IoTank-101

What does it do?

IoTank-101 uses affordable and highly available sensors and hardware to monitor light quality and other metrics for indoor agriculture in a handheld and Bluetooth package. By doing this one can optimize their production with less electricity and resources.

(Android app built with Kotlin-BluetoothLeGatt which was a by-product of this project, can be used as the base of any BLE app)

It does this by detecting particular wavelengths of light, as well as soil humidity and temperature.

These wavelengths are critical in photosynthesis,

UV light is also important for other chemical reactions in various plants.

Detecting these subtleties is almost impossible with the naked eye. More expensive quantum sensors offer better resolution, but for a high price point. The ioTank101 provides similar functionality in a more affordable and open package. (Not to mention an open platform to hook up a quantum sensor if you choose.)

Things left to do

Find an affordable deep red (600-700nm) sensor, upgrade UV sensor to Vishay VEML6075 (they are on back-order), get Apogee quantum sensor to calibrate (e-mailed them for this, Arduino dev is possible with their 0-5v model they cost $150-$299). Calibrate to aprox PAR/PUR values (requires comparison to better sensor). Build a BLE 'master' which can forward the data to the cloud (didn't want to favor a service it is up to the user). field test and re-iterate after end-user feedback.

Produced by John Spounias of Object Syndicate LLC for the 2017 Co-Making the Future Competition.