Hi, 
I'm trying to build my first sistem with arduino and it's a watering system with the following components:
Solar panel + battery:
Water pump:
http://dx.com/p/szf280-pvc-mini-water-pump-motor-beige-205304
Soil Humidity sensor:
I'd like the arduino to make the connection between all the components and time when the pump will function based on the info of the soil sensor. If possible, but not too expensive :P, I would like to control the thing via bluetooth or via wifi.
Thank you people 8)
I'm sorry, but did you have a question/issue?
Sounds like a fun project.
You might have power issues. The solar panel doesn't put out very much power. Even if you charge the battery up all the way, it's barely enough to supply an arduino Uno for 24 hours. If you put a bluetooth or wifi shield on it, it probably wouldn't last the night. And then you have to power the pump. At that charging rate you will have to have sun for 3-12 minutes in order to run the pump for 1 minute. I hope your garden isn't very big.
But that might be OK. It could come back on in the morning. Or, you could get a bigger solar panel/battery. Or you could build a stripped down Arduino with a low quiescent power supply and put it to sleep most of the time to conserve power.
TanHadron:
Sounds like a fun project.You might have power issues. The solar panel doesn't put out very much power. Even if you charge the battery up all the way, it's barely enough to supply an arduino Uno for 24 hours. If you put a bluetooth or wifi shield on it, it probably wouldn't last the night. And then you have to power the pump. At that charging rate you will have to have sun for 3-12 minutes in order to run the pump for 1 minute. I hope your garden isn't very big.
But that might be OK. It could come back on in the morning. Or, you could get a bigger solar panel/battery. Or you could build a stripped down Arduino with a low quiescent power supply and put it to sleep most of the time to conserve power.
Thank you for the quick reply. Then how do normally power the arduino for continual use?
The "garden" I mentioned is actually something the width of the attachment.
I realise now that I didn't went into much detail but this project is to water it over 1,2 months while I'm away.
I thought that the solar panel would be enough as it is summer now. It'll get about 8 hours of clear sunlight.
Again, I'm new to this but would two of the solar panels be enough?
There are a lot of possibilities. If you want to run the numbers and do the calculations, this page by Nick Gammon has a lot of useful information. There are ways to get the Arduino to use less power. One of the big issues is the voltage regulator on the board. If you need to use the on-board voltage regulator, reducing power usage by the Arduino is going to be limited.
If you have a wall wart power adapter and can plug it into the mains power, that would be easiest. Plug it in and let it go.
Second easiest would be to use battery power. Exactly how much power you need depends on whether you decide to do the shields, whether you decide to try to program it to go to sleep most of the time, how much the pump ends up using, and how long and how often the pump has to run. If you have access to a nice deep cycle marine battery, your troubles are over. 6V Lantern batteries would work. You might need two or three, but that might be an option.
Maybe two of the solar chargers would work. Maybe one would work. The specs were a little bit confusing. It says the solar charger puts out 0.4w. At 6V, that's 66mA. But it also says solar charging time is 3 hours, and capacity is 1500 mAH. 3 * 66 is not 1500. You could buy one and measure it to see how much it puts out. If the 0.4w is accurate, it will be hard to make it work that way, since the Arduino takes about 55mA to run through the voltage regulator. If the 3 hour charge time is accurate, that means it's putting out 500 mA, and that is doable.
Do you have any idea how often or how long you expect the pump to run? You could run the pump off the solar charger and the Arduino off batteries. If you get a version of Arduino that doesn't require you to use the voltage regulator, you can put it to sleep between checks, and easily run for months off 3 or 4 AA batteries.
TanHadron:
If you have a wall wart power adapter and can plug it into the mains power, that would be easiest. Plug it in and let it go.
I was sort of thinking the same thing, only get a lamp timer and set it so the system only switches on once or twice a day long enough to take a reading and supply water if it needs to.
The more difficult part for me would be coming up with a reliable way to store 1.2 months worth of fresh water for the pump to draw from. Have you done measurements to know how much your plants take in an average week?
TanHadron:
Second easiest would be to use battery power. Exactly how much power you need depends on whether you decide to do the shields, whether you decide to try to program it to go to sleep most of the time, how much the pump ends up using, and how long and how often the pump has to run. If you have access to a nice deep cycle marine battery, your troubles are over. 6V Lantern batteries would work.
I think this is interesting topic. I have here larger demand, summer vacation home where no mains power, just solar. Water well is quite deep, around 7-8 meters. I have used this 12v pump, delivery head 10 m, 2.5 - 3.8 A, Buy Barwig Typ 01 0111 Low voltage submersible pump 1080 l/h 10 m | Conrad Electronic
which can pump water without problems around 15 liter / minute if used directly with 100w solar panel and full sun light
But if no sunlight, then problems without battery... How big battery I should have so that could pump for example 100 liter water at once? I have tried to find suitable 12v deep cycle batteries
I have also ideas to use
Of course could pump water only when sun is shining and use floating switches
http://www.buyincoins.com/item/5063.html
to control pump off and on. Maybe that's better if purpose is just to water plants. Pump can deliver water to storage tank which is located higher than plants, and pump just when sun is shining. Later next days moisture sensor can open water pipe to deliver water from tank to plants, maybe use also this (seen cheaper than DX),
http://dx.com/p/fs03-water-flow-sensor-black-hot-water-type-217267
tbradt:
The more difficult part for me would be coming up with a reliable way to store 1.2 months worth of fresh water for the pump to draw from. Have you done measurements to know how much your plants take in an average week?
.. if storing water for drinking, not just plants we could use product like this?
http://www.katadyn.com/en/katadyn-products/products/katadynshopconnect/katadyn-micropur-micropur-classic/micropur-classic-mc-10000p/
Simple and safe. Ideal for vacations and travelling. Micropur Classic inactivates bacteria in water tanks and containers. It is ecologically friendly and keeps water free from germs, algae and odours. Silver ions preserve water for up to 6 months. Technology: Silver ions
But not sure how plants will like it, maybe not good?
finnduino:
.. if storing water for drinking, not just plants we could use product like this?
Katadyn Group
Simple and safe. Ideal for vacations and travelling. Micropur Classic inactivates bacteria in water tanks and containers. It is ecologically friendly and keeps water free from germs, algae and odours. Silver ions preserve water for up to 6 months. Technology: Silver ionsBut not sure how plants will like it, maybe not good?
From inchem.org —
In general, accumulation of silver by terrestrial plants from soils is low, even if the soil is amended with silver-containing sewage sludge or the plants are grown on tailings from silver mines, where silver accumulates mainly in the root systems (Ratte, 1999). Germination was the most sensitive stage for plants grown in solutions containing various concentrations of silver nitrate. Adverse effects on germination were expected at concentrations greater than 0.75 mg silver/litre (as silver nitrate) for lettuce and 7.5 mg/litre for ryegrass (Lolium perenne) and other plants tested (Ratte, 1999). Smith & Carson (1977) reported that sprays containing 9.8 mg dissolved silver/litre kill corn (Zea mays), and sprays containing 100–1000 mg dissolved silver/litre kill tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and bean (Phaseolus spp.) plants. Seeds of corn, lettuce (Lactuca sativa), oat (Avena sativa), turnip (Brassica rapa), soybean (Glycine max), spinach (Spinacia oleracea), and Chinese cabbage (Brassica campestris) were planted in soils amended with silver sulfide and sewage sludge to contain as much as 106 mg silver/kg dry weight soil (Hirsch et al., 1993; Hirsch, 1998a). All plants germinated, and most grew normally at the highest soil concentration of silver tested. Yields of lettuce, oat, turnip, and soybean were higher on soils amended with silver-laden, waste activated sludge than on control soils, but growth of Chinese cabbage and lettuce was adversely affected at 14 mg silver/kg dry weight soil and higher. Silver concentrations in edible portions from all plants at all soil levels of silver tested, except lettuce, were less than 80 µg/kg dry weight, suggesting that the availability of sludge-borne silver sulfide to most agricultural crops is negligible. Lettuce grown in soil containing 5 and 120 mg silver/kg dry weight had about 0.5 and as much as 2.7 mg silver/kg dry weight leaves, respectively, compared with 0.03 mg/kg dry weight in controls (Hirsch et al., 1993; Hirsch, 1998a).
Is BAD for aquatic plants, however.
Why not hook solenoid into water line through something similar to the taps used for ice-makers, etc?
And this may be overkill for window box-sized "garden", but....
Also, google "Arduino Aquaponics". It's surprisingly, overwhelmingly, popular. Whole communities, online systems for checking & programming sensors, ph levels, watering....as elaborate (or simple) as you'd like, it's out there!
I don't know how far you've come on your automated watering system, but I thought that I could contribute with my first attempt to build one.
Video of the system
With the arduino ethernet shield I'm able to water my plants while on vacation.
And here are some pictures of the build process and of what I used. If your are interested.
http://e.asaxen.com/index.php/projects/item/36-wateringsystem
I'm an Aquaponics and Arduino newbie, but I have about 50 years experience in computers and am going to the Aquaponics Association Conference in Tucson Arizona (USA) 20-22 Sept. Anyone else in this huge Forum attending?
Gene
PS: I didn't see a "New Thread" click
Hello,
if you want to make a solar powered system you can look at my blog. I'm writing a series of posts about how to power your arduino with solar power. if interested look here:
Personally I think that the solar USB power supply you mentioned could be ok when you decrease power consumption of your arduino as much as possible (=use the controller without the arduino board, see Nick Gammon's article) and you find a 5V water pump.
Elektrix