Have you ever wanted beautiful plants in your garden?
L’A.I.S, acronym for Arduino Irrigation System, can irrigate the plants in your home to a defined environmental condition, because you mustn’t irrigate them whenever you want.
When the environmental conditions are correct, and it's the correct hour, l’A.I.S will irrigate.
How We Made ItWe made it in two distinct parts: the “brain”, that control the system, and the irrigation part, that irrigate the plants.
The BrainThe brain was made with the school’s laser cutter and 6 mm plywood.
First, we thought about how we could make the tank for Arduino and the sensors. We decided to make it with a dovetail. After we drew it with AutoCAD Mechanical, we exported the file and we cut it.
We assembled it and we pasted with Vinavil, after that we made all the electric parts.
The irrigation part was made with a slab of laminated timber, cut with a copping saw.
First, we thought about the structure and we decided to screw the parts without any kind of glue. We increased the height of a part because the water needed to climb down from the tank to the plant’s vase.
We stick “the brain” on the structure and we tested it.
We used the temperature sensor because we want to restrict the ambient conditions that could damage the plant, like irrigation with elevated temperature.
If the temperature is over the limit that you chose, the system will not irrigate.
The DS3231 is a low-cost, highly accurate Real Time Clock which can maintain hours, minutes and seconds, as well as day, month and year information.
When the hours and the minutes are the same, you will choose when the system starts.
KeypadKeypad is used to change the system variable. If you press the “1” key, you change the hour that the system will start. If you press the “4” key, you change the minute that the system will start. If you press the “7” key, you change the limit temperature over which you mustn’t irrigate.
LCD MonitorThe LCD monitor allows you to know what system variable that you can change with the keypad.
In the first line, we will see the hour at which the irrigation starts (Sh) and the current hour (Ch). In the second line we will see the limit temperature (Tl), and the current temperature (Tm).
The potentiometer is used to change the visibility of the LCD display.
The solenoid valve is using to stop the water if it isn’t time to irrigate. We decided to use a solenoid valve because is easier than use a pump.
The solenoid valve is connected to the power supply and the relay, when it is time to irrigate, Arduino will change the state of the relay and in doing so the state of the solenoid valve.
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