# Questions and answers Short answers to common questions, each with a link to more detail. [About the product](#product) [Hardware](#hardware) [Running it](#running) ## About the product ### What is Crop Steering? Crop Steering is free, open-source software that waters each zone of a grow room from what its moisture probes read, inside Home Assistant. It decides when and how much to water each zone across four daily phases, runs safety checks before each shot, and records every shot. [How it works](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/how-it-works) ### What is crop steering? Crop steering is watering container plants in small shots timed by how far the substrate has dried back, so you can lean the plants toward vegetative or generative growth. It describes an intended direction, not a guaranteed plant response. [The glossary](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/glossary) ### Is it free? Yes. It is MIT-licensed, with no subscription and no licence key. The optional AI assistant uses your own AI provider API key, and you set a daily spending budget for it. [About the project](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/about) ### Who makes it? Is it part of Home Assistant? It is an independent open-source project maintained on GitHub, and it is not an official Home Assistant project. [About the project](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/about) ## Hardware ### Will my sensors, pumps and valves work? Yes, if Home Assistant shows them as the right kind of entity with a supported unit: a switch or valve for each zone valve and pump, and a sensor in % or m³/m³ for moisture. Crop Steering does not pair devices; Home Assistant does. [The hardware guide](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/hardware) ### What is the minimum hardware? A Home Assistant host, one switch or valve per zone and one moisture probe per zone. EC probes, feed probes, tank level and flow meters are optional but recommended. [Minimum setup for one zone](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/hardware#minimum) ### Does it work with EC meters that report ppm? Not as an input: EC must be in mS/cm, dS/m or µS/cm, because ppm depends on the meter's conversion scale. You can choose ppm as a display unit. [Accepted units](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/hardware#roles) ### How many zones can it run? Up to 24 zones per room, and you can set up several rooms, each with its own kill switch. The controller opens one zone at a time. [Room size and plumbing](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/is-it-for-me#size) ### Which substrates does it support? It is built for container growing, and setup offers generic, stone wool and coco. Other substrates run as generic, with targets you set and check yourself. [Room size, substrates and plumbing](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/is-it-for-me#size) ### Can it dose nutrients and correct pH? Yes, for a batch tank with up to 8 dosing pumps per room whose own firmware times each dose; pH correction is opt-in. Dosing has been tested against a scripted pump, not yet on real plumbing. [Batch-tank dosing](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/docs/dosing) ### Does it control climate or lights? No. It reads climate sensors for its records, and it can dim lights when the substrate is dry if you opt in, never below 30 % and never off. [What Crop Steering does and does not do](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/is-it-for-me#scope) ## Running it ### Do I need Home Assistant already? You need Home Assistant 2024.10 or newer. If you have never set it up, the grow-controller tutorial starts from an empty small computer. [Build a grow controller (new to Home Assistant)](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/tutorials) ### Does it need the internet or a cloud account? No, not to water: the controller talks to Home Assistant on your own network. Only the optional AI assistant calls an outside AI service, with your key. [Security and privacy](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/security) ### Is it safe to use on a live grow? It skips a shot when a reading is missing or out of range, and stops watering when a switch does not report its new state. It is not an emergency stop. Earlier releases have closed live shots, restarted and switched a room off on a real installation (switch and controller behaviour; measured water delivery is still to be commissioned); release 3.18 has not yet been run on real plumbing, so start on one zone with a catch test. [Safety features](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/safety) ### What happens if Home Assistant or the controller restarts? The controller closes the shot in progress when it stops, and resumes its accepted setup after a restart. An unreadable kill switch counts as off. [What happens after a crash or restart](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/safety#restarts) ### Do I need the AI? No. Without it the controller runs on its rules. With it, code checks every AI answer against hard limits, and the AI can never run a pump or valve. [How the AI is used](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/how-it-works#ai) ### Can I try it without hardware? Yes. The live demo is the real dashboard on synthetic data. At home you can map a virtual switch as a test valve. [The live demo](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/demo) ### How do I get help? Open a GitHub issue with the alert code, both version numbers and the controller log. [Get help](https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/help) Source: https://cropsteering.growlabs.nz/faq