❄️ Day 10 of #WinterHardwareWonderland ❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Wahoo! My smart garden project is finished now. The mechanics work, the electronic does what it should do, and the code also performs. This project helped me a lot at advancing my electronical skills and I’m the whole Hack Club Team indescribably thankful for giving us all this great opportunity. This event has produced so many good devices that I'm really inspired by. I'm really proud to be a part of this wonderful community.
Cheers!
❄️ Day 9 of #WinterHardwareWonderland ❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Second day and last day of programming, at least for now. I put all the functions I made yesterday into a state-machine and everything seems to work just perfectly. The code is running on the Arduino and all sensors and actuators work as they should.
❄️ Day 8 of #WinterHardwareWonderland ❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I started programming my smart garden. I have an Arduino Uno as microcontroller, so I’m programming in Arduino C. I started by including all the libraries, defining all the variables, and writing all the functions I need for my code. Tomorrow I’m going to code the main file with its state machine.
❄️ Day 7 of #WinterHardwareWonderland ❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I wired all my sensors, actuators, and the Arduino. This meant a hell of crimping, but now all components are connected properly with one another. After that I tested everything and thankfully all components are still working. Tomorrow I can start with the programming tasks.
❄️ Day 6 of #WinterHardwareWonderland ❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I implemented the water tank into the plant pot and laid the water hoses. I also prepared the moisture sensors. Therefore, all sensors and actuators are in their rights spot, and I can start with the wiring tomorrow.
❄️ Day 5 of #WinterHardwareWonderland❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I put the dividers, which I made yesterday, into the plant pot. Additionally I prepared the main water tank. I installed the ultrasonic sensor and the water pump.
❄️ Day 4 of #WinterHardwareWonderland❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I started with the mechanical tasks. But before I show you the specific mechanical tasks done, I want to present you the general mechanical layout of my smart garden.
The plant pot is divided in three key zones:
1. Soil zone (about 2/3 of the length of the pot and ¾ of the height of the pot); includes soil, moisture sensors and water hose with holes for water distribution.
2. Sink zone (2/3 length and ¼ height, directly under the soil zone); This zone is separated from the soil zone by a metal sheet with holes. The water of the soil zone can drain through the holes and accumulate in the sink zone. An ultrasonic sensor checks the water level and if it‘s high enough, a small water pump, pumps the accumulated water into the main water tank.
3. Hardware zone (1/3 length and full height); contains the whole hardware and the water tank. The water level is controlled by an ultrasonic distance sensor; if the level is too low, no water will be pumped by the pump (to protect the pump) and a warning arises on the screen. If the moisture sensors detects a too low moisture level, the pump pumps water from the tank into the soil. The Arduino Uno controls all these tasks.
Today I prepared the aluminum sheets which will separate the three different zones from one another. Therefore, I had to cut aluminum sheets and drill holes into them. Additionally, I 3d printed the housings for the ultrasonic sensor and the arduino.
❄️ Day 3 of #WinterHardwareWonderland❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I tested all my hardware components for proper working.
Components tested:
• Arduino Uno
• Ultrasonic distance sensors
• Soil moisture sensors
• Relays
• Water pumps
• Plant light
Thankfully, all my components are working properly, therefore I can start with the mechanical tasks tomorrow.
❄️ Day 2 of #WinterHardwareWonderland❄️
For my #hardware-party project, I’m building an improved version of a smart garden. 🪴
Today I completed the planning phase of my project. While I constructed the mechanical parts of my assembly yesterday, today I planned the electrical wiring and the general functions of my code program.
Therefore, I drew a circuit diagram as well as a flow chart.
I got to know my project better and fixed any problems I noticed while constructing. Now I'm ready to implement my project mechanically and electrically.
❄️ Day 1 of #WinterHardwareWonderland ❄️
#hardware-party
Before I start telling you about the progress I’ve made so far, I want to start off by presenting you my project: “Autonomous Plant Farm”
Well, that’s my fancy name for an improved smart garden. Most smart gardens available on the market aren’t as smart as they present themselves. The water supply is often implemented by permanently setting the roots under water and the lights are controlled by time.
I want to have a smarter smart garden and control all those functions via sensors. In summary:
• Water supply is controlled by soil moisture sensors
• Light is controlled by light sensors and time
• Water levels are being checked by ultrasonic distance sensors
• Information for the users are being displayed on an LCD panel
Here’s the whole proposal on GitHub: github.com/hackclub/winter/blob/main/smwwims.mdNow to the work I’ve done today:
The basic prerequisite for a project to run smoothly, efficiently and effectively is planning. In order to ensure that all components are fitting properly in terms of mechanics, CAD modelling is enormously helpful. Therefore, I constructed, drew and rendered all my parts in SolidWorks. I had to change some things and found some rooms for improvement, but generally the CAD models confirmed my initial expectations of the project.
Here you can see my CAD models:
Oh, and I had some spare time, so I went skiing. Guess that’s also a Winter Wonderland.
