Smart Garden

The first attempt was to use an air pump to create pressure in a plastic bottle which pushes the water out of it. I used an extra pump I had from a previous project. For ShotBot, it's very important to use an air pump and not a suction one to keep the soda carbonated and not spill soda everywhere. In this case, it was creating a syphon since the output is lower than the water level in the bottle, so the pump would turn off, but the water would keep flowing until the water level is underneath the water output. I finally replaced the air pump by a suction pump and it works perfectly now.

At first, I had a sensor, but nothing to control the humidity yet. The first readings were at 95% and my sister told me it should be at 85%. I tried to just open the lid a little bit, but it dropped the humidity down to 75%. I finally added a fan (very quiet!) and a simple on-off controller using a relay to fix the problem.

For the light, I got a full spectrum light bulb at Home Depot. It's made for that, so of couse it works well. It's turned on and off using a relay.

I started with the sensor on the left, but it didn't last long. I ordered the one on the right to replace it after reading a bunch of reviews online. I didn't have time to try it because the fly invasion happened before I got them.

Very happy with this sensor I got from an assorted sensors box. It's pretty much plug and play if you are using an Arduino.

This one is from the same box as the air sensor, plug and play as well.

I've created a website hosted locally and the Arduino controlling the Smart Garden sends the data to it automatically.

We can clearly see here when the fan is on and off.

The light on and off timing is hard coded, but it's still interesting to see how it varies.