Applications and Implications

Majority of our population are relays on agricultural sector it is one of the major income source of kerlites. Thought kerala is very rich in its culture and biodiversity it is not a good place for largescale aggriculture . most of the land area is inclined not level surface . Since it is harder to use use more machines due to the landscape . The common aggricultural productes of rural keralites are rubber,nutmeg,spices etc. Watering these plants during the summer is a crucial part of aggriculture in kerala .Sice it is not evonomical to afford multiple waterpumps .Most of the villages use a single pump and divert the waterflow using valves. Since the aggriculture lands are arranged in step like fasion the valves are placed in each stages . After watering a purticular area the farner have to go to the next stage and change the valve to divert the waterflow towards another set of srinklers or drip irrigation system.So my project is an IOT connected solar powerd water valve which could be controlled by a user's smartphone.

I have gone through the Archive to see any projects similar to mine. But unfortunately I couldn't find anything . But i found some projects which could be helpful to me in the sense of designing a board with esp8266 etc. I found some intersting garden watering systems in google but there isn't enough information available to learn much about it.

I had to design the electronics as well as the mechanical parts for the project . I had to 3d print the actuator housing and some space to mount my electronics . For the water controlling valve i fount it is difficult to 3d print it because it is hard to maintain such low tolerences .Also 3d printing is porous enought to pass water through it .So I decided to buy a commercially available valve .For the actuation part I designed a worm gear mehanisam which can provide a high torq ratio in a minimum form factor. I choosed an esp8266 chip for my board because it has integrated wifi and some gpio inp for controlling my motors also.

The parts which are needed to be made by me are the worme gear box and the gears to drive the valve , enclosure to accomodate all components.motor controller,Battary management unit,Pcb to accomodate esp8266

• 3d printing To make the worm gear and the enclosure
• PCB Designing To make the main control board which include the esp8266 , motor driver , if possible the battary management unit and and the boost converter.
• PCB Production To make my main pcb
• Laser Cutting To make the spur gear
• Vinyl Cutting For decorating the product
• 3D printing For making worm gear and the enclosure
• resin coating To make the enclosure water proof.

• How to create maximum torqu in minimum form factor?
  Ans :- Use worm , planetary or friction gears sysyrm since worm gear is easier to make I must go for it.
• How to interconnect multiple devices ?
  Ans :- The best option is to use a wifi router .Also esp8266 have some mesh networking frameworkes are available since none of them are matured enouhg it is difficult to estimate their reliablility.
• How to efficiently manage a lithium Ion battary ?
  Ans :- There are some dedicated ICs for battary management are available.These are much faster than implimenting the algorithem on a micocontroller..

An IoT controlled water valve has a lot of scope in our surrounding itself . My project is a minimal approch to solve a much bigger problem. This is a humble attempt based on my learnings that I accured during my weekly assignments. I would also like to develop it as a viable product.