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Automated watering for garden.

Former Member

I have always been busy with school and kids and sometimes forget to water my garden. I wanted to build a system utilizing an arduino or raspberry pi and some water sensors to signal for the drip system to turn on when the soil is too dry. I think this should be easy, but am unsure how the microcontroller could communicate with a water valve. Any ideas?

  • It would not be difficult at all to build something like this. I've been working on a prototype of an automated garden myself to proove out a few concepts. My main goal is to have something that can grow without any sunlight. Instead using red and blue LEDs and a system to control heat and humidity. I want to see if I can create a year-round growing season here in Wisconsin. I am also hoping to grow a few vegitibles that do not like our cool/cold climate. It is a great use for many of the sensors that are out there.

     

    To control the water flow you have a couple of options. It depends on the scale of how much watering you have to do. If it is small you could use a small pump, like an aquarium pump, to directly pump the water to the plants. Another option is to use a pump from a yard pond fountain.

     

    If you just want to hook up a sprinker system to normal hose like most homes have then you could use a solanoid valve to control the water flow. There is a few websites that offer such things. I have another project where I want to control the water level in a series of rain-barrels so I have a valves, pumps and flow monitors that I am planning to wire together to create a solar powered system to keep the water from building up in my yard and move it away into rain barrels.

     

    How big of an area are you trying to water? That is probably the first question the answer. After that it is a matter of chosing if you should use a pump or a solonoid valve. There are a variety of ways to control pumps and solenoids. We've shown many in various episodes but I would be happy to review your options when I know more about what your trying to water.

  • This could be a good idea, to possible explore in the summer.

     

    Use off the shelf parts for everything, only thing custom would be a humidity sensor and some sort of controller.