How to build and program a vertical garden for growing hydro cultures with Arduino UNO. This project uses sensors, has redundant operations and a fail safe mode. It is build to automatic water a bigger shelf, turn on artificial sunlight and control moisture of the plants. This project aims to build a bigger community to solve future challenges concerning autonomous and independend food production and supply in cities.
- Time module included
- Automated watering
- Light intensity sensor
- Using artificial sunlight
- Moisture measuremnt
- Growing up to 72 plants in parallel
- Control of water level in storage tank
- Alarms (water level, moisture)
Arduino Uno or Elegoo UNO R3
- Arduino Uno, original recommended (20,-€)
- RTC DS3231 (5,50€)
- 4 x Relais Module (5,80€)
- Switch module (7,60€)
- 220V/AC to 12V/DC (5,-€)
- 12V Pump (9,-€)
- 3 x LED grow light (ex. 300W, 65,-€)
- Voltage Converter (5,50€)
- Capacitiy Sensor for moisture measurment (5,-€)
- Wire set (10,-€)
- opt. Small Breadboard (ca. 2,-€)
- opt. Touchless Tank Liquid Water Level Detect Sensor (5,80€)
- opt. RGB LED
- CountDown
- BH1750FVI_RT for BH1750FVI (GY-30) 16 bit I2C Lux sensor
- RTClib
- TinyWire, vers. 1.1.0
- Nutrient solution (ex Aqua36, 9,-€)
- 3 x tub (10,-€)
- puffed cley (in most home improvement stores/Baumarkt)
- PVC pipe, ca 4m, inner diameter 8mm (in most home improvement stores/Baumarkt)
- 6 x Hose nozzle with external thread - brass, G1/4 (ex. 1,10€)
- Water storage tank, min 20L
- 6 x Lock nut - brass - hexagon - inch thread G1/4 (ex. 0,50€)
- 12 x rofile sealing rings - made of NBR or Viton G1/4 (ex. each 0,50€)
- small tubes (diameter 8mm) to controll water level and runoff time in tubs
- copper pipe for upper lightning (has to be bend, alt. hang from ceiling)
As this is a DIY project you can build a nice, wooden shelf yourself - Build shelf. Here you find a basic sketch with all secifications for a 1.8m shelf.
- Connect Arduino with sensors, see electrical plan "E-Plan, StadtFarm-Arduino-Uno" (QElectroTech)
- Assemble all, so it looks nice (more pictures and movie will follow)
- Upload Code using Arduino IDE (be aware that Ardunino starts immediately and actuators (pump) cound be demaged)
Make your own research and contribute to projects
- Add nutrient solution if conductivity is below 1.6yS (conductivity sensor will follow)
- clean whole system and mix new solution every 4 weeks (reduce algae growth)
- air humidity sensor
- store information in EEPROM
- LCD display
- Wifi connector and App data management
- Temperature sensor
- optical device for Chlorophyll sensing and develop an AI
- Light sensor code, written by Mohannad Rawashdeh