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- #461
odam2k
Well-Known Member
Wow, that Library (NewPing) is fantastic if any of you are using this sensor. I've measured the depth with a ruler and compared it to the depth reported by this module, and they are perfectly in synch, at least up to the 40cm depth of my bucket.
This mini project was a complete success!
So my WaterDepth Module is a great success, accurate to within 1cm in determining the depth of the water in the bucket.
For those not familiar with it, this is for the Auto Watering, it measures the water depth in my 23L plastic bucket (a leftover from Wine Making) to make sure there is actually water in there to pump to the plants.
Since I KNOW the bucket holds exactly 20L when there is 40cm of water in it, I can deduce that each cm of water is a half liter, or 500ml
Since I generally use about 3L per watering in Flower, I could simply run the pump until the water level drops 6cm (only one pump will be active at any time in a bucket)
This means the module controlling the relays needs to be the one doing the depth measurement, right now, they are two separate modules. Here's the problem... I did try putting the ultrasonic sensor on the relay control module, but for whatever reason, it did not work... just kept reporting the same number no matter where it was... I had no real need to combine them, so just left it...
Now, if I want to water based on volume, then I will need to combine the modules. The software on both is pretty straightforward, I will review it again, but didn't see any conflicts when I did try. The relay control module is an Arduino Nano v3, the Water Depth module is a Pro/Mini, that shouldn't make a difference... but who knows...
My plan is to build another Water Depth module, make sure it works, THEN I'll add the functionality to toggle the relays, this is in contrast to what I did try, which was adding depth detection to the relay controller, and it didn't work.
As a future benefit to doing this, eventually the system could monitor the amount of water you give a plant, and if it is still too dry, or it dries out too quickly, then it could decide to increase the amount of water it gives per feeding. This would be perfect as your plants grow, and flower...
Now, on the downside of all this.... If watering one plant uses 6cm of water, or 3L, then that means a completely full bucket will only support at most, 7 waterings. The module supports 8 relays, I had planned on having 8 pumps to water 8 plants per bucket/module. So one feeding, lets say I water all 8 today, they will probably need watering in 3-4 days, which the bucket can provide... but 3-4 days later, they will need watering again, and there will be no water!
So this will certainly work on an ongoing basis, just to automate the grow room, and to some extent, for short times away from it, but for anything more than a week, I suppose a 50L Plastic Tote full of water with a pump to transfer to the bucket, as required... This would only be a special circumstance where you needed more than a week, this could extend it to a few weeks... If you have running water in the grow room (basement) then you could simply hook a float valve up to a hose and let it keep the bucket full, but then nutrients becomes an issue... I suppose it's better to provide plain water to plant than no water at all!
All this assumes I get the two modules working as one....