Final year Project on Automated greenhouse

9 years ago

I'm busy with my automated greenhouse intended for a rural area with a budget of R2500. The electronics are pretty much sorted with an Arduino controlling a car 12V radiator fan as well as a Pump(I still need one though). A temperature sensor and moisture sensor senses the environment and serves as input to the Arduino.

I would like to know if the structure that I have build(see attached image) will work? I still need a tank, not sure how big, total amount of plants is 7 per pipe and I have 6 pipes, thus 42. According to research this leads to a 150litre tank, which is way to big for my portable rural area greenhouse.

I'm going to cover the structure in the image with 200micron plastic attached to 25mm PVC pipe with 2 zips on each side allowing the user to open the side panels when extreme heat occurs inside the greenhouse.

My concern is if the system will work when I attach the drainage pipes and connect my reservoir and pump...

Any feedback/comments on improving the system will be very welcome!

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Comments (4)

hydrocat
9 years ago
disclaimer: I am new at this stuff :)

It looks right to me.. but you don't have any water lines in yet and that will determine whether it will work for real. I tried similar approach at home (no arduinos though) and found that controlling the water flow was very hard. My problem was that the water pump pumped way too much water... so when you add the water lines add valves to all the entry points (in this case it could be 2 or 6 depending on how you do it). In my next setup (next spring) I will have valves everywhere.

What material did you use for the pipes?
SPKloppers
Original Author
9 years ago
I have spagetti tubes for the inlet of the water lines from the reservoir together with 6 valves for them, so this should control the water input flow.

I used underground 110mm PVC pipe, cheaper than the normal PVC pipes.

Thanks for the feedback!
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Cool idea! I've used Nanospark for my system building. It's got enough inputs to handle all the sensors you'll need. You're going to want temp, humidity, water level, photo sensor, soil moisture probe(s), and a couple flow or pressure type sensors to know that the pump (fans too if you put them in) are actually running as expected. On the output side (Nanospark has 10), you could use solenoids to release and gravity to push the water and nutrients down to the plants. Then pump reclaimed water from a collection tank, through a filter, back into the water tank. (Could you have the roof slop into the water tank so you collect rainwater, lessening how much you'd need to add to the tank through hose or bucket?) Now here's the cool part. If you wanted you could add GPS tracking. Oh, or how cool to get the weather report and have the system make adjustments accordingly! Here's the link to a blog post they did about a mini greenhouse (http://www.nanospark.com/greenhouse-sensor-system/) Here is a link that might be useful: Nanospark greenhouse
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@AndrewK I wish I could offer some significant help, Andrew. However you are way ahead of us on getting your head around what is needed. Thanks for uploading bigger images. I still find it hard to see your floor plan (not liking Houzz for image posting). Your quote does seem reasonable, based on a few low voltage quotes we received (our plans were less involved, but for many items we were quoted higher than you -- atlas that is typical in Canada). Have you looked over the thread called "Things that get forgotten". I believe it is back on page one of the building a new home forum. It has many important reminders to get in place before the walls are closed up (including some on wiring and a few on home automation). Let me know if you have found any other online sites helpful in your quest on seeking info on home automation. @amoopen1: Can you elaborate more on your advice. I am trying to learn what I can on pre-wiring for future needs. For example can you explain in more detail what you meant by: "I have learned from many different forums that you can't have enough Cat6 drops. My plan is to run 2-3 drops at each TV location in addition to the coax". AND "The easiest way to have full control with minimal switches is to panelize the high voltage for the lights". All: I am very interested in what others' have learned about lighting scene controls. We have planned some very nice, multi-layered lighting. I have read way too much on designing lighting, and know that those light scene controls would really allow us to maximize the use of all of our lighting to the best effect. Unfortunately, the world of lighting controls seems very complex and costly. Carol
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ajames54
9 years ago
Structurally it looks like it will work, it doesn't look far different than what I built for my back yard aquaponics set up. I can't see what sort of slope you have on the tubes or if it is adjustable but I found that I had to increase the slope on mine to keep the tubes from clogging from root growth.

If your math asks for a 150 liter tank and you think that is too big it should be an easy enough task to recode the arduino to run in two or even three cycles. Isolating the tubes in pairs and running each pair five minutes on and ten minutes off would allow you to cut your tank size down to 50 liters (though 60 would probably be wiser). You would have to add three flow control switches and would probably want to increase the monitoring of the levels in the nutrient tank but I don't think that would be a huge task or expense.

You mention that you are using "Underground" PVC.. how does it stand up to UV light?

As far as the Arduino goes there have been a few people making noises about building libraries to allow some of the over the counter sensors to measure pH and TDS (total dissolved solids). That will make automation a really viable option.
cole_robbie
9 years ago
You'll want to shade your reservoir from the sun, maybe stack concrete blocks around it. Buried in the ground is best, but you have to make a drain for the hole so that a heavy rain does not flood it and float out the reservoir container.

The north side is not going to get much sun. You can probably still grow lettuce or greens. If you grow tomatoes on the south side, you want a dwarf or determinate variety that does not get too big, or else the roots will clog your pipe.

Final year Project on Automated greenhouse

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hydrocat

SPKloppers
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Final year Project on Automated greenhouse

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hydrocat

SPKloppersOriginal Author

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