How to amplify a signal being received from a plant

[kadenmosleh]

I'm doing a school project with an arduino uno and the main purpose of it is to be able to interpet basically how a plant feels I guess? It's kind of hard to understand but a plant sends different electrical signals within and you can read them to gauge something like the nutrient levels of the soil, etc. And in the paper I was reading where they did this they used some kind of bioelectrical amplifier and I have no idea how to make something like that or how to interpret the design they made due to it being completely outside of my skill level. I was wondering if any of you had any ideas on how I could do this?

[Paul_KD7HB]

@kadenmosleh

I was wondering if any of you had any ideas on how I could do this?

Two things to note in the drawing. 1 is ALL the amplifiers and ALL the wiring is shielded. They don't show the battery power supply, BUT that will also have to be shielded. All the shielding is also connected to a low impedance ground.
2 is the amplifiers do not have ANY coupling capacitors. Meaning the amplifiers are extremely high gain. Read the data sheets for the op amps used in the circuit. They may be VERY old and hard to find. Again the data sheets will have the publication dates on them
3 try to find documentation on a similar project that used currently manufactured components.
Finally, what do you think an Arduino will do with this project?

[johnerrington]

You need to understand a bit about amplification - so read this first

Using Operational Amplifiers in your Arduino project

Introduction: Using Op Amps to measure signals with an Arduino Who is this tutorial for? Well, not "newbies" or anyone happy to just connect together modules. If you have a LITTLE knowledge of electronics, have perhaps used a transistor or a FET to extend the output capability of an arduino, and want to learn about ways to handle different Analog inputs, than read on! What will you need? All you will need to carry out a few simple experiments is a breadboard, a couple of (very inexpensive) …

However as its a school project you could try using one of these to amplify the signal from the plant.

Microvolt/Millivolt Signal Amplifier Module - Small Instrumentation | eBay

[jim-p]

@kadenmosleh

And in the paper I was reading

Could you please post the paper here.

[TomGeorge]

Hi, @kadenmosleh
Welcome to the forum.

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A link to the paper you are quoting would be great.

This might help too;

Using Arduino to read bipolar signal (from plants)

In fact do a Google;

arduino reading plants bioelectrical

Thanks.. Tom..

[DrDiettrich]

@kadenmosleh

some kind of bioelectrical amplifier

The name is instrumentation amplifier.

[kadenmosleh]

Monitoring-system-for-electrical-signals-in-plants-in-the-greenhouse-and-its-applications-1.pdf

[kadenmosleh]

I'm simply trying to read the data and output it for something that the user could understand I just want the arduino to read the signals and translate it into either a kind of sound effect depending on what the plant might need or show a symbol on a screen.

[kadenmosleh]

Thank you, I think this is more on my level and easier compared to trying to understand the circut and then build it within my limited time frame.

[Paul_KD7HB]

@kadenmosleh

the signals

The "signals" are VERY slowly changing, VERY small DC voltages.

[jim-p]

The amplifier that @johnerrington sugessted may work but what about the electrodes?
They experimented with both platinum and calomel. What do you plan on using?