Overview
Measure -> React -> Monitor
Measurement
An important factor for plant growth is soil moisture. The adjacent picture shows a common soil moisture sensor attached to an Arduino micro-controller board. A sensors transfers a physical properties into an electrical signal, which can be digitized at the micro-controller level and made available as data to be processed.
Reaction
With measurement comes the ability to react. For example, we can automate irrigation by turning ON a water pump when the soil moisture gets dry. Analog threshold switches can be used, as well as digital, software-based threshold switches, the later being more versatile. With digital processing using micro-controllers we can easily integrate multiple sensors inputs and use sophisticated logic to produce responses.
Monitor
Digitizing data from sensors allows us sent it over the Internet, and to access it from anywhere, anytime. That forms the basis of monitoring. User interfaces are used to render the data into a visual form easy to understand.
Monitoring is the lowest level in an IoT system. On top of monitoring we can add remote control.
As many devices are added and connected, another IoT layer can be built, management and logistics.
Ultimately, a business model is built on top of everything.
Quality Control
To ensure the GrowSense devices are stable, a number of automated testing systems have been implemented. See more here.
Simplified Setup Scripts
To make the GrowSense device easy to set up a number of helper scripts have been created.
View the source code setup guide for detailed instructions on preparing the source code and the networking guide for instructions on how to set up networked GrowSense devices.
Some examples of the most important ones are shown below...
Source Code Setup
One line automatic source code clone and prepare. Just copy and paste into a terminal.
wget
wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GreenSense/Index/master/setup-from-github.sh | sh
curl
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GreenSense/Index/master/setup-from-github.sh | sh -s
Garden Setup
sh create-garden.sh
Create Device
Create Monitor Device
sh create-garden-monitor.sh "Monitor1" monitor1 ttyUSB0
Create Irrigator Device
sh create-garden-irrigator.sh "Irrigator1" irrigator1 ttyUSB0