Small Scale $10 automated watering

[exploziv]

The software for a watering system based on microcontrolers needs to be waymore complex and with lots of failsafes. Also, each sensoe needs to be calibrated to the grow media you're using. It's nowhere near that simple.

 

[goingrey]

The software for a watering system based on microcontrolers needs to be waymore complex and with lots of failsafes. Also, each sensoe needs to be calibrated to the grow media you're using. It's nowhere near that simple.

Sure, and the sky is the limit. You can time the pumps at different rates so that they play Frère Jacques with the waterflow for all I care. Just trying to explain the "software" aspect of these Arduino devices to @Ca++ and how it works.

 

[goingrey]

For those that computer geekery is not interesting, or just don't have the time and energy, there are actual commercial products..



Looks pretty neat. Budget will need leveling up a little bit.

 

[Ca++]

There is no "software" in the way you are thinking of it.

It is an Arduino board. It runs by itself. On the PC you just program the code and send it over.

Here is a snippet from their example code:

  if (moisture3_value < 30)
  {
    digitalWrite(relay3, HIGH);
    relay3_state_flag = 1;
    delay(50);
    if (pump_state_flag == 0)
    {
      digitalWrite(pump, HIGH);
      pump_state_flag = 1;
      delay(50);
    }
  }

In this example, if the moisture reading on sensor 3 goes below 30, it sets the pump on. Later there is another test where once it goes over 55 the pump is turned off.

If you want it to dry more between waterings, you change the 30 to a lower number in the code, and then send the new code over..

The software the code is edited with and sent from (Arduino IDE 2.0) looks like this:

If this is "too much", then these Arduino based solutions are not for you.

Oh I know they are not for me. That is why I'm suggesting he has a look at the 'program' they have on their wiki. One might think this is consumer grade kit, until actually seeing things like your post here.

There is no reason your PC couldn't make this a lot easier. So seeing what they have done, was indeed very important. It's over double the price it should be, so really should be the finished article. It's not though. It's still green screen, when things have been colour for 30 years. That is why I have no interest in it. If you have been following, and your capable, you know I can do this with a handful of boards. Why complicate things from needing a screwdriver, to needing a PC. It all gets a bit rubbish, with the regular adjustments made ever so more involved, to the point where people using them, stop using them.

You may feel I don't understand them, but I suggest I know them too well.
You may disagree, but I feel the best pH meter to calibrate, is the one that uses a screwdriver. Pressing buttons is alright, if it's logical. Fetching your green screen? It's making automation a job.

I think when this works well, the youtube video's will stop telling us how bad they are, and forum users will stick with their purchase. Then someone will write the software that makes it consumer gear. This is not happening yet.

 

[goingrey]

Oh I know they are not for me. That is why I'm suggesting he has a look at the 'program' they have on their wiki. One might think this is consumer grade kit, until actually seeing things like your post here.

There is no reason your PC couldn't make this a lot easier. So seeing what they have done, was indeed very important. It's over double the price it should be, so really should be the finished article. It's not though. It's still green screen, when things have been colour for 30 years. That is why I have no interest in it. If you have been following, and your capable, you know I can do this with a handful of boards. Why complicate things from needing a screwdriver, to needing a PC. It all gets a bit rubbish, with the regular adjustments made ever so more involved, to the point where people using them, stop using them.

You may feel I don't understand them, but I suggest I know them too well.
You may disagree, but I feel the best pH meter to calibrate, is the one that uses a screwdriver. Pressing buttons is alright, if it's logical. Fetching your green screen? It's making automation a job.

I think when this works well, the youtube video's will stop telling us how bad they are, and forum users will stick with their purchase. Then someone will write the software that makes it consumer gear. This is not happening yet.

Horses for courses. But it's most certainly not a consumer product. For hobbyist tinkering, professional prototyping, educational use...

 

[Ca++]

Horses for courses. But it's most certainly not a consumer product. For hobbyist tinkering, professional prototyping, educational use...

They are selling it with the idea it's a watering system. It's unfinished. I have said I know nothing about them, but I got 3 lines into the code you posted, and it's like opening a window with a brick.

 

[goingrey]

They are selling it with the idea it's a watering system. It's unfinished. I have said I know nothing about them, but I got 3 lines into the code you posted, and it's like opening a window with a brick.

Good point, easy to get that impression when just clicking the link say here, so worth pointing out. But really this is a shop that sells electronics like this exclusively. Their customers know what they are getting. Selling it "finished" would be like selling model airplane kits pre-assembled.

 

[Ca++]

Might not be immediately helpful here, but I have found a cheap working solution, for driving the stepper motor driver.

It's a 1hz - 150khz signal generator. Used for prototyping, rather than a specific application. It's just £3. The duty cycle half is quite useless, but the frequency adjustment side is ideal. I have the driver set to 1600 pulses per revolution. One revolution is 2.8ml and it can do 50rpm-140ml per minute. The maths here boils down to 1000Hz = 105ml per minute. So this 1hz you see, is 0.1ml per minute. This gives the range to dose anything from concentrated acid slowly, through to feed at a liter every 7 minutes or so. Acid needs to go in slowly, so it has time to mix around and be seen by the dosing computer. Before too much is poured in.
Normally these motor drivers are run from computers. Making them rather specialist. I used to trick them with a fast cyclic timer, but it offered no precise metering adjustment. This now offers a calibrated digital display.
The pumps are about £25, and the driver £5 with the signal generator £3.
It seems like nothing, but if you have tackled this already, or seen the youtubes of other peoples attempts, you know this is the holy grail.
That tube is pharmed. The supplied tube was silicone, and not suited to some liquids we use. A meter is about a tenner. More than the electronics cost.