Hello everyone,
I just signed up after i found out (yesterday) about the Arduino (i'm late i know, i'm italian too so shame x 2).
I have an idea about how i would implement the arduino and it's something i really would like to achieve and share with everyone (because the alternatives on the market are very expensive).
Its technical name would be fertigation system, which is currently made by Netafim (netajet, fertikit, ...) and Hanna (hi 5000, hi 10000, ...) and it's a device that will mix a very precise amout of fertilizer into a water line, which then gets delivered to your agricultural field and can be programmed to handle different fields (tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, ...).
These devices cost around 30.000 dollars and can save a lot of water and money, but most people cannot afford to have something like this. So i would like to make one that works on Arduino and is cheap to make, then make a very detailed tutorial so anyone could build it without necessarely know about programming. Hopefully we could help a lot of people in places where money isn't easy to have and/or where water isn't easy to find.
I am going to make a drawing of it so it's easier to understand, but let's get to the electronic side of it (which is the part i don't understand). :-)
The device will have five venturi injectors, each one with a solenoid operated valve attached to it. the injectors will be connected to the main water line with a bypass and back-flow prevention; on the other side the injectors will be connected to the fertilizer concentrate tanks.
the arduino's role will be to send pulse-width modulation signals to the solenoid valves to make them open-close-open-close on a programmable speed (which is what gives you the flexibility to create a fertilizer ratio for your strawberries, when done, create one for your tomatoes).
Then the arduino will be connected to a manifold at the end of this pipe, which splits in different lines and has a solenoid valve on each one (to manage our different agriculture fields).
Additionally, the arduino can be wired to an EC (electrical conductivity) and a pH probe, to read (and record) pH/EC.
Then optionally the arduino could have an electronic water pressure gauge installed on the main line, so that it could automatically calculate and make-up with eventual pressure variations on the line (change the PWM frequency).
Okay, i just read what i wrote and it seems really confusing. Please tell me if it makes sense or if i should start over hahaha.
Thank you :-)