This weekend I’ll be rolling over to the Despot to get some PVC pipes and fittings. We have a tiny garden, but it’s a pain to water. The obvious solution would be find a way to keep it watered with minimal effort. So of course, that means overbuilding and overthinking something.
The garden consists of three height tiers, with varied planters and boxes at each tier. The plants are all roughly grouped by needs, but the needs of even any one tier are all over the place. So I’m thinking I’ll do a master line from one end of the garden to the other. Throughout the line I’ll throw T-junctions, with each one having it’s own ball valve. This way I can keep all the flows calibrated to a given plant group.
I have few soil moisture sensors now, that I’ll use for measuring moisture, as well as profiling some home brew ones, once I get them built. I want to go wireless, but that’s going to take a bit more doing. I’d need to design the enclosure(s), choose a battery or two, add some solar panels and charge circuitry for the box, tamper and water proof everything. You know, a lot of stuff. Which means I’m totally going to go wireless. Note to self, always go big.
Questions:
- Is cat5 weatherproof enough?
- How to make sure the battery in a sealed box doesn’t torch in the summer?
- How to seal PLA for this kind of use, or do I need to look at something like a metal junction box?
- Should I think about how to add over the air updates?
- Should I go with a directional antenna?
- How do I want to report data?
- When will I be rolling a pair big enough to have this on a relay (or something), so I can just set and verify?