Green house CNC irrigation system

Hello everyone, I already built a smart greenhouse and I wanted to improve it because i will be having multiple plants in the project and each plant will has a soil sensor, so the best way is to design a system for moving the water hose on top of each plant. The system will be done by receiving data from soil sensors, so the system will be controlled using stepper motor and the stepper motor will work by moving the water hose to the right spot and spray water.
The idea is similar to CNC machine. In this project I will be using two stepper motors and limit switches. i'm just confused about what type of motor will function probably in this project also what shield or driver do I need. I was thinking of using CNC arduino shield but I don't know weather the grbl will function will the soil sensor or not because i have never use grbl before.

need help..

start by calculating how strong motors you need (what is the size of garden, weight they carry), then go after the rest

Start with the mechanical design. how are you going to move the hose, filled with water ?

I do not know how many plants you have, but the project sounds like fun.

I thought about something similar, but more like 6 spray nozzles that would cover the whole row.
since one plant would not be dry sitting next to a plant that has too much water, one would have one motor for the long run, then just turn on any of the solenoids to allow water to run from the sprinklers.

so how can i run two motor in same time that will be connected to the sensors in the soil and what driver do i need to work with ?
i'm thinking about using CNC shield for this project but i'm wondering if can use the grbl with sensors in the soil.

The CNC shield sounds good, if it can run the size of motor you need.

You don't need GRBL. But you may steal a few functions from it.

do you really want to move a hose, with left over water in it, around, or would you consider pre-laid hoses and just control valves at their source? simpler, less cost, cheaper.

I am inclined towards @123Splat's view - unless the hoses are just very thin plastic tubes - maybe 6mm outside diameter or less.

Even then I have my doubts about moving the hoses around as the distances are likely to be quite large and will require a very substantial mechanical system - even if the weights to be carried are low.

And you would have to ensure that the hoses do not damage the plants.

A drawing of what you have in mind with approximate dimensions would be a big help.

...R

Local green house has a 150 foot long trolly and is 30 feet wide all inside of the green house.
you program in the gallons and it calculates the speed.
starts at one end and runs at the speed so that it will deposit the correct amount of water over the whole width and length.

with such a rig, and trying to water only 1 plant at a time, it would never finish before some other plant needed water.

Also, no steppers are required. as you get larger, it makes more sense to use encoders on the rollers/shafts, etc than to use large stepper.

once you get out of the toy steppers we use and into ones that use 70 volts and 7 amps, or 120 volts and 10 amps, the motor and driver costs go up, but the power supply gets huge !

The idea will be the same as this one in the link below, but in his project he is using INTEL EDISON BOARD and arduino.
My project will be just controlled by an arduino

dave-in-nj:
Local green house has a 150 foot long trolly and is 30 feet wide all inside of the green house.
you program in the gallons and it calculates the speed.
starts at one end and runs at the speed so that it will deposit the correct amount of water over the whole width and length.

with such a rig, and trying to water only 1 plant at a time, it would never finish before some other plant needed water.

Also, no steppers are required. as you get larger, it makes more sense to use encoders on the rollers/shafts, etc than to use large stepper.

once you get out of the toy steppers we use and into ones that use 70 volts and 7 amps, or 120 volts and 10 amps, the motor and driver costs go up, but the power supply gets huge !

it is just indoor green house not that huge and the project will be model for big project for my college.
in the project there will 6 pots of plants each plant has it's own sensor and the water hose will be delivered to the plant that needs water and pump will start spraying water on it.

mohamedadawi:
it is just indoor green house not that huge and the project will be model for big project for my college.

As I understand it, @dave-in-nj is saying that this is a project that does not scale up.

...R

I chose to work with Nema 17 bipolar which will be suitable for my project and i will be using two of them one for x and the other for y axis. I want them to run in the same time and to be limited by limited switch and i'm confused about what driver do i need to work with that will be easy to program.

You need to post a link to the datasheet for your motors if we are to advise about a suitable driver.

From a programing point of view most drivers use the same step and direction inputs.

These links may help
Stepper Motor Basics
Simple Stepper Code

also look up the AccelStepper library

...R