1. Principles and practices¶
This week I worked on defining my final project idea and started to getting used to the documentation process.
Research¶
the main idea for my final project is an indoor hydroponics system, it should be fully automatic, require minimum care from its owner, and should look good and fit the aesthetics of a modern home.
example photo from Supragarden website.
a simple vertical hydroponics system consists of a reservoir that holds the water with nutrients, a column of some sort to hold the plants and their roots, and a pump to circulate the water to the plants.
for my project the tank part is going to have a auto dosing system, first i’ll need to measure what i control, a PH sensor measures the ph level which helps the plants to absorb nutrants, and I can have a separate container for a PH modifire to keep the water in a desired level, an EC sensor measures the electrical conductivity of the water which should five an indication about the amount of nutrents in the system.
volumetric pumps are needed to top a precise amount of either PH modifier or nutrient solution when needed.
from my research, I found that PH tends to get higher with hydroponics systems, therefore I will only need to top PH reducing solutions, but if that wasn’t enough I will need to add 2 PH modifiers topping systems one for reducing it and the other for increasing it.
for the nutrients solution, if one is enough that’s great, if not I will need more control over several nutrients solutions, the project has to have 2 or 3 nutrients topping systems.
the column should look good wires or pluming should be contained within the column itself, and it should be easy to detach from the tank for ease of maintenance and moving.
Here is an intial design for it, I will keep updating it as I am working on it.