Thanks to the final bit of parts arriving over the past weeks my mentor and I have been able to get a start on building the hydroponic system. My goals for the next little bit include assembling all the parts including putting the lights in, starting growing the baby lettuce so it can start growing hydroponically, and start wrapping up the coding controls from the Arduino to the system.
The two photos below are shots of what the grow site looked like when we got it and what it looked like once I was done building it. As you can see the holes in the top are where the lettuce can grow, and the tubing allows for the water to flow through all the setup except for the legs.
The video that you can see is our very first test of the water running through it. As you can see there is water throughout all the pipes and flowing out the end. If you look at the small motor, you can see that it is pumping water into the tubing that’s attached to the system. This is controlled by a timer switch that can turn it on and off. My plan for that is to switch it out and place an Arduino controller instead so I can Work it into the code instead of it running on its own.
IN-DEPTH NIGHT:
My plan for the in-depth night is to run a small coding set up to show how something like an on-off control works with the Arduino. From there I can explain how that translated into my project and when it was used. I was also thinking of having small nutrients look to set up monitoring the levels and displaying them to people who were walking by. This would help add a little more of an interactive component besides the coding bits.