Week 5: Moisture Testing!

Moisture Sensing involved the use of a Soil Moisture sensor to collect valuable data regarding the water level in the plant soil. This is an important step in determining the adequate amount of water to dispense to the plants and towards building the final prototype of the project. Soil moisture is important for ideal plant growth as it is directly responsible for plant health and plant yield. Moisture can also affect the state of the soil and too much or too little moisture can damage plant roots.

The soil moisture sensor

The moisture sensor testing was successful and Natasha was able to view moisture readings on her computer screen as can be seen in the video below:

In the next few weeks, the team will work to integrate the moisture sensor with the other sensors to create a single functional unit. This would be an important step towards building a final prototype for our project.

The moisture sensor, the microcontroller, and LEDs attached via a breadboard circuit

A step closer towards building the final prototype!

After testing each sensor individually, it was now time to integrate each sensor into the code so that the system is capable of running as a single unit with all sensors collecting data simultaneously. Natasha was able to achieve this as seen in the video below.

The video shows the LEDs lighting up as the program reads temperature, humidity, light, and moisture values from the file located on the SD card.

By having the sensors work together, we are a step closer to building the final model of our project which would be capable of collecting data from each sensor and making decisions based off this data.

Stay tuned for more updates as we near the last phase of our project!

#StayTuned

Week 4: Sensor Testing and More!

Week 4 kicked off with a lot of progress made towards the final prototype of the Automated Garden Irrigation System. This week involved a lot of testing regarding the sensor components of the project. Specifically, the team was able to successfully collect test data using the temperature and humidity sensor as well as the photocell. These sensors will allow for the collection of temperature/humidity readings and light voltage respectively in the final prototype. This data will help the device to determine the adequate amount of water to dispense to plants.

Temperature & Humidity Sensing:

It's important to measure temperature and humidity readings as these factors can significantly impact plant growth. Through this week's experimentation, the team was able to record temperature and humidity data by implementing a sensor on a microncontroller and conduct basic statistics on the data collected.

Collecting Temperature & Humidity data using a sensor and a microcontroller

Light Sensing:

Light is also a huge factor that determines plant growth. During experimentation, light readings were measured by implementing a photocell on a microcontroller.

Collecting light data using a photocell and a microcontroller

After this successful experimentation and testing phase, our team is one step closer to developing the final prototype of the project. Stay tuned for more updates from our side!

#Engineering #Progress #Sensors #Photocells #Microcontrollers #DataCollection