πr² garden

πr² = pi, raspberry * r-duino

Powered by Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and The Sun.

Github Repo - in progress, summer 2020

Overview

For almost 40 years, square foot gardening has been a popular, accessible, and efficient approach to grow vegetables.

In this project, a wireless sensor network using Raspberry Pi and Arduino monitors and controls irrigation for a standard 4 ft. by 4 ft. square foot garden. Electronics are all solar powered, and the water supply is a single rain barrel. WiFi access is used to offload data processing and storage, and to support remotely accessible feedback for the garden owner.

Sensors regularly capture readings for ambient temperature, humidity, and sunlight intensity. For each of the 16 square-foot grid components, sensors also independently capture soil temperature, soil moisture, and an overhead image.

Data is channeled back into irrigation controls to optimize plant growth within the square foot garden.

Insights from this data could be used in the future to generate optimal climate-specific planting strategies.

Technologies Used

• Off-the-shelf DFRobot temperature, humidity, and moisture sensors
• Arduino Mega (70 IO pins)
• Raspberry Pi Zero W
• Raspberry Pi-compatible digital camera
• Solenoid valves connected to irrigation supply
• Photovoltaic cell for sunlight intensity measurements
• Off-the-shelf lithium ion battery pack with solar panel recharger
• Open weather forecast APIs for predictive data
• Software components in C++, Python, and PHP
  • Google charts
  • PlantCV software (self-described "open-source image analysis software package targeted for plant phenotyping")
• MySQL database

System Diagram

Contact Me

Samson Karben