After a few months of learning some of the fundamentals of the Arduino micro-controller, and also learning some basic circuitry, the students began work on their first programming project:
Make a program that senses the moisture, senses the incident light, and then turns on a green LED if the moisture level is ok, and the turns on a red LED if the moisture level is too dry, AND if the incident light is low - we want to turn on the drip system in low light.
Many teams were able to write the program and finish the task quickly! Yahoo!
The next step is for the students to learn how to send a wireless transmission as opposed to turning LED's on/off. Should be fun!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Work begins on the Sensor Stations
After a few months of learning some of the fundamentals of the Arduino micro-controller, and also learning some basic circuitry, the students began work on their first programming project:
Make a program that senses the moisture, senses the incident light, and then turns on a green LED if the moisture level is ok, and the turns on a red LED if the moisture level is too dry, AND if the incident light is low - we want to turn on the drip system in low light.
Many teams were able to write the program and finish the task quickly! Yahoo!
The next step is for the students to learn how to send a wireless transmission as opposed to turning LED's on/off. Should be fun!
The Plenum Goes In.
The students cut all the pipe for the irrigation, and then hooked it all in to the plenum. They then buried the lines, and they are now ready to add the drip irrigation tubing and the emitters. The plenum is essentially a large tube with eight solenoid valves that feed off from the main line. We are concerned that there just won't be enough pressure in the line to get the valves to open and then more importantly, close again. We may have to either modify the valves, or add a pump to the irrigation system. We shall see...