Hello everyone! Let me give you an insight into my project.
Aim of the project:
I’m a student from Portugal, and my project aims to combine technology with agriculture. It all started when we realized that, during the Summer, the [vegetable] gardens we had at school eventually all died.
To counter that we decided it was time to resort to technology to help shore up the botanical part of the equation. That obviously meant learning quite a bit of both areas.
The Project:
The project is a garden controlled by the Arduino, to be installed in my school. With it I intend to enter the Nova University competition. Since this is my first project, I have to tell you don’t know much about electronics, coding and botanics.
Project Details:
I am looking at planting eggplants in a plot of land of around 4m2.
To monitor plant growth and health we need 3 types of sensors (temperature, moisture and luminosity). All of this data is collected by the Arduino which exports it to a website using the ESP module. The Arduino also has the capability to turn the water on when it detects a low water value in the soil.
Because the luminosity sensor is a variable resistor, it will give us an input on the variations in solar light and so how much light are the plants getting. The humidity/moisture sensor is able to tell us changes in resistance, that is, the amount of water present in the soil. Basically, the more water in the soil, the less resistance.
However, some questions need to be answered:
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how much ground can the sensors cover (+/-)? I was thinking of 1 per 2m2.
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I can find easily the codes for the sensors on the internet, but I don’t know how to export the data collected to a website, and make graphs everyone can check, plus how can I set up the Arduino?
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A friend of mine wants to put a simple camera (VGA OV7670) to make a time lapse. The problem is how we can.
We can export the camera data in order to save it (where to?), and how can we stream the data through our website?
- As I want to make the project 100% energy free, I found 100 monocrystaline cells (52*26mm) for $9
which are enough for the power consumption (and later to expand the garden). But I will need a battery. For the night time, so how can I make it work, which battery do you guys recommend? I think that 12v are enough for the whole thing.
Since i have a short time, i need to order the pieces as fast as i can.
the pieces i think i will need:
For the photocell i found the GL5528 and the VT43N1, which is better?
Beadboard + jumpers : http://www.ebay.com/itm/830-Tie-Points-Solderless-PCB-Breadboard-MB102-65Pcs-Jumper-cable-wires-Arduino-/131532407999?hash=item1e9ff144bf:g:UYYAAOSwv0tVdoe1
LM35 : 5pcs Lm35dz Lm35 To-92 NSC Temperature Sensor IC for sale online | eBay
For the moisture sensor, i know i will face a big problem, the eletrolysis. In order to counter that problem i can use gold plated probes, but they will suffer eletrolysis too. But i found this 2 capacitive sensors :
The battery i don't know anything about them, can i use a little LiPo?
They also give better values that the normal sensors, but what about eletrolysis?
If you know better sensors please tell me.
This is my project. I hope I have given you a clear enough idea on how it works, and perhaps how I can answer the questions I need to address.
Thank you for listening to the presentation.
This text was written with the help of my english teacher.