42 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
42 lines
1.8 KiB
Markdown
Title: Automatic Plant Waterer
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Date: 2014-06-05
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Category: Projects
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Summary: A device that automatically waters plants.
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One day I decided watering my one plant was too much work, so I automated it.
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It's also great for when I'm on vacation. The plant is a year old now and
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doesn't look as good as it used to (kinda like you). So this machine is like its
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life support.
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<span class="aside">Update: this plant died long ago</span>
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## First Attempt
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The design was very simple and soldered together on perf board. A
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microcontroller turns the pump on for 20 seconds, then waits 24 hours and
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restarts. The pump ran way too fast so it was slowed down to 10% power.
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This design suffered from a fatal problem. After running, there was a chance
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that the tube would stay full of fluid. If the water level in the pop bottle was
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too high, it could siphon out. I woke up with a flower pot overflowing with
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water a couple of times.
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## Second Attempt
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I liked the idea so much that I made a second iteration. This one used a custom
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printed circuit board with a lot more features. The pumping duration could be
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adjusted with a screwdriver. This was useful as the plant (now a
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[Ming aralia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyscias_fruticosa)) grew.
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Another feature was the ability to run the pump backwards. This completely
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eliminated the siphoning problem from before. After pumping for a set duration,
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it would run backwards until the tube was cleared of water.
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<span class="aside">Also dead :(</span>
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