Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Plant health monitor |
Dishen Majithia Esteban Roberts Tommy Bahary |
Haoqing Zhu | design_document1.pdf design_document2.pdf final_paper2.pdf proposal1.pdf |
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| # Dishen Majithia, Esteban Roberts, Tommy Bahary and dishenm2, enr2, tbahary2 # # Problem # Growing plants at home is a hobby that many people enjoy but maintaining the health of the plants is not always easy. The main problem with plant health usually comes in the form of the soil. This includes bad pH levels, under/over watering the soil, and insufficient lighting. That is what this project attempts to remedy. # Solution # We are planning to make a multi sensor device that can accurately measure various soil health indicators in real time, so the user can get live feedback and can adjust the conditions accordingly. A similar product exists but doesn’t measure PH and only works with bluetooth. We would further differentiate it by allowing it to work remotely with wi-fi so that the data is displayed on a website. This data would provide the user with a way to conveniently check on their plants even when they are not around. Our stretch goals with the automatic watering/lighting would basically allow the user to leave the plants when they are traveling or away from home for an extended period of time. Differentiating from Project 5 from Fall 2020: This project is an enclosed terrarium as opposed to ours which is a module that would be connected to an existing potted plant. It would be able to accommodate any sized plant or be scaled to measure multiple. This project measures and adjusts humidity, where ours would measure the water content of the soil and possibly water the plant Our project measures and reports ambient light levels Reporting of the data online further distinguishes our project, as project 5 has no wireless connectivity Project 5 also doesn't contain a battery, so ours would be more portable, compact and easier to set up. # Solution Components # Subsystem 1 - Sensors Most of these sensors would not be off the shelf components. We would use a thermistor and a photoresistor to measure temperature and light levels respectively, and the soil moisture measurement would be taken by measuring the resistance of the soil. All of these would need to be tested and calibrated in order to convert into real measurements and report ideal conditions for plant growth. The main reason why we were shying away from making more complex sensors on our own (like the pH sensor) is because we would need expensive equipment like a specialized electrode to do so accurately. We could buy that electrode and then do the backend processing on it to get the pH values if needed though. We wanted to focus more on making the control system work as best we can with the separate subsystems like the website and the data collection. We might be able to do some of the signal processing if we were able to get the physical electrode for the pH sensor. Subsystem 2 - Status lights Lights to just display the plants health so the user can check it at a glance. Depending on the stretch goals implemented, this may include a screen with buttons and threshold levels or just several LEDs to indicate warnings for specific parameters. Subsystem 3 - Website The website would receive pertinent information from the microcontrollers via wifi. This would allow the user to see up to date data about the plant’s health from anywhere. Subsystem 4 - Battery A rechargeable battery would need to be implemented by creating a charging circuit using an off the shelf IC. Battery level would need to be monitored and reported through the status lights or LCD screen. # Stretch Goals # These goals can be implemented if the project components above don’t provide enough design complexity to the project. These are just ideas that would add another layer of uniqueness and complexity to the product and we can attempt to include them in the main project if needed. Have a grow light that we can control using data from the light sensor and also a basin with a pump to add water based on data from the moisture sensor. This would be helpful in situations where the user doesn't want to spend time manually keeping check on the plant or physically can't because they are traveling. Here, it would be possible for them to just leave the plant for extended periods of time for the system to tend to it. Both of these would need their own control circuits and would work in conjunction with mostly self made components. We planned on doing this by testing how quickly the pump moves water and then adjusting the time the pump is on. This would give us a good approximation of how much water is added to the pot. In addition, we would measure changes in soil moisture as water was added. It would take some time for changes in soil moisture to register on the sensor, so a delay would be needed. This would result in a system where small amounts of water would be added in increments to raise the moisture level of the soil to the desired level. We could also use a flow meter to do this though if that would help add a degree of complexity to the project. Have an LCD screen along with the wifi based website. This LCD screen would have a menu and buttons for the user to change between data from each sensor, and also set threshold values on them. They could also use the LCD to turn on/off the automatic watering or the light setting systems. We could add a lot of customizability to the project using this part of the system. It would also add some convenience to it since it would be right next to the plant instead of having to go to your phone and pull up the website. The website could be used when the user is not around the plant to check on its status, but the LCD could serve as the control. To add additional functionality to the website outside of just displaying data like adding thresholds, giving the user notifications, etc. |
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