When you’re trying to grow a bunch of plants in a field where a water source is lacking, things can be a bit tough. Hauling water on-site is a very arduous process, even with a tractor/trailer full of buckets. After hauling 5-gallon buckets to water blueberry bushes for months, we began to work on a better reservoir irrigation system that was cheap and easy to automate with expandable capacity.

To store water, we decided to use a 55-gallon drum. The drum provides enough water for just over a week of watering every other day. We plan on adding another barrel with a siphon hose connecting it to the main barrel for additional capacity.

After deciding that a gravity-fed system would be inadequate, we purchased a very inexpensive 1250 GPH bilge pump. As cheap as it is, this pump provides enough pressure to water an entire row of blueberry bushes. If you are planning on a more extensive system, you likely need a more powerful pump (more about this later).

We added garden-hose threaded adapters to both the hose of our bilge pump and the intake of our watering line. Having a garden hose adapter for the bilge pump line allows us to use garden hose and sprayer nozzles to water other plants, if needed. Note that an in-line anti-siphon valve is necessary to prevent water from constantly flowing out–we eventually added one after these photos were taken.

We used standard black irrigation tubing and spray nozzles for our watering lines. This hose is incredibly cheap and the spray nozzles are about $.50 apiece. These nozzles are adjustable, allowing them to work with the very low water pressure that the bilge pump provides. Our watering hoses are laid on the ground, however lines can be suspended over plants on stakes if necessary (this help keeps dirt and other particles out of the nozzles).

We terminated the end of our watering line with a garden hose connector as well, mating nicely with the connector on the bilge pump hose.

We laid our tubing along the ground without stakes initially, however we ended up staking down the hose between every nozzle to keep it from moving around.

The setup itself is not incredibly unsightly and does a great job of watering plants in locations that don’t have a source of water close by. If the barrel is topped up every so often, watering is quick and easy.

Future Plans

In the near future (likely next season), I plan on adding automation to the system with a relay, microcontroller, and RTC chip. I am developing this system while at school for my small-scale indoor automated watering solution (documentation to come soon).

In addition, we have purchased an RV pressure-regulated water pump with much greater capacity, allowing us to water more plants and some of our fruit trees next season. If you need greater capacity for your watering system, you can buy one of these pumps for about $50 on eBay. If you need greater water capacity, you can add additional 55-gallon barrels with siphon hoses between them. This is an easy way to increase capacity without making any changes to your existing system.

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Features

• Displays set point and current temperature information on LCD
• Rotary encoder adjusts temperature targets without a computer
• Intuitive serial interface, compatible with the BBBC grapher
• Steam and extraction modes with separate temperature targets
• Simple configuration in “Options.h”

Supported Hardware (Version .2)

• 1 rotary encoder with pushbutton (software debounced)
• 1 SparkFun serial LCD
• 1 piezo buzzer (beeps when preheated)
• 1 zero-crossing solid-state relay
• 1 MAX6675 thermocouple chip (free samples available from Maxim IC)
• Additional Details

Average Hardware Cost

The entire project can be built for around $40 (not including an Arduino) assuming you acquire a free sample of the MAX6675 chip. ZonCoffee (as of .2) requires an ATMega168 or higher. The sketch is around 14kB compiled.

Plans for future versions:

• Support for additional thermocouple chips (have defines in options.h to choose which to compile)
• Support for additional display types. Possibly abstract display output functions.
• “No LCD” mode (use LED for indication).
• Release version tailored to PID for popper coffee roasting

Download

• ZonCoffee .2 [zip]
• ZonCoffee .2 [gz]

Many DIY projects that people attempt these days include internet connectivity, logging, gps tracking, sensor data storage, and remote control. People have used xBee, GPS modules, and extra hardware to integrate all of these features, but there is a much simpler way–using an iDen pay-as-you-go phone.

Older iDen models (check out eBay) have serial ports on them, which can be used for computer interfacing and for Arduino connectivity. USB models cannot interface with an arduino, so go for a serial version. You will also need a serial cable for the phone. If you’re cheap, you can solder up some wires directly to the phone, as the cable is usually a bit pricey. Break out your needle-tip iron and get to work!

The best feature of the phone, perhaps, is internet connectivity. Load any browser or j2me app on it via the serial cable, and you instantly have internet access. And it’s free. Don’t activate the “mobile internet” option that costs 20c per day, that merely unlocks the WAP browser. J2ME apps can access the internet without any subscription, which opens the door to many features.

One of the easiest features to use is GPS tracking (great for weather balloons!). Just load up mologogo on the phone, and you instantly have a web-viewable GPS tracker. You can also attach an external antenna to the phone for added reception in shielded environments (peel up the black sticker near the battery compartment to reveal the connector).

An added benefit of the phone is simultaneous java application running. You can be running mologogo for GPS tracking while running your own custom app for arduino interfacing. Speaking of app creation for arduino interfacing, check out Mobile Processing. Mobile processing will allow you to create processing sketches that can run on your iDen phone, allowing you to interface with the internet and the arduino via serial. Check out five.b.oh, a great resource for connecting your phone with your Arduino via Mobile Processing.

Have any projects or ideas using an iDen phone and an AVR/arduino? Drop us some comments. If you have an interesting project, we might just feature it on the site.

Note: A boost mobile iDen phone can be had for 10-30 bucks, depending on where you get it (ebay, or a retailer). These phones come with $10 of free minutes, and 30 days of activation, so for a short-term project, additional minute-purchasing won’t be needed. For continuous use, the phone can be kept activated by adding $10 to it every 3 months, which works out to $3.33 per month.

What The Current Code Does:

• Takes a photo via usb pulse sequence
• Rotates X degrees
• Takes a photo via usb pulse sequence
• ^REPEAT^
• When it goes 360 degrees, it rotates 360 degrees in the opposite direction
  • Keeps the camera cable from wrapping around the base
• Operation pauses, waits for user input
  • At this time, the user tilts the camera to a different angle
  • After tilting, the user presses the button on pin 10
• The camera begins this sequence again

Features

• 360 Degree rotation
• .9 Degree Accuracy per shot
• Programmable Delay
• USB Shutter Control
• Portable

Parts

• Arduino Microcontroller
• Stepper Motor (1.9 Degree step or less recommended)
• Some sort of battery for standalone operation
• A Supported Camera
• A tripod (old all-metal tripods with bolt interconnects are best)
• Bolts and nuts to fit your motor and tripod
• Scrap wood or sheet metal (Sheet metal recommended for camera arm)
• Set Screw and metal tube to fit around motor shaft (or use whatever you have lying around)

Supports

• Canon S* IS Series
• All other cameras that support CHDK

Sample Panorama

Resources:

• PanoBot Code