DSC-BRAIN USER GUIDE · START HERE
What DSC-Brain is
The parts of the kit, what each one owns, and the two rules the whole system runs on.
● verified for 9.0.0 · corrected for 9.8.0 on 2026-09-30
● first mirrored 2026-09-15
One line: the hub keeps the room safe, the brain decides what the room should be doing, and the dashboard tells you the truth about both. Words you do not know are in the Glossary. New to the guide? How to use this guide says how it is organised.
The parts
| Part | What it is | What it owns |
|---|---|---|
| Hub | An ESP32 controller wired to the fans, the dimmed lamps and its own climate sensors. The heater, humidifier, dehumidifier and heat mat are on smart plugs the brain switches | Climate safety: the appliance ladder, failsafe, minimum off-times, fan PWM, the photoperiod clock and lamp ramps. It keeps running with the brain unplugged. |
| DSC-Brain | A Raspberry Pi 4 (4 GB or more; Pi 5 has not been tested yet) running the brain service and this dashboard on port 8787 | Catalogs and the product libraries (DSC-KitLib, DSC-NuteLib), plant roster, Want targets, learning curves, journals, alerts, automation rules, Zigbee, Tuya and Bluetooth devices, cameras, updates. It proposes and writes setpoints; the hub applies or clamps them. |
| Dashboard (web app) | The web app served by the brain; works on a phone, tablet or laptop on the same network | Presentation and control. It stores only browser preferences; everything else lives on the brain or the hub. |
| DSC-Control panel | A touch screen (resistive touch only: the firmware uses no physical buttons or dial) that talks to the hub over ESP-NOW or Wi-Fi | Field glass: read the room and nudge it without a phone. It does not run climate logic. |
| Probes 1–2 | Soil probes (moisture, EC, pH, soil temperature) that report to the hub and the brain | Root-zone readings for the plant they are assigned to. A kit runs two; more can be added under Advanced. |
| Sonoff plugs | Wi-Fi relays for heater, heat mat, humidifier and dehumidifier | Nothing. The brain switches them, mirroring the hub's demand every 2 seconds, and forces them OFF if it has heard nothing from the hub for 45 seconds. Separately, each plug also starts OFF at power-on and switches itself OFF when it has not heard from the brain for its grace time: heater 60 seconds, heat mat and humidifier 90 seconds, dehumidifier 4 minutes. |
| Zigbee (SkyConnect) | A USB coordinator on the Pi plus any bound sensors and plugs | Placed climate sensors (canopy, intake, exhaust, outdoors), leak sensors, smoke, gas and CO alarms (critical alerts), plugs, meters. Every bound reading becomes a dashboard entity. |
| Tuya / SmartLife Wi-Fi | Plugs and a water tester driven locally over the LAN | Auxiliary loads (pumps, dosing, aux fans, a lamp plug) and the reservoir tank readings. |
| Bluetooth LE sensors | Thermometers, CO₂ monitors and plant sensors the Pi hears over its own Bluetooth radio; nothing to pair | A list under Settings › Devices › Zigbee (Bluetooth sensors) with each sensor's latest reading and its library product match. Once you bind a sensor, its readings feed your climate readings the same way a Zigbee sensor's do; sensors you do not bind stay listed only. |
| Cameras | A USB webcam on the Pi, any IP camera, or a spare Pi running motionEye | One frame per interval per zone, timelapses, plant regions. |
The two rules
- Hub owns safety; brain owns intent. The hub's ladder (dehumidifier → humidifier → heater → cooling → heat mat) runs from the targets it holds, with reality gates, a failsafe and minimum off-times, whether or not the brain is alive; the hub itself drives only its wired fans and dimmed lamps, and the four appliance plugs are switched by the brain. The brain takes the targets from each plant's stage (the stage rail) and writes them through controls the hub is allowed to refuse or clamp. Today the brain proposes demand and the hub applies it; the brain never writes the hub's demand switches directly.
- Never fake liveness. Every gauge, chip and label matches a real reading or a real state. If a probe is dark, the tile goes grey and says so. If a reading is held at its last good value, it is marked HELD. Features that are wired in software but not on the rig are shown dashed with a possible with… note rather than as a dead toggle.
Want → Got → Need
The vocabulary on every desk:
- Want is the target band the brain has for a zone or plant (from the catalog, the stage and your edits).
- Got is what the sensors actually read.
- Need is the gap, and what the kit is doing about it (heating, dehumidifying, waiting on a min-off timer, or nothing because it cannot).
Where things run
| Address | What |
|---|---|
dsc-brain-XXXX.local:8787 (the dashboard address on the kit card; cards made before 9.9.0 use dsc-brain.local) |
The dashboard, when the Pi is on your LAN over Ethernet |
the hotspot dashboard address on the kit card, or 10.42.0.1 |
The dashboard from the Pi's own Wi-Fi hotspot (name on the kit card) |
| the ESPHome dashboard address on the kit card (port 6052) | The ESPHome dashboard used for firmware logs and builds |
https://brain-demo.plausible-deniability.net |
A public simulated kit (no hardware) for trying the dashboard |
The Sonoff plugs join the Pi's own Wi-Fi network, DSC-Brain-XXXX (XXXX is unique to your card; setup shows the full name. Cards made before 9.9.0 use DSC-Brain), which is also how you reach the dashboard when there is no Ethernet. The hub, panel and probes use the fleet network set up in Setup.
Next: the Glossary, then Before you start in Setup. What runs today and what is coming: status.
Guide contents · Start here · Troubleshooting · Digital Stealth Care
DSC-Brain user guide · What DSC-Brain is · this page is edited on the site; the Notion original was retired after the mirror