Sunday, September 14, 2014

The Monitor.......


In light of my broken foot, I have decided to tackle a project of a wireless field monitoring, I am going to start small and focus just on the monitor nodes. However, Figure 1 does so the overall plan including the monitor node, mother node and water solenoid node.
Figure 1: The big plan
The big plan has them all working together. The monitor node reporting the health of the field to the mother node. The mother node making the decision that affect the field such as irrigation based on the monitor node(s) reported information and external weather related data.  The mother node would then communicate to the water solenoid node to open or close as needed.

 Show in Figure 2 below, is the monitor node which will have the following sensors to report key field parameters.
Figure 2: Monitor node diagram

  • Light intensity sensor
  • Air temp sensor
  • Soil temp sensor
  • Soil moisture sensor 

The monitor will also have the ability to communicate wirelessly. Ultimately, the wireless connectivity will be used to communicate to other nodes and to a mother node. The input list that was previously posted is for the monitor node. That will have another revision coming fairly soon.

I will be crafting the the soil moisture sensor first, followed by the soil temp node, air temp node, and light intensity node.


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Monitor node inputs

This is the 1st draft of the inputs sheet for the wireless garden sensor for the external lab space.  This can be revised as needed. Nothing in this is set in stone yet.

The ACRE LAB
PROJECT INPUT SHEET REV 01

Project: Monitor node
Revision: 01
Prepared by: Crank
Date: 08/19/14

Input #
Inputs
Specifications
Origin
1.1
Microcontroller shall be open source supported
·         Arduino
Usability
1.2
All source software shall be open source
·         Arduino IDE
·         GPL License
·         Software
Usability
2.1
Sensor shall take temp readings with +-1⁰C resolution
·         TMP36 
Function
2.2
Sensor shall take adequate moisture readings
·         The Acre Lab Soil Moisture Sensor V1
Function
2.3
Sensor shall take adequate light readings in  W/m2
·         Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor Breakout
Function
2.4
Sensor battery charge shall last at least 31 days
·         Arduino clock @ 8mhz
·         2000mAH battery
·         Low-power libraries
·         Microcontroller sleep mode
Function
2.5
Sensor will have remote port to aid in battery charging
·         Access to outside of housing
Function
2.6
Sensor will be water resistant to typical environmental factors during typical use
·         Water resistant housing
·         RTV seals on interface joints
·         Battery charging plug

Function
2.7
Sensor will communicate wirelessly in an unlicensed radio band
·         NRF240L+1 Wireless Module
Function
2.8
Sensor will communicate readings at least every 10 minutes
·         Software
Function
1.3
Sensor shall be placed with a single hand and no additional tools
·         2 prong smooth design
Usability
1.4
Sensor shall be removed with a single hand and no additional tools
·         2 prong smooth design
Usability
1.5
Sensor shall withstand a fall from at least 3 ft and not break the outer housing
·         Nylon external housing
Usability
1.6
Sensor shall withstand a fall from at least 3 ft and still function as intended
·         Nylon external housing
·         Electronic wiring robustness
Usability
1.7
Sensor shall withstand temperatures at least ranging from -20⁰C to +50⁰C
·         Electronics
Usability
2.9
Sensor shall be retained in the ground and not fall over during typical use in typical environmental conditions
·         2 prong smooth design
Function
2.10
Sensor shall be able to communicate with other sensors
·         Software
·         NRF240L+1 Wireless Module
Function
2.11
Sensor range shall be at least 100ft in no obstacles operating condition
·         NRF240L+1 Wireless Module
Function
3.1
Sensor cost shall not cost more than $20
·         Arduino IDE
·         GPL License
·         Software
·         NRF240L+1 Wireless Module
·         2000mAH battery
·         Adafruit TSL2561 Digital Luminosity/Lux/Light Sensor Breakout
·         The Acre Lab Soil Moisture Sensor V1

Broken Foot

Well, I hoping to get more done on the labs; however, fate had a different idea. A couple of Sundays ago while walking some table scraps out the compost, I broke my foot. Nothing cool, just rolled my foot in a furrow, and snap, crackle, pop..... broken bones.  Yes, you CAN break bones while gardenting. So, needless to say I have not got much done on the labs, and I am on crutches and non weight bearing till November.  So, I guess it is time to get to designing.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

What is the Acre Lab?

So, what is the Acre Lab? It consists of  two lab spaces, an external lab and internal lab. The external lab consists of approximately 0.9 acres and will house the garden, livestock, and other related items. See Figures 1 and 2 below.

Fig 1: External lab space
Fig 2: Internal lab space

















The internal lab space consists of a couple of 3D printers, soldering iron, etc.... The stuff that I will need for bringing the technological aspect to the Acre Lab. During the cold Utah winters, I will spend most of my free time in the internal lab space developing projects to deploy in the external lab that follow spring.  Right now, that list of projects is quite long:

  • Chicken Coop
  • Rabbitery
  • Garden vitals monitoring system
  • Better composting system
  • Better irrigation system
  • 2015 Garden Plan
  • Growing my own plant starts
So, as I go along with these projects I will update them here.

The history behind the Acre Lab is that the ground has been within my family for generations. My grandfather and grandmother grew a garden on this land and another adjoining piece of land for decades. I hope to do the same on this portion. I want to leverage tools or create tools that were not available to them to increase the quality of crops and the ease of gardening. I also want to pass along the love of working the land to my own children.