An inexpensive alternative
In the previous post (Automated Gardening: Drip Irrigation System) , I had thought there was a huge initial capital investment for the tubing; however, turns out regular drip tubing is very inexpensive.
Game On
Due to this revelation, I will commence the parts accumulation in parallel to my other running projects (this may make life much easier for my plants, which I only water once a week).
We can also try to estimate the exact amount of water used in the process!
One Bucket Design
In order to keep the system simple, we’ll have the hose start and finish in the water reservoir, and we’ll poke holes in the sides of the hose along the way.
We can control the amount of water added by setting the pump to go only for a certain amount of time (might be easily done with the solid-state-relay and the arduino).
Weaving
The one problem I’m thinking is that we can’t put the hose above the plants (would block some of the light) — so we’ll have to weave it in at the edges (maybe with some gaffer’s tape or duct tape to hold it in place).