Introduction: Automatic Plant Watering System, by Amelia Demoree, Nicole Mabuie, and Phoebe Magoon

By
About: Projects made by students in Ms. Lamm's engineering class at Portland High School.

In this project, we aimed to design a system that measures the amount of water present in a plant. Depending on the amount of water that is sensed, a corresponding LED lights up. When green, there is enough water; when yellow, the plant is becoming dry; when red, a sound plays and the red LED turns on to indicate that the plant needs to be watered. If the plant reaches the point where the red LED turns on, the automatic watering system begins to water the plant through a system of syringe pumps, a motor, and a gear on a linear motion track.

Supplies

Motor System:

Motor Screws (14)

Medium and Small gears (1 of each, a 12 teeth gear and a 60 teeth gear)

Collars (3)

Rack gears(4)

Metal Rail (1)

Servo Motor (1)

Large Base Plate (1)

Screws (28)

Nuts (30)

Small Flat Metal Plate (square-ish) (1)

Long Flat Metal Plate (rectangle) (1)

Axles (2)

Bearing Blocks (4)

Hot glue gun + glue (1)



Arduino and Breadboard:

Water-Level Sensor (1)

LEDs (Red, Green, Yellow)

Relay Buzzer (1)

Arduino (1)

USB Cable (1)

Breadboard (1)

F-M Wires (14)

M-M Wires (6)

Computer (1)


Hydraulics System:

Syringes (3)

1-Way Syringe (1)

Y-shaped Tubing (1)

Painters Tape (For Labels)


Other:

Small Strawberry Plant (1)

Plywood Sheet (1)

Screws (30)

Power Drill (1)

Table Saw (1)

Jigsaw (1)

Sandpaper Block (1)


Amelia Demoree

Phoebe Magoon

Step 1: Build the Box

  • Cut out four panels tat act as the side walls of the box
  • each wall is 15" tall x 10" wide
  • Cut out windows from the panels that are 9" tall x 7" wide
  • the windows are 2" from the top and 4" from the bottom
  • Cut out the base and top panels
  • 10"x 10"
  • On three of the side panels attach smaller pieces of wood (4" x 10") to the inside of the panels right below the window opening
  • Line up the base panel with the walls and attach using screws
  • Once all four walls are attached to the base, attach the top panel to the walls


Step 2: Arduino and Circuit Board Setup

Step 3: Motor and Linear Motion Setup

  • Attach the U-shaped metal piece to the center of the base plate
  • secure a bearing block to an inside wall of the piece
  • insert an axle
  • attach the gear to one side of the axle and the servo motor to the other side
  • Attach the linear motion sliders to the base plate
  • make sure the rail will line up with the gear
  • attach the gear rails to the metal rail
  • slide the metal rail into the linear motion sliders
  • Secure the Servo Motor
  • attach an L-shaped metal piece to the base plate
  • add an additional flat metal piece to the top of the L piece
  • using gold motor screws, secure the servo motor to the flat metal plate


Step 4: Assembling the Hydraulics

  • Add long tubes to the 1-way syringes.
  • Add the big syringe to the end of the water source tube.
  • Attach a small syringe to the end of the tube that pull and pushes the water.
  • place the end of the syringe that the come out from in the plant.

Step 5: Write the Code