alt Hacker NewsI'm from a compost tech startup (Monty Compost Co.) focused on making composting more efficient for households and industrial facilities. But our tech isn’t just for composting— it’s a versatile system that can be repurposed for a wide range of applications. So, we’ve made it open source for anyone to experiment with!
One of the exciting things about our open-source compost monitoring tech is its flexibility. You can connect it to platforms like Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or other single-board computers to expand its capabilities or integrate it into your own projects.
Our system includes sensors for: * Gas composition * Temperature * Moisture levels * Air pressure
All data can be exported as CSV files for analysis. While it’s originally built for monitoring compost, the hardware and data capabilities are versatile and could be repurposed for other applications (IoT, environmental monitoring, etc.)
Hacker’s Guide to Monty Tech: https://github.com/gtls64/MontyHome-Hackers-Guide
If you’re into data, sensors, or creative tech hacks, we’d love for you to check it out and let us know what you build!
Replies
Thanks for posting!
Out of curiosity, could you talk more about the practical utility of the sensor readings you get while monitoring compost? Temp and moisture seem straightforward, but e.g., does gas composition imply anything about C/N ratio, or does it check if the pile is going anoxic? Is air pressure a general proxy for decomposition rate?
Also, have you changed any of your own composting practices due to what you’ve learned from your experience with monitoring?
Hi!
Which manufacturer/model sensors are you using? I have made some environmental monitoring with very cheap sensors for some hobby projects, but have very bad experience on repeatability of the sensor reading, or for CO2 sensors even noise tolerance (was also dicussed on HN, that discussion made me realize that noise is the cause of the problems, and have managed to verify that).
I have some project ideas beyond my at-home breadboard prototyping but to go beyond I'd rather build on reliable components as the software/infra side is maturing now.