without any stretching. That is why it is so important to control this every day within the dashboard. Notifications in the dashboard can help you to realize this goal. 

As a day never can be the same, it is important to have a weekly dashboard that visualizes the data per day. This can be visualized in the dashboard with a bar chart. If the weather is changing and e.g. the light intensity is decreasing, you can decide to change your screening strategy.

An important factor besides light and temperature is monitoring the VPD frequently. The threshold of VPD can differentiate between crops, but it can indicate the stress levels that your crop can handle. By constantly growing at the limit, you can increase the growth speed. 

Do you want to create the PAR dashboard that I have shown above? That is possible with the following widget settings: 

Of course you will need to have the following sensors at your greenhouse to be able to create the PAR dashboard: 

1. PAR sensor 
2. Pointed Micro Climate Sensor 

1. Click on Dashboard in the main menu
2. Create a new dashboard or click on an existing dashboard
3. Click on + Add widget
4. Click on Single value and Show a sensor in a widget for the first 8 widgets
5. Click on Line Chart (widget nr 9) or Bar Chart(widget nr 10) for the last 2 widgets
6. Click on + Select at the field Data sources to select your PAR or PMC sensor
7. Set your settings as described below per widget
8. Ready with setting the visualisations as described below? Click on Create to save the settings. 
9. Your dashboard is ready to be analyzed! 

Widget #1 - PAR Greenhouse 1

• Widget title: e.g. PAR Greenhouse 1 
• Data sources: Select a PAR sensor
• Period: 5 minutes 
• Statistic type: averages
• Units, light: (µmol m-2 s-1)  

Widget #2 - PAR Greenhouse 1 sums today 

• Widget title: e.g. PAR Greenhouse 1 
• Data sources: Select a PAR sensor
• Period: Today
• Statistic type: sums 
• Units, light: mol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60 sec.) (mol m-2 min -1) 

Widget #3 - PAR Greenhouse 1 sums last 24hours 

• Widget title: e.g. PAR Greenhouse 1
• Data sources: Select a PAR sensor 
• Period: Last 24 hours
• Statistic type: sums 
• Units, light: mol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60 sec.) (mol m-2 min -1) 

Widget #4 - PAR Greenhouse 1 sums last 7 days 

• Widget title: e.g. PAR Greenhouse 1
• Data sources: Select a PAR sensor 
• Period: Last x days (or: Last 7 days) 
• Amount of days: 7
• Statistic type: sums
• Units, light: mol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60 sec.) (mol m-2 min -1) 

Widget #5 - Greenhouse 1 

• Widget title:  e.g. PAR Greenhouse 1
• Data sources: Select a PMC sensor or temperature sensor 
• Period: Today
• Statistic type: averages 

Widget #6 - Greenhouse 1 yesterday

• Widget title:  e.g. PAR Greenhouse 1
• Data sources: Select a PMC sensor or temperature sensor
• Period: Yesterday
• Statistic type: averages 

Widget #7 - VPD Greenhouse 1

• Widget title:  e.g. VPD Greenhouse 1
• Data sources: Select a PMC sensor or temperature sensor
• Period: 5 minutes
• Statistic type: averages

Widget #8 - VPD Greenhouse 1 maxs last 24 hours 

• Widget title:  e.g. VPD Greenhouse 1
• Data sources: Select a PMC sensor or temperature sensor
• Period: Last 24 hours
• Statistic type: maxs 

Widget #9 - Greenhouse 1 - PMC Sensor & CO2 *Select Line Chart in the settings

• Widget title:  e.g. PMC sensor & CO2 
• Data sources: Select a PMC sensor and CO2 sensor 
• Period: Last 7 days
• Statistic type: default
• Interval size: per hour 
• Set your y-axes to your own preferences

Widget #10 - Greenhouse 1 - PAR som per day *Select Bar Chart in the settings

• Widget title:  e.g. PAR som per day 
• Data sources: Select a PAR sensor
• Period: Last 7 days 
• Statistic type: sum
• Interval size: per day
• Units, light: mol m-2 min-1 (use freq. 60 sec.) (mol m-2 min -1)