One of my favorite blogs, Hackaday, recently covered a brilliantly detailed build of a mushroom cultivation control system by Kyle Gabriel. Kyle is a microbiology graduate student at Georgia State University studying the interactions of bacteria and pathogenic fungi for his research, and cultivates edible fungi for fun. The gadget monitors temperature and humidity in a sealed room under positive pressure, and controls these parameters through the use of household space heaters and humidifiers on regular 110VAC sockets switched by relays. CO2 concentration is controlled by actuating exhaust fans placed at different heights in the room (manipulating the CO2 level is important for developing fruiting bodies, if I understand correctly). All of this is orchestrated by a RaspberryPi running Linux, a web server and Kyle’s Automated Mushroom Cultivator software (available on GitHub).
Kyle’s step-by-step instructions for his latest Mycodo build can be found on his blog, but for the very impatient, he recorded a time-lapse video of himself assembling the controller.