Sony Arouje

After the successful completion of my Aeroponic Contoller V3. I started designing the next version of the PCB. This time I decided to package every thing in a single board. In V3, controller depends on external relay modules to on/off devices. In the new version Relays are inbuilt. One of the major change in the new version is, the system is controlled by a bare bone Arduino using Atmega328. The new board has all the features of V3 plus some new features.

The board has several debugging features which allow me to monitor the internal activity of the system via a serial monitor. The board also has the ability to communicate to an external Arduino via I2C, this feature is very essential in case of testing and bug fixing.

V4 Controller with inbuilt Relay modules

V3 Controller with external relay modules

The below system is currently operational at my home. As you can see the system uses 4 external relay modules.

Features of the Controller system

Controlling Water Pump: One of the crucial part of Hydroponic/Aeroponic system is the cycling of water in periodic intervals. A water pump is used to cycle the water. The controller should be able to switch on motor in a particular interval and keep it on for a configured time. Say run motor every 30 mins and keep it on for 3 mins. This settings can be configured from the mobile application.

Nutrient Feeder: In Aeroponic/Hydroponic the fertilizers (called as nutrients) are mixed into the water. In normal scenario we need to add it manually, the system uses two dosage pumps to add nutrients. We can add nutrients two way, either via the mobile app or by manually pressing a button. Through mobile app, we can specify how may ml of nutrients need to mixed to water.

Nutrient Mixer: Used a small wave maker to mix the nutrients while adding it.

Maintain Reservoir Water Level: One of the important thing to consider is, the water pump should not dry run, if it does then ready to buy a new one. In this version, used water level sensors to know the water level. The system used a solenoid valve, which is connected to a water source. When the water level goes down to a set level, system will activate the valve and start filling the reservoir. Once the water reaches a set level, system will switch off the valve.

pH Feeder: This is a new feature, it’s very similar to Nutrient feeder. Instead of adding nutrients this feeder adds pH modifier like Phosphoric acid or similar modifiers to correct the pH level of the water.

Real Time Clock: To deal with time critical logics.

WiFi Module: Allow the system to communicate with Internet, this allow me to control the system from any where in the world.

Communication with the Controller: I am reusing the Android application I wrote for V3. As of now the system talks via Bluetooth.