You can fit a pair of rain gutters directly to the greenhouse to refill the tank in situ. And add capacity with another container with a syphon system (a filled hose between them). Also the garden hose can be replaced with drip watering hosing which have plugs to regulate the amount of water in each one and save even more water (and unwanted growing weeds).
Dont forget an bell siphon. quit builds made an awsome video about it and he used it in his rain gutter and to an water turbine attached to an 3d printed alternator(an generator which creates ac) to an rectifier, to a buck boost regulator, to an waterproof powerbank and to his phone or with an switch it lights up some Christmas lights outside his garage
Learn from me: You need a lid for your rainbarrel. Or else all kinds of algae will grow and that combined with all the dust/pollen/bird-droppings/leaves will clog up your system fast.
Yes that's kinda mandatory 😅 I don't quite understand why you didn't add any monitoring. This is a really nice project and it should be fairly easy to just add some soil moisture sensors allowing you to reliably run the system continuously. Is there a reason why you didn't add such a feature? I would ne curious to see how you realise a monitoring, especially how you improve the capacitive sensors to extend their lifespan. Do you think embedding the circuit on the sensors in resin is a good solution?
@@koga1330 Plus for years and countless comments later, there's still no differentiation between "serious" and "series", and no S on the end of (centi)meters.
@@nrdesign1991 Psst. German doesn't have the final S on multiple centimeters; so it's 1 centimeter, 2 centimeter etc. Same as some other Germanic languages. Also, I do hear a difference between "serious" and "series", but maybe that's because I'm Dutch.
@@therealdutchidiot I'm German too, but just a tiny bit of practice and will to improve makes a better speaker. It's just really annoying to still hear the same mistakes with barely any improvement years later. It may be on purpose for sort-of brand recognition but I doubt it.
Friend is back again to shower love on us with technology innovations!❤️👍🙏🏼 Whether I can implement what he has implemented is not important for me than to see him doing various creations is enjoying.
@@CTCTraining1 Tiny holes in the pipe is not the issue, the solenoid valve is, it will block long before the holes do. Best to include a in line filter in the feed from the tank to the valve, and also a tip is to get 4 concrete pavers and place on the ground, then put 3 layers of blocks, to raise the drum up a little, and then place it on the blocks, preferably with a load spreader, made from some pallet wood nailed to make a square 2 layer panel, to spread the load. That will allow better water flow when the barrel is low. Then put the lid on the tank, so leaves do not blow in, and it does not become a mosquito breeding pond.
Glad to see some old school gardening automated. Most people would probably do hydroponics (dutch bucket, some NFC or flood and drain system) in their green houses.
As a small tip: You can actually burry your tomato-plants a bit deeper since they will start to root from the stem as well! Handy to add some extra strength and extra roots to them
This video was just what i needed. Spent 1h30m yesterday designing a float switch with a a little microswitch only to find out the activation force was too much for my float. didn't think of using a reed switch before. that should solve my issues
I made something very similar about two years ago. I used capacitive soil moisture sensors. The irrigation is activated automatically when the soil moisture is below 40%. They still work very well. At first I also went with a drip irrigation too but I found out that spray nozzles actually work better.
Nice video. Would add drip irrigation filter to your system to prevent clogging of the drip holes. Also if someone is planning on building such system, pay attention to what solenoid valve you are ordering. Some need municipal water pressure to actually open/close when electricity is sent.
Solenoid valves need a lot of current to open but much less current to hold. You can take advantage of this phenomenon to save power and prevent the solenoid from overheating by using PWM to modulate the holding current with the help of a mosfet.
I would suggest using a T-joint for watering pipe the one which is inside the GH, so the water pressure throughout all the holes is equally distributed rather than closing the end with a stopper
The solenoid valves usually consume a high value of current ( from 0.5 A to 1 A). An alternative for that would be to couple a DC motor to a tap and then turn on/off the tap by changing the direction of rotation of the DC motor. Bu doing so, you can save a considerable amount of power.
@@patrickjoseph9476 of course, but i had the idea on mind, but anothet advantage is that you only need one pin to control the servo, so, in consecuence you have more pins yo work if you need them, and also it's easier to control the servo.
absolutely genius. I wish I could build everything you can. I would recommend some spray nozzles for the hose to get a more uniform and controlled water spray.
Great job and I like the non-electric temperature-controlled window opener. It would have been a lot better to use drip irrigation tubing and sprayers/drippers. Some drippers are even fully adjustable so you can control the amount of water to each plant.
@@greatscottlab I will definitely check the new video out!!! I'd like to build my own low-speed wind generator , which will be used to supply my server. But the coil winding just confused me.
11:00 hi idea for you. If you raise the hieght of the water barrel, there will be more water pressure. Then possibly more holes in the pipe. You can make a platform out of pallets and rope the green water barrel down to the ground pegs (like a pyramid shape)
Building an automated greenhouse has been on my todo list all year. With your video i have no excuse to not get started. More important to me was the previous video though about the wind turning it into a kite. I wouldnt have thought of it and been devestated if i built one only for it to get ruined by a storm.
Instead of ordinary water hose, you could use drip hose for a garden. Thus you can setup the the watering circle of each “hole” based on the pressure. They are adjustable.
I bouild pretty much the same system a year ago. It works fine. I would really sujest to add a diode between the Input an output of the valve I forgot that and destroyed two relays over two weeks. Maybe your Battery controller already has such protection bould in, but it does not hurt to be careful. Keep up the good work
Pretty fantastic work, dude! It's looking great! 😃 Something you could do and would help a lot when you're traveling, for example, is a multi level for the water barrel. You know? This way you can know exactly where the water level is. 😊 Anyway, stay safe and creative there! 🖖😊
I was thinking along the same lines. It should be possible to use a pressure sensor to track the water level, this will give much more precision than using multiple discrete sensors.
You might also add a line of deep shelfs on a second level at 140 cm cause the sun arrives in a non vertical angle so both levels can live with that amount of sun and heat offering a lot more opportunities too. The hotter space in the upper half will let grow some plants faster or better.
you can lift container for some more pressure, and if the container has lid you should have a small hole in it to let air into it when water drains out
Next projects might be controlling the watering with a humidity sensor, controling fertilization with an EC meter. And last but not least a robotic tomato picker.(this one is half a joke but also a phantasy of mine). BTW you can get pro driplines for cheap. I reccomend these. Well done. I liked the lowtech window opener.
Regarding robotic tomato pickers, industrial farms have a version of this. They plow up the entire plant and shake all the tomatoes off of it. But then there are still unripened fruits, so they use computer vision to discard the green ones as they go through a chute. Obviously this is very wasteful so an actual picking machine could greatly improve yield.
Barb style drip emmiters could be added to the hose in the greenhouse to help even out the watering. Also, a lot of automated lawn watering equipment just begs to be torn apart and used for something it wasn't intended for. I don't know what prices are like for you, but here it's cheaper to buy the lawn system and hack it than it is to buy the components to build your own.
Nice video! They sell irrigation hoses that are porous to allow water to seep out through them and they don't require any holes to be drilled. Perhaps this might also work for you but you might have to do a bit more code to figure out water usage as they are slow.
Yeah that would be essential. Having the valve stuck in an open position and losing all the water every now and then would be a shame for such a nice project.
What a coincidence! I'm planning an automatic watering system for my Chicken Coop right now! Since the water needs to stay at a constant level, I'm thinking of using a flow valve and a bucket. PVC piping at the bottomwill go into the coop and be connected to a nipple system for the chickens. Still working out what I'll use to keep the above ground pipes from freezing in the Winter. The coop has electricity, so I could possibly use heat tape.
I tried drilling holes in a length of garden hose, but the holes are prone to blocking up. You can get a weeping hose with micro pores all over. It spreads the water evenly and doesn't block up.
I recommend elevating your wooden box off the ground. It's bottom will rot right through in just a few seasons. Don't expect varnish to protect it for long.
I don't know if they are available in your country, but sprinkler valves are relatively cheap and available at the big box stores. I even used them with compressed air for a Halloween decoration. Yes, they honk, but that's a good thing :). The ones I bought are compatible with many off the shelf adapters, I went to schedule 40 PVC.
Nice! One thing though. At 10:15 I was wondering why you didn't secure the container? If you experience another storm, your greenhouse will be fine but all the watering electronics will rip right off. Besides, the container is not guaranteed to be full so it's own weight can anchor it!
one tip do not make the hose holes equal , make them larger on the end and smaller on the begin , this help maintain the pressure equal from one point to the other
I made something simular with ESPhome to be able to connect to my HA automations. It checks for water level and switches between 5 watering circuits. And you can set how long each will run. It was great.
I would use two solenoid valves in series. I had a friend for with a valve remained stuck on open and the greenhouse was flooded with water. If you add a water sensor after the valves you can even do an automated self test open them one by one and make sure no water is flowing and then you can open them both. In case one of them is failing you can still use the system and have a warning. If you want to go paranoid and make sure that they are not stuck on close either and get a dry garden you can put two more in parallel with the first two :)
Very entertaining video, but please correct the omission of a live webcam. We the subscribers want to see every little bit of growth in the greenhouse! 😀
A way to save water would be to consider a soak in time for the water used. This is to prevent water flooding and running off to wastevill. The watering cycle might be, water for 8mins, but breaking that down into say 30 second slots with a 20 seconds stop for soaking in. That would help keep the water where you want it.
Why don't you try the dripping method? Economical and stable Plus you can add a motor for drops per minute and increasing pressure of water flow. Just a bonus feature to this series!!
GreatScott, here's a small hint for the future: It's a good idea to seal the cells in the polycarbonate sheeting with aluminium tape or silicone so that dirt and water can't get in. If you leave them open, they will look quite ugly, contaminated with dirt and algae after some time. Btw, are you going to somehow measure the right amount of water needed for every watering cycle? Are you somehow going to compensate for pressure loss caused by water level drop, and subsequent change of the time needed for the right amount of water being dispensed to the plants? Anyway, nice project, looking forward for updates!
I might suggest burying the hose so it's flush with ground level, and using waterproof sheet or weed-control layer on top to better control humidity and reduce evaporation. Another tip (apologies if duplicate), try using a raspberry Pi instead of the LoRa. Simple scripts to control timing etc can be changed remotely, plus you can connect a webcam to live-feed or even take time-lapse video of plants growing to make into a little movie afterwards.
I would suggest to read about solenoid drivers. Your solenoid takes a lot of power and can overheat or break early. You dont need 12 to maintain reqired position. You can lover voltage up to 4v, solenoid will take 1/10 of rated power and still be opened. I did this control using pwm with 1khz, so i can hear then solenoid is working
Nice job, You could install a few cameras to either timelapse the growth of the plants or to monitor things while you are away. I noticed you don't have any soild moisture sensors anywhere, is this because they are mostly all very poor quality or is this something you plan on adding some time in the future?
It just so happens that my dissertation is about this. Mine is a smaller version of a greenhouse with electric lighting ,but I use a capacitive soil humidity sensor to determine automatically when the soil needs watering. I'm about two months into turning my paper in and about two weeks since I finished the build and planted the seeds - to test it I'm growing radishes both in the automated greenhouse and next to my room window. Sufficient to say that the ones in the automated greenhouse are a lot well more developed
Couple of things come to mind, why not take this to where it manages itself by having moisture sensors that detect when the ground is too dry, that way the system can regulate itself if needed. I don’t know what your rainfall is like but you may also need to have an overflow that takes excess water back down a drain if there is one close? Maybe also different ‘zones’ for different plants? (Thinking out loud so to speak)
Watching this video as an American, it was kind of interesting to see the differences between Germany and America. Almost everyone in America will have access to water coming from the main and will use that in their garden, and standard hoses are not quick connect, but rather a screw-together system.
Those quick-connect hoses are not that uncommon here. They are often called "gardena connectors". My house came with them from the previous owner. I found them more prone to leak than a screw-on connection with plumbing tape.
Nice one! I was just hoping to see an alternative valve that wouldn't be a power-hungry solenoid. I created a servo-actuated valve for my project (using much smaller li-ion batteries) and it works really well, but I'm still not convinced it is the best solution - if the batteries die suddenly the valve could remain open, and I'm not very comfortable with that :(
Run your solenoid on AC voltage and enjoy the wonders of magnetic induction. You'll cut your current consumption by ~75%. Commercially available irrigation solenoid valves run on 24VAC, which is both more efficient, and less prone to losses over long wire runs. They draw 200mA of holding current and 500mA inrush - so 5W with a coil winding between 25 and 60 ohms. Not sure what its inductance is, I don't have an LCR meter capable of measuring it and my o-scope skills are lacking. Applying 24VDC to that same solenoid draws 700mA, or 17W, constantly.
Did you look into DC latching valves? I have a few and they only require a 5-9v DC pulse to open, then another in opposite direction to close. I have been using them with just lipos and they work great
Hi Scott. Would not a spray system on the roof cover the greenhouse more effectively and evenly? You could add a small motor to pump water and shift the entire water container to an elevated platform to let gravity help you out.
The aluminum construction getting destroyed by a storm wasn't really all that surprising in me, but that wood chest too? What kind of storm did you have!?
![KAYTRANADA - Witchy (feat. Childish Gambino) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jGK3YVmGZ3Y/mqdefault.jpg)
now put a camera in the green house and record a timelapse of the plants growing
So much stress for the camera
OMG YES
You can fit a pair of rain gutters directly to the greenhouse to refill the tank in situ. And add capacity with another container with a syphon system (a filled hose between them). Also the garden hose can be replaced with drip watering hosing which have plugs to regulate the amount of water in each one and save even more water (and unwanted growing weeds).
I hope to subscribe to my channel
Dont forget an bell siphon. quit builds made an awsome video about it and he used it in his rain gutter and to an water turbine attached to an 3d printed alternator(an generator which creates ac) to an rectifier, to a buck boost regulator, to an waterproof powerbank and to his phone or with an switch it lights up some Christmas lights outside his garage
That "I will see you next time" gives me a lot of energy 😉😅❤️
I try my best :-)
@@greatscottlab 😍🤜🤛😎👌👌
Myr
@@rahulbindhu ???
Why?
Learn from me:
You need a lid for your rainbarrel. Or else all kinds of algae will grow and that combined with all the dust/pollen/bird-droppings/leaves will clog up your system fast.
There is a lid. It was just not shown in the video
Or put a small fish, or aquatic snails inside
@@Yonatan24 aquatic snails, that's a really good idea!
@@BrettCooper4702 You could get them at any fish store too. I got some accidentally on plants I bought.
@@Yonatan24 also there waste also gives your plants some nutrients.
We need a full monitoring station next which will gather data and process it during the year , great stuff !
I can put it on my to do list
And a harvester robot
@@oddzc lol
Yes that's kinda mandatory 😅 I don't quite understand why you didn't add any monitoring. This is a really nice project and it should be fairly easy to just add some soil moisture sensors allowing you to reliably run the system continuously. Is there a reason why you didn't add such a feature?
I would ne curious to see how you realise a monitoring, especially how you improve the capacitive sensors to extend their lifespan. Do you think embedding the circuit on the sensors in resin is a good solution?
@@greatscottlab Higher Placement of water barrel = more pressure. Then you can set up self propelled water sprinklers for a better distribution
LoRa board: has connectors for inputs/outputs
Great Scott: I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that
Yep. I really like his projects but the soldering and cabling job... Well... :)
@@koga1330 Plus for years and countless comments later, there's still no differentiation between "serious" and "series", and no S on the end of (centi)meters.
@@nrdesign1991 Psst. German doesn't have the final S on multiple centimeters; so it's 1 centimeter, 2 centimeter etc. Same as some other Germanic languages.
Also, I do hear a difference between "serious" and "series", but maybe that's because I'm Dutch.
@@therealdutchidiot I'm German too, but just a tiny bit of practice and will to improve makes a better speaker. It's just really annoying to still hear the same mistakes with barely any improvement years later. It may be on purpose for sort-of brand recognition but I doubt it.
Friend is back again to shower love on us with technology innovations!❤️👍🙏🏼
Whether I can implement what he has implemented is not important for me than to see him doing various creations is enjoying.
Oh stop it
@@greatscottlab yah, sure ❤️😀
I'm happy that your video just came out before my exam to make me satisfied.
I really like it!
I'm glad!
“And ordering a new wood chest was not difficult”
*Reinforce it to not suffer the same fate*
You should add a gutter rain water collection system to feed water from the shed roof into the water tank
.. indeed, but also remember to filter it as into the barrel to avoid blocking those tiny holes in the pipe.
@@CTCTraining1 Tiny holes in the pipe is not the issue, the solenoid valve is, it will block long before the holes do. Best to include a in line filter in the feed from the tank to the valve, and also a tip is to get 4 concrete pavers and place on the ground, then put 3 layers of blocks, to raise the drum up a little, and then place it on the blocks, preferably with a load spreader, made from some pallet wood nailed to make a square 2 layer panel, to spread the load. That will allow better water flow when the barrel is low. Then put the lid on the tank, so leaves do not blow in, and it does not become a mosquito breeding pond.
@@CTCTraining1 yea good point
That window opener was really really new to me and its so simple too
Thanks for making it into my info
As always nice video👍👍
Happy to help!
Just don't forget to dismount them in the winter otherwise they are likely to burst
Good stuff, hope you'll have a good harvest!
The dankest harvest of 2021 🤞
I live on top of small building which is hot during summer. Thanks for this idea.
You are so welcome!
i just got a glimpse of the rest of your life, coming up with cool ideas to problems you face.
Good work!! Get regulated drip valves. They cost nothing and you ensure an even pressure and same volume of water around the watering holes.
Glad to see some old school gardening automated. Most people would probably do hydroponics (dutch bucket, some NFC or flood and drain system) in their green houses.
As a small tip: You can actually burry your tomato-plants a bit deeper since they will start to root from the stem as well! Handy to add some extra strength and extra roots to them
Just what i wanted to add and compress your soil around plant.
This video was just what i needed. Spent 1h30m yesterday designing a float switch with a a little microswitch only to find out the activation force was too much for my float. didn't think of using a reed switch before. that should solve my issues
hope you'll have a good harvest
Thanks, I hope so too :-)
I made something very similar about two years ago. I used capacitive soil moisture sensors. The irrigation is activated automatically when the soil moisture is below 40%. They still work very well. At first I also went with a drip irrigation too but I found out that spray nozzles actually work better.
Nice video. Would add drip irrigation filter to your system to prevent clogging of the drip holes. Also if someone is planning on building such system, pay attention to what solenoid valve you are ordering. Some need municipal water pressure to actually open/close when electricity is sent.
Solenoid valves need a lot of current to open but much less current to hold. You can take advantage of this phenomenon to save power and prevent the solenoid from overheating by using PWM to modulate the holding current with the help of a mosfet.
Really great project! I'm tempted to have a go building something like this for my own garden now Summer is just around the corner. Thanks so much!
I would suggest using a T-joint for watering pipe the one which is inside the GH, so the water pressure throughout all the holes is equally distributed rather than closing the end with a stopper
The solenoid valves usually consume a high value of current ( from 0.5 A to 1 A). An alternative for that would be to couple a DC motor to a tap and then turn on/off the tap by changing the direction of rotation of the DC motor. Bu doing so, you can save a considerable amount of power.
Or maybe a servomotor, that would make the control more precise
@@luisfelipesaldivar5100 I don't think precision is a matter of concern in this case. It is just an on/off operation right?
@@patrickjoseph9476 of course, but i had the idea on mind, but anothet advantage is that you only need one pin to control the servo, so, in consecuence you have more pins yo work if you need them, and also it's easier to control the servo.
@@luisfelipesaldivar5100 You can also control the DC motor using LM293 motor driver.
I definitely hear "Serious" this time.
Keep up the great work Mr. Scott
I think you are saying serious when you mean series.
Great video, I plan to setup my own watering system soon and hook into home assistant.
absolutely genius. I wish I could build everything you can. I would recommend some spray nozzles for the hose to get a more uniform and controlled water spray.
Thanks mate :-) And thanks for the feedback :-)
Great job and I like the non-electric temperature-controlled window opener. It would have been a lot better to use drip irrigation tubing and sprayers/drippers. Some drippers are even fully adjustable so you can control the amount of water to each plant.
When I was watching the"Induction motor as generator"then this video uploaded!!!
Also feel free to watch that classic video
There will be a new part of the induction motor generator videos series ;-) It will come out in 2 weeks ;-)
@@greatscottlab I will definitely check the new video out!!! I'd like to build my own low-speed wind generator , which will be used to supply my server. But the coil winding just confused me.
11:00 hi idea for you. If you raise the hieght of the water barrel, there will be more water pressure. Then possibly more holes in the pipe. You can make a platform out of pallets and rope the green water barrel down to the ground pegs (like a pyramid shape)
How about a hydroponics system in your greenhouse featuring automated nutrient/pH dosing and grow light crontrol?
Awsome project, I had some bad experiences with that type of relay board, i think that it does not have an optocoupler on the board. Cheers mate👍
Building an automated greenhouse has been on my todo list all year. With your video i have no excuse to not get started. More important to me was the previous video though about the wind turning it into a kite. I wouldnt have thought of it and been devestated if i built one only for it to get ruined by a storm.
Good luck to you and your build :-)
My Inspiration is Back 💪
Instead of ordinary water hose, you could use drip hose for a garden. Thus you can setup the the watering circle of each “hole” based on the pressure. They are adjustable.
That's what I was going to suggest. It also has a known water delivery rate, so you can calculate the time it needs to supply enough water.
Geniale Reihe, mal endlich angewandte Elektronik für die automatische Bewässerung
I bouild pretty much the same system a year ago. It works fine. I would really sujest to add a diode between the Input an output of the valve I forgot that and destroyed two relays over two weeks. Maybe your Battery controller already has such protection bould in, but it does not hurt to be careful. Keep up the good work
Pretty fantastic work, dude! It's looking great! 😃
Something you could do and would help a lot when you're traveling, for example, is a multi level for the water barrel. You know? This way you can know exactly where the water level is. 😊
Anyway, stay safe and creative there! 🖖😊
I was thinking along the same lines. It should be possible to use a pressure sensor to track the water level, this will give much more precision than using multiple discrete sensors.
Finally I can control when the people in my basement get water without having to go down there.
😂😂😂😅😳
On the bed watching some GreatScott... lit
You should post a follow-up status once your flowers grow up :)
Nice project! You should concider using a motorized valve. It uses less courrent than a solenoid valve
Push button execution 😂😂
Love your videos man, keep them up❤️
Thanks👍
Yeeaaahh I love DIY or DIY or Buy on your channel!!
This Episode is super🖤
Thanks mate :-) But it was not a DIY or Buy episode.....
No. Sorry I meant I love the DIY and the DIY or buy episodes especially.🙂
You might also add a line of deep shelfs on a second level at 140 cm cause the sun arrives in a non vertical angle so both levels can live with that amount of sun and heat offering a lot more opportunities too.
The hotter space in the upper half will let grow some plants faster or better.
Early and finally a watering system have been waiting for it!
I hope you like the end result :-)
Yep. Video is already done. Patreon supporters can watch it now. It will come out in 2 weeks for everyone else :-)
@@greatscottlab oh yea i liked it i once made an automated watering system with an raspberry pi 3, some pump from conrad, 2 meter cables and hoses
you can lift container for some more pressure, and if the container has lid you should have a small hole in it to let air into it when water drains out
i always hit the like button on first minute on your videos because i know it's good
Next projects might be controlling the watering with a humidity sensor, controling fertilization with an EC meter. And last but not least a robotic tomato picker.(this one is half a joke but also a phantasy of mine). BTW you can get pro driplines for cheap. I reccomend these. Well done. I liked the lowtech window opener.
Regarding robotic tomato pickers, industrial farms have a version of this. They plow up the entire plant and shake all the tomatoes off of it. But then there are still unripened fruits, so they use computer vision to discard the green ones as they go through a chute. Obviously this is very wasteful so an actual picking machine could greatly improve yield.
You should bury some of the stem of the tomato plant. It helps give the plant support and extra roots.
Just a small tip: Both antennas should be in the same orientation. Otherwise you are not able to pick up a lot of the radio waves.
Barb style drip emmiters could be added to the hose in the greenhouse to help even out the watering. Also, a lot of automated lawn watering equipment just begs to be torn apart and used for something it wasn't intended for. I don't know what prices are like for you, but here it's cheaper to buy the lawn system and hack it than it is to buy the components to build your own.
Humidity sensor?
I've tried a few but I find it difficult to get everything working correctly.
A video on that topic would be very appreciated!
I can put it on my to do list
The best and cheapest rainwater storage tanks are used 1000 litre IBC bulk liquid shipping containers. Very cheap and compact.
10:52 small tipp about growing Tomatos. they like wet Feet but rot away if anything else gets wet. put them a litle bit aside. ^^
Nice video! They sell irrigation hoses that are porous to allow water to seep out through them and they don't require any holes to be drilled. Perhaps this might also work for you but you might have to do a bit more code to figure out water usage as they are slow.
Might want to put a filter on the intake to prevent the pipes from getting clogged, specially if you are going to let the barrel open.
Yeah that would be essential. Having the valve stuck in an open position and losing all the water every now and then would be a shame for such a nice project.
What a coincidence! I'm planning an automatic watering system for my Chicken Coop right now! Since the water needs to stay at a constant level, I'm thinking of using a flow valve and a bucket. PVC piping at the bottomwill go into the coop and be connected to a nipple system for the chickens. Still working out what I'll use to keep the above ground pipes from freezing in the Winter. The coop has electricity, so I could possibly use heat tape.
Very nice project I think you make your greenhouse more nice now .
I tried drilling holes in a length of garden hose, but the holes are prone to blocking up. You can get a weeping hose with micro pores all over. It spreads the water evenly and doesn't block up.
I recommend elevating your wooden box off the ground. It's bottom will rot right through in just a few seasons. Don't expect varnish to protect it for long.
I don't know if they are available in your country, but sprinkler valves are relatively cheap and available at the big box stores. I even used them with compressed air for a Halloween decoration. Yes, they honk, but that's a good thing :). The ones I bought are compatible with many off the shelf adapters, I went to schedule 40 PVC.
Good construction of the greenhouse and watering system.
Thanks :-)
Nice!
One thing though. At 10:15 I was wondering why you didn't secure the container? If you experience another storm, your greenhouse will be fine but all the watering electronics will rip right off.
Besides, the container is not guaranteed to be full so it's own weight can anchor it!
It is all heavy enough to not fly away.
Start a channel "GardenScott" where you do gardening work, outside of electronics.
one tip do not make the hose holes equal , make them larger on the end and smaller on the begin , this help maintain the pressure equal from one point to the other
you should make the water level sensor tell you when the bucket needs refilling. Maybe even add another and have a multi level detection
You can do bursts of water just changing the code a little bit and cover better the roots.
Hello, Great Scott have a nice day😀
Thanks, you too!
Cool project. I might try it for a garden I'm planning to make this summer.
You should add some water spouts to the roof to collect and redirect rain water to the tank :)
I made something simular with ESPhome to be able to connect to my HA automations. It checks for water level and switches between 5 watering circuits. And you can set how long each will run. It was great.
I love these green house videos I've been looking into making a green house as well
Go for it👍
Please make a full series on *"Arduino Programming from basic to advance."*
That's quite a huge valve you used for your project. There are less power hungry solutions 😅
I would use two solenoid valves in series. I had a friend for with a valve remained stuck on open and the greenhouse was flooded with water. If you add a water sensor after the valves you can even do an automated self test open them one by one and make sure no water is flowing and then you can open them both. In case one of them is failing you can still use the system and have a warning. If you want to go paranoid and make sure that they are not stuck on close either and get a dry garden you can put two more in parallel with the first two :)
Better connect both ends of the hose to the water source (solenoid) for even pressure at the start and end of the hose.
Very entertaining video, but please correct the omission of a live webcam. We the subscribers want to see every little bit of growth in the greenhouse! 😀
A way to save water would be to consider a soak in time for the water used. This is to prevent water flooding and running off to wastevill. The watering cycle might be, water for 8mins, but breaking that down into say 30 second slots with a 20 seconds stop for soaking in. That would help keep the water where you want it.
Ultrasound works brillant for exact waterlevel! And saves a hole in the Barrel
Why don't you try the dripping method?
Economical and stable
Plus you can add a motor for drops per minute and increasing pressure of water flow.
Just a bonus feature to this series!!
GreatScott, here's a small hint for the future: It's a good idea to seal the cells in the polycarbonate sheeting with aluminium tape or silicone so that dirt and water can't get in. If you leave them open, they will look quite ugly, contaminated with dirt and algae after some time. Btw, are you going to somehow measure the right amount of water needed for every watering cycle? Are you somehow going to compensate for pressure loss caused by water level drop, and subsequent change of the time needed for the right amount of water being dispensed to the plants? Anyway, nice project, looking forward for updates!
I might suggest burying the hose so it's flush with ground level, and using waterproof sheet or weed-control layer on top to better control humidity and reduce evaporation.
Another tip (apologies if duplicate), try using a raspberry Pi instead of the LoRa. Simple scripts to control timing etc can be changed remotely, plus you can connect a webcam to live-feed or even take time-lapse video of plants growing to make into a little movie afterwards.
The best way to get water from a well is a submersible pump, down in the bottom of the shaft. More efficient, cheaper, and uses less power.
*LOVE FROM KERALA INDIA*
Mayby I know a great idea for a new video, make carlights react to music. A music visualiser with multiple outputs for lights😁
friendly suggestion ..... shift your water streams to either side of your plants to prevent washout and root rot. just sayin :)
I would suggest to read about solenoid drivers. Your solenoid takes a lot of power and can overheat or break early. You dont need 12 to maintain reqired position. You can lover voltage up to 4v, solenoid will take 1/10 of rated power and still be opened. I did this control using pwm with 1khz, so i can hear then solenoid is working
Nice job, You could install a few cameras to either timelapse the growth of the plants or to monitor things while you are away. I noticed you don't have any soild moisture sensors anywhere, is this because they are mostly all very poor quality or is this something you plan on adding some time in the future?
It just so happens that my dissertation is about this. Mine is a smaller version of a greenhouse with electric lighting ,but I use a capacitive soil humidity sensor to determine automatically when the soil needs watering. I'm about two months into turning my paper in and about two weeks since I finished the build and planted the seeds - to test it I'm growing radishes both in the automated greenhouse and next to my room window. Sufficient to say that the ones in the automated greenhouse are a lot well more developed
Couple of things come to mind, why not take this to where it manages itself by having moisture sensors that detect when the ground is too dry, that way the system can regulate itself if needed. I don’t know what your rainfall is like but you may also need to have an overflow that takes excess water back down a drain if there is one close? Maybe also different ‘zones’ for different plants? (Thinking out loud so to speak)
You are amazing 🤩! Thanks once again.
Watching this video as an American, it was kind of interesting to see the differences between Germany and America. Almost everyone in America will have access to water coming from the main and will use that in their garden, and standard hoses are not quick connect, but rather a screw-together system.
Those quick-connect hoses are not that uncommon here. They are often called "gardena connectors". My house came with them from the previous owner. I found them more prone to leak than a screw-on connection with plumbing tape.
Nice one! I was just hoping to see an alternative valve that wouldn't be a power-hungry solenoid. I created a servo-actuated valve for my project (using much smaller li-ion batteries) and it works really well, but I'm still not convinced it is the best solution - if the batteries die suddenly the valve could remain open, and I'm not very comfortable with that :(
I would love to see you make a automated hydroponic system!
Run your solenoid on AC voltage and enjoy the wonders of magnetic induction. You'll cut your current consumption by ~75%. Commercially available irrigation solenoid valves run on 24VAC, which is both more efficient, and less prone to losses over long wire runs. They draw 200mA of holding current and 500mA inrush - so 5W with a coil winding between 25 and 60 ohms. Not sure what its inductance is, I don't have an LCR meter capable of measuring it and my o-scope skills are lacking. Applying 24VDC to that same solenoid draws 700mA, or 17W, constantly.
Did you look into DC latching valves? I have a few and they only require a 5-9v DC pulse to open, then another in opposite direction to close. I have been using them with just lipos and they work great
Hi Scott. Would not a spray system on the roof cover the greenhouse more effectively and evenly? You could add a small motor to pump water and shift the entire water container to an elevated platform to let gravity help you out.
The aluminum construction getting destroyed by a storm wasn't really all that surprising in me, but that wood chest too? What kind of storm did you have!?