Solar accumulator to trigger irrigation events-No experience coding

Projects General Guidance
1

First post, Community college instructor, Horticulture, controlled environment agriculture actually, :slight_smile:

I have been watching this platform on some other sites and came to the conclusion that it might be just what I need, but I do not have any programing experience and little electrical experience. However we have a new computer instructor that has some, however, he's new and really busy.

I do have a desire to learn, however.

What we have is a greenhouse full of tomatoes growing hydroponically. The crop lasts 9-11 months with students tending them weekly, so the plants need to be healthy for a long time. They need to be watered 4-7 times a day, depending on the light level and heat accumulating in the greenhouse which influences their transpiration rate (water loss)/

I have tried a commercial solar accumulator for our propagation area and it works great, but the manufacturer is very unreliable and the last machine I bought didn't work and he does not seem interested in fixing it,

so, The basic outline is this:
solar accumular to track the amount of light coming into the greenhouse. Would like it showing W/M2.
After some user determined amount of light, it will trigger a 24V solenoid for irrigation, after a predetermined about of run time, the solenoid will be shut off and the solar units will start to accumulate again.

so the input is a solar cell….
and time of day

Output would be LED value showing W/M2 counter
and
signal to close circuit and then open circuit of 12V solenoid

adjustable variables:
set point for solar units accumulated - digital up down maybe
run time for irrigation event.
fixed irrigation times based on clock as well.

Let me know what you think, level of complexity, other examples that I might use as a guide.

thanks

peter

2

Take a look for garduino projects. There are a bunch of well documented ones around. They tend to make their irrigation decisions based on soil moisture measurements though - not too useful in a hydroponic environment. Still a place to look for hints on the irrigation control though.

Can any of your students assist with the coding? I'd guess that many of them have taken some programming classes.

3

I am in the Pine Barrens in New Jersey and with snow on the ground and no greenhouse, tomatoes are months away.
I typically plant seeds march 1st.

your project is not that complicated and could be done with commonly available parts. the Arduino definitely has the ability to handle what you need.

If you put together a log of your progress, I would love to follow.

4

If you use a small solar panel you will have a simple measure of W/m2. If I recall correctly the stated output of solar panels is based on solar radiation of 1kW/m2.

...R

5

thinking about the w/m2, it would seem that one would need a solar tracker.
a PV panel would output power based on orientation towards the sun. a fixed panel would gain and then loose as the sun approached zenith.

a solar tracker would face the sun all day. if it is light based, it would loose the position due to clouds.
if it is based on calculation of where the sun should be Ala cerebral meltdown, then it would not be effected by clouds.
the great part about cerebral meltdown is his Arduino software is open source.