# ZAM - Fungarium Living Laboratory

**Erlangen, Germany · Open to everywhere and everyone**

An open laboratory in Erlangen, Germany, for experimenting with fungi, mycelium materials, living systems and their surrounding ecosystems.

**We grow. We measure. We build. We share.**

# ZAM - Fungarium Living Laboratory

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<main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row"></main><main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row"># FUNGARIUM × ZAM — Living Laboratory

**Erlangen, Germany · Open to everywhere and everyone**

An open laboratory in Erlangen, Germany, for experimenting with fungi, mycelium materials, living systems and their surrounding ecosystems.

**We grow. We measure. We build. We share.**

**[![IMG&#95;0946.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/scaled-1680-/x1xMGkQq3aouZZLM-img-0946.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/x1xMGkQq3aouZZLM-img-0946.jpeg)**

> *Where fungi and semiconductors touch and talk. Where learning is a path of patience and discipline."*

<a>Read the lab stories</a> · <a>Join in</a> · <a>Visits</a> · <a>Contact</a>

## A place to grow ideas together

Come with a question, a skill, a sketchbook or simple curiosity. We want to explore fungi and the systems around them through shared experiments, art, making, observation and documentation.

The work is still taking shape. This wiki is our open notebook: what we try, what we learn, what remains uncertain and where another person can help.

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1. Ask a question.
2. Make and try together.
3. Collect and examine evidence (we try to help you with that).
4. Share what happened.

</div></div></div></div></div>## Art and nature

You might want to measure a change in a culture, draw its shapes, photograph its development or make something with mycelium. We want space for artistic exploration and careful scientific work, with each clearly described on its own terms.

**Look closely. Make something. Share what you see. Learn from each other.**

## From the lab

We have some stuff going on in the lab, and we are looking for people like Steve. Who like to spend time learning and coupling ideas and DOING things. Besides helping at the local Kitchen, he is developing some gadget for us.

<div class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-col min-w-0"><div class="print-flow flex-1 overflow-y-auto w-full relative"><div class="relative p-8 max-w-4xl mx-auto pb-32"><div><div class="markdown-body"><table><thead><tr><th scope="col">Story</th><th scope="col">What you will find</th><th scope="col">Status</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><a>A laboratory in the making</a></td><td>The room, materials and work still to document</td><td>In Progress</td></tr><tr><td><a>Building a work area in the tent</a></td><td>The tent and filter-panel assembly</td><td>Completed</td></tr><tr><td><a>Making monitors together</a></td><td>Electronics, displays and a shared workbench</td><td>Great time</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div></div></div></div></div>## Areas to explore

These are areas of interest. Project and experiment records have not yet been linked here.

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- **Fungi and materials:** growing, making and documenting materials with mycelium.
- **Nature through art:** drawing, photography and creative work with living forms.
- **Questions and evidence:** tools to observe, measure, organize and share what we learn.
- **Soil and Fungi:** Develop experiments and constant monitoring of soil with different fungi, learn their importance.

</div></div></div></div></div>## Join in

**You don't need to be a mycologist to contribute. You might want to become one afterwards.**

Art, biology, code, data, electronics, fabrication, photography, writing and teaching can all help. Beginners are welcome to start a conversation. JUST TALK TO US CHIEF!

<div class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-col min-w-0"><div class="print-flow flex-1 overflow-y-auto w-full relative"><div class="relative p-8 max-w-4xl mx-auto pb-32"><div><div class="markdown-body"><table><thead><tr><th scope="col">Participation mode</th><th scope="col">Meaning</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>IN\_LAB</td><td>Join ZAM, learn and work at the laboratory in Erlangen</td></tr><tr><td>REMOTE</td><td>Contribute from elsewhere (git based)</td></tr><tr><td>HYBRID</td><td>Combine remote work with time in the lab</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div></div></div></div></div>Potential ways to help include captioning photographs, documenting a build, drawing a system diagram or reviewing code. These are invitations to discuss a task.

Each confirmed task should state its expected outcome, experience level, time commitment, participation mode, contact and safety or supervision needs. Contributions will be documented and credited with the contributor's permission.

## Wanna Visit?

We are based in Erlangen, Germany. **We are located at the [ZENTRUM für AUSTAUSCH und MACHEN (ZAM)](https://www.zam.haus).**

## People

Dr. Ruben Casillas and Maria del Pilar Schnake are helping get this initiative started and together with the team and voluntaries at ZAM it has been kept alive.

[![IMG&#95;0227.JPG](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/scaled-1680-/SDKzX3KsMO9W06tB-img-0227.JPG)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/SDKzX3KsMO9W06tB-img-0227.JPG)  

## Contact

Send us an email at <info@fungarium.de> and let us know know your idea and how can this place and the ZAM initiative help you achieve it.

Likewise, contact the ZAM initiative to let us know.

[Fungarium](https://www.fungarium.de/) · [ZAM](https://www.zam.haus/en/)

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\## A laboratory in the making</main><main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row">  
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> From a dirty cellar to a living laboratory. A quest to make the best out of given spaces.

</main><main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row">A room becomes a place to explore when people bring in materials, make space for work and keep asking what it could become. Here is an early look at the Fungarium × ZAM living laboratory as it takes shape.</main><main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row"></main><main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row">\## The story so far

The laboratory space is still being prepared. The available photographs show shelving, stored materials, cabling and an unfinished room. They provide a record of work in progress, but do not establish which tasks were completed on which date.

We want the build itself to be understandable: what changed, why it mattered, who helped and what still needs attention.

This was the status on May 2026

[![IMG&#95;0077.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/scaled-1680-/58VhplCkTLwFbVT3-img-0077.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/58VhplCkTLwFbVT3-img-0077.jpeg)

Now we have a clean place with lab and shelves for experiments on September 2026

[![IMG&#95;0946.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/scaled-1680-/x1xMGkQq3aouZZLM-img-0946.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/x1xMGkQq3aouZZLM-img-0946.jpeg)

</main></div></div></div></div># Help tell this story

We need to bring people together and we need to let people with interest in Mycology and DIY electronics to join together. We bring the ideas and learning topics so that learning and exchanging ideas is fun and fruitful.

#### JOIN IN!

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## Making monitors with Steve and Ruben

In between september and october of this year two strange fellows got together in the ZAM-Fungarium to establish some rules and protocols for the ESP32 based controllers at Fungarium.

We have a GITHUB where you can see the codes, but are mostly interested in building awesome set-up to measure the development and see how we can capture the best growth and with the coolest hardware. In this session in particular we looked to reactivate some old boards and set ups and add some monitors to see the values.

[![IMG&#95;0832.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/scaled-1680-/5gpfeeGfxgn06oZz-img-0832.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/5gpfeeGfxgn06oZz-img-0832.jpeg)[![IMG&#95;0831.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/scaled-1680-/1XO4LiVpjwYem9gS-img-0831.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-10/1XO4LiVpjwYem9gS-img-0831.jpeg)

Our development is barely starting and the next phase, which is to send the data to a bucket is on development.

<div id="bkmrk-sources-and-revision"><div class="print-flow relative flex flex-col h-screen bg-[var(--bg-color)] text-[var(--text-color)] overflow-hidden transition-[padding] duration-300"><div class="print-flow flex flex-1 overflow-hidden relative"><div class="print-flow flex flex-col flex-1 overflow-hidden relative"><main class="print-flow flex-1 relative overflow-hidden flex flex-row"><span style="color: rgb(187,187,187); font-family: '-apple-system', BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Roboto, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; font-size: 2.8275em; font-weight: 400;">Sources and revision</span>

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- 21 October 2026. Maintainer: Dr. Ruben Casillas

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# Building a window into the Mycobrain

## A Display for Mycobrain

### The Goal

The Mycobrain is an ESP32 based module that it set up to receive inputs from various sensors and also drive some outputs. The ESP32 is a flexible device that can even serve its own web page do display the captured information. Although the ESP32 can provide its own Web page, it was thought it would be cool if there could be a screen nearby the Mycobrain to display the data and provide a means to drive the outputs.

[![IMG&#95;9503.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/scaled-1680-/gKaBVX9DtuomH0EP-img-9503.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/gKaBVX9DtuomH0EP-img-9503.jpeg)

### The Hardware Selection

Steve happened to have available a TFT display from Display Visions [EA RaZero TFT](https://www.lcd-module.de/lcd-tft-beispiel-code-programmierung/application-note/tft-lcd-oled-raspberry-pico-zero.html), which seemed a good solution for a quick prototype. The kit contained an adapter for a Raspberry Pi Zero and a TFT 3.5" TFT display. The provider also has some libraries available to get started.

[![IMG&#95;9344.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/scaled-1680-/6FrLPiA73c4fzUcx-img-9344.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/6FrLPiA73c4fzUcx-img-9344.jpeg)

### Bringing up the system

Steve was unsure on how to get this working but with the help of Claude, the task became very simple. The first things was to prove the toolchain and libraries. So the first task was to create a "Hello World" application where the "Hello World" string would follow a finger touching the screen. This would prove at the code can be build, the display can be accessed and text displayed and it also proved that the touch library was also functional.

The next task was to build the first UI over the Mycobrain. Claude was helpful to assess the functionality of the existing Mycbrain code and determine any available REST APIs. From there, a basic UI could be created that encompassed the display of temperature, humidity and CO<sub>2</sub> based on the REST APIs already available in the Mycobrain firmware.

<table border="1" id="bkmrk-end-point-purpose-ap" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"><colgroup><col style="width: 50%;"></col><col style="width: 50%;"></col></colgroup><thead><tr><td>End Point</td><td>Purpose</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>api/status</td><td>The current values of the sensors being read</td></tr><tr><td>api/history</td><td>This values of the sensor values in an array of time stamped values.</td></tr></tbody></table>

A real help in this process was the use of a web camera trained on the display. This would provide a feedback loop to Claude which could then work independently to create the user interface by taking photos of the display and verifying any changes made.

[![IMG&#95;9350.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/scaled-1680-/LrV2e4OnVxczNWto-img-9350.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/LrV2e4OnVxczNWto-img-9350.jpeg)

It was not long and we had a fully functioning display over the Mycobrain, complete with graphs based on the api/history API.

[![IMG&#95;9499.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/scaled-1680-/Nm16KfiORE8tYTKx-img-9499.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/Nm16KfiORE8tYTKx-img-9499.jpeg)[![IMG&#95;9500.jpeg](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/scaled-1680-/YkQdbOtirfnVlYzI-img-9500.jpeg)](https://wiki.zam.haus/uploads/images/gallery/2026-11/YkQdbOtirfnVlYzI-img-9500.jpeg)

### Deployment

The final proof of the work was taking into the Fungarium lab at ZAM and attempting to get it working there. The first issue was the W-Lan connection. This was quickly solved but the screen has a set of special configuration files that needed to be adjusted and set into the display

<table border="1" id="bkmrk-.%2Fscritps%2Fsite_confi" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;"><colgroup><col style="width: 99.881%;"></col></colgroup><tbody><tr><td>./scritps/site\_config.sh device set Nectar\_Chamber\_12.env</td></tr></tbody></table>

On the Mycobrain side, some changes were made to also make this firmware configurable so that it could be built for different sites and sensors without too much tweaking of the code.

### Issues and Bugs