Hello I am a total newb though completely enthralled from when I saw small scale automated watering systems online today. I am a farmer and grow trees in fabric pots for sale. One of the main issues is having them watered to the ideal soil moisture. I am thinking if I put a probe about six inches from the bottom of my 50 gallon pots I could have an led turn on to indicate that plant needs water which would save a lot of bending down to feel the bottom of the pots. To much water and the plants can die and running a farm on a well it would otherwise be wasteful. I would love to incorporate all the bells and whistles eventually though imagine there would be a cost associated that may scare me. Can anyone tell me if this is possible and if so what the best way to approach large scale connectivity would be for a half acre of plants in rows please?
Also what would some thing like this cost?
There is always the option of multiple systems run on solar panels to limit wiring. So perhaps I should be asking how many moisture sensors can I run per system?
What experience do you have with the Arduino platform?
What is your experience in electronics?
how many moisture sensors can I run per system?
What system, what moisture sensors?
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Not that great, I would like hire some one so I dont screw it up. I have a genius level iq though my experience is minimal.
No geniuses here, you will have to lower yourself to our level.
Ask the moderator to move this to 'Gigs and Collaborations' .
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If it is feasible and some thing that will be profitable, I will learn what I need to in order to bring what I need into spec. Any idea costs of such a project?
My cousin has a doctorate in electronics and I am sure he could help with the details though he is rather busy so I figure I would ask the experts here first. Is this possible and if so what would the cost be of an outdoor system. Can I cluster these things together? Any advice would be great.
My advice would be to build a system to water one tomato plant or one house plant. Figure out about microcontrollers, valves, controlling power, detecting soil moisture, etc. Then reassess and see what you want to do.
Big time dreaming fanciful world stuff would be a remote read moisture sensor cheap enough to be disposable, one embedded in each pot. Each pot identified and read remotely, located at a fixed grid location. Position aware robot dispatched to water grid points as needed based on sensor readings.
Like I say, start with one plant.
I have, on and off, been working on just such a system. There are a number of issues - especially when you consider the sort of size system you're looking at. Nothing is insurmountable of course... and if cash is (virtually) no object, then it can definitely be done. Whether an Arduino is the best way for such a big setup is more debatable.
Anyway, consider that for a fully automated watering system you will require, for each tree, one electric valve and one soil sensor (plus relevant piping and wiring back to the control unit). I'd recommend you get a watering ring as well (which can be as simple as a T-piece in the relevant pipe size, and a ring of pipe with holes in it), to ensure the water gets to the tree all the time. Valves aren't cheap, although if you bought 1000 in one go you'd get a great bulk discount.
Next is your control unit. This has to measure each pot, determine whether it needs water or not, and if it does, open the valve for the correct period of time to provide the correct amount of water. To do this it needs to know the approximate size of the tree: This can be automated, if it knows the age of the tree and roughly how fast it grows, if not, you will need some way of telling it. With 1000 trees... I'd suggest an automatic system based on growth rates. However, the Arduino isn't realistically going to be able to handle that, along with controlling all those valves and sensors, so I'd probably go for a Raspberry Pi (keeping it cheap) or a laptop or similar with a suitable tracking database/control program; this would send instructions down to the arduino(s). You're also going to need a fair amount of circuitry to handle all those sensors and valves - obviously, lots of multiplexing - but then, that's good for the moisture sensors, which don't like to be active all the time (they rot, effectively).
Long story short: It's certainly achievable. It'd be a fair amount of work to set up, and cost wise you're looking at £thousands, but less than £10K I'd wager, in hardware alone. Software might add another £5-10k to that price if you have to have it developed commercially. It also needs to be modular, because you will have valve failures and sensor failures over time. Interesting project though. Are you UK based? I might be interested in doing some of this stuff...
I am in the United States and I am a cannabis farmer. Drip rings are great for even watering. I found some units that support 48 zones. http://www.agri-mon.com/what-will-agri-mon-products-do-for-my-grow.html is a company in California who has gps sensors and automated watering from anywhere in the world. That company says they can do any size setup though I hope to find out more later today when they open. I have been in Central America the last few months and a system would have paid for itself this year in the loses I obtained having people run the farm for me. Not that they were not smart just not all together motivated and my instructions seems more of suggestions to them. In any case 20k would be doable for sure. As for the watering timing based on tree size I was thinking of some thing a bit simpler. I would place the water sensor 6 inches from the bottom of the pots ( as its best to keep the feet dry ) and if it dried out (hopefully the water sensor is adjustable and I do not use fertilizer so the ion content would not flux throwing off the calibration) the water would come on for a certain amount of time and trigger a delay of maybe 20 minutes. If the sensor was wet after 20 minutes, all good, if not then then a bit closer to the goal on the next go around. If you have a good plan I can fly you out to set it up though I hope you dont mind large dogs in the range of 165 pounds. If not my only advice is dont play rough with them even in a friendly manner. What they consider play could seriously hurt a person though are gentle if not excited. If you pet them they will think that is the only purpose of your hand as well and are a bit abusive for love.
I meant wifi sensors not gps, sorry. Instead of multiple pumps I would maybe pressurize the system and have smaller irrigation lines off of a main line that circled back to my tank (16000 gallon pool) via pressure overflow valves. The would just need smaller open close valves for the individual plants. Watering at night is not needed so the main pump can rest then. Electricity over long distances can be a issue regarding strength though I imagine resistors can be put in to regulate current to the units.
This would save a lot of plumbing and valving. I imagine you'd still want the moisture sensors though.
However cool that is this for outdoor and the ground is not exactly what I would call level. Even if it was one major issue is that watering is best done in the morning however in the mornings the grass is covered with dew making things really slippy. I have a large pickup that has trouble coming up the hill on wet grass. The other thing is this thing does not hold 3000 gallons of water. At 7 pounds a piece per gallon thats 21000 lbs. Im not sure my pickup could hold that much water. Aside from this that robot would take about 40 hours to get around the field if it did not have to fill up with water. Unfortunately I need the watering done in under 2 hours.
Here are some of the high quality sensors https://farmsolutions.com/works-with/sensors/
Take a look at vinduino. It's a company started by a guy running a small vineyard in CA. He developed a system to help him save on irrigation water and it looks like he's now trying to sell his solution to others.