Plant Watering Machine
an Arduino-controlled smart 4-plant watering machine
Overview
I designed a 4-plant customizable watering machine that allows you to water plants with different needs.
Front view
Back view
The 16 squishy LED buttons allow the user to costuming the watering cycle and amount of water for each of the 4 plants
The valves are made of servo motors.
Arduino UNO
An Arduino UNO controls a peristaltic pump circuit, LED interface and 4 servo motors.
An Arduino UNO controls the LED interface and the servo motors.
Peristaltic pump and tubing.
Valve Design
One of the hardest problems of this project was the mechanical design of the valves. I tried to design the valve three times and only the last time worked.
1.
In the first iteration, I built a valve with two crossing screws such that when the servo rotates, it “pinches” the tube to stop the water from flowing. However, this design was not good, because first of all, the tube was too hard to pinch, and second, the cross shape of the plastic base always trip on the tube and move the tube away.
2.
Soft tube
Hard tube
For the second iteration, I ordered softer tubes that made it possible for the servo to stop water from flowing. In the above pictures, you can see the soft tube is much easier to bend.
3.
In the third iteration, I remade the valves with round plastic base and wide apart screws. The crossing screws might cut the tube open. So I designed another version of the valve where the screws won’t pinch the tube, but rather stretch the tube. The soft tube is flexible enough to be stretched. The round plastic base also allows the tube to stay in place when the valve rotates.
Final valve design
Laser cut
I designed and laser cut the body of the watering machine.
3D shelf design
Schematic