water Desired Moisture Content

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Does anyone have a guideline(s) on what a good moisture content is for soil when trying to grow seedlings, newly transplanted, etc...?  I'm building a few different versions of a GrowBot using a raspberry pi and other devices to aid in my plant development and can't seem to find any actual numbers.  I thought about loading cups up with soil and watering by hand until I reach a good moisture level, then use my sensors to establish a baseline...but that's a little tedious if someone else has good numbers.
 
I'll be monitoring ambient and growbox temps, humidity levels, Ph levels, moisture levels, and light levels in my prototypes.  Is there anything else that makes sense to monitor?  
 
Thanks for any help or advice.
 
Soil temps. Best way to get that is to just use a seed tray with a heat mat. Yet I use an Aquatuff thermometer for that also a decent thermo/hygrometer with the little wand so you can place it in the humidity dome or whichever desired area. Thats how I'm doing it and my readings are coming out solid.
As far as ph'ing water is concerned I just said screw it and bought a Gowonix gx 150 Reverse osmosis system to make life easier. I only use it for food and my plants of course. If thats a bit much for you then you can purchase R.O water at your nearest supplier. Yet from what I've noticed buying from my neighborhood water guy is that they ph their water to be a bit more acidic, why? I dont know. What I do know is that it should be fine as long as it is atleast a 6 or 6.5 on the ph scale.
Yet I never really worry about that since I use AACT which Ph's itself. As far as humidity is concerned you dont want it soaked. For easier monitoring of humidity use Rapid Rooter plugs to start your seeds in. They're all natural and since theyre pretty much just sponge made from tree bark its easy to tell when they're too wet. Upon planting seeds you need to just wet the plug then ring it out a good bit then afterwards sow the seed. Then bottom feed from the tray. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks...I thought this topic was dead.  I ended up manually adding water to my soil until my moisture content was correct.  It wasn't hard, just annoying.
 
I already have the soil temps, pH, etc...under control.  I built a custom grow system that uses a set of sensors to closely monitor my plants and adjusts settings based on the results.  For instance, I have the system set to keep my soil temperature at 85F during the seedling stage.  If the temperature drops below that it will automatically turn my heat mat on and adjust the voltage until the desired temperature is reached.  It also adds water into the tray once the moisture content drops below a set value, ensures the humidity inside my dome is within a range, and controls my lights.  It's built to be a system that takes a lot of the guess work out of growing these peppers.  
 
RIght on sounds like a centinal unit. Wouldnt mind getting one of those. Haha makes me feel primitive in my growing. Yet eh I can't complain I'm using a secret jardin grow tent pretty sweet. Are you just starting indoors? and if so until what stage man?
 
I'm still protyping mine, but it wasn't too hard. I'm a computer engineer and took it on as a side project.

I start indoors from seed. Once the plants hit about 10-12 weeks old they go outside. The same system will monitor them once they outside.
 
Dude that's awesome major props. Seems like you have it all under control. Your season looks real real promising given your geography and knowledge.
 
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