Category: Hiroko’s Status Report

This week,  all of us met in person to finish integrating our individual work into one project. Kanon and I did more testing on the greenhouse control system to make sure that users can control all environmental variables including the heating, soil moisture, and lighting schedule. I also worked with Sarah to integrate the Raspberry Pi and camera into the greenhouse system.

We also created our final poster, and started working on our video. We individually recorded our audio and I pasted them together on iMovie, so we only have to get the visuals (pictures, diagrams, and video clips) together for the video to be finished.

Next week, we will work on the final report, and get ready for the final demo.

This week, I worked on testing and measuring the data transmission speed between the software and hardware, waterproofed the soil moisture sensors, and worked on the final presentation slides.

Kanon and I worked on testing and measuring the data transmission speed between the website and hardware. In our design review presentation, we had requirements and testing metrics for the data transmission speed and so far, it looks like we meet those requirements.

I contacted Quinn about heat shrink tubes to waterproof the soil moisture sensors, and luckily, there were some for use in the ECE lab. I was able to use the heat shrink tubes to cover up the electrical components on the soil moisture sensor.

So far, I am on schedule. Next week, I plan on finishing up testing the hardware requirements, and start working on the final video/poster.

This week, I prepared for the ethics discussion and finished adjusting the wire length of all of the electrical components. I ordered the junction box to enclose the electrical components early last week, but Amazon removed the item from its website, so I had to order a similar item. This delayed the arrival of the junction box by a week, and I just received it today.

The junction box arrived a week later than expected, which delayed the testing process. I am planning on testing the sensor data accuracy/lag to make sure that our sensors meet our greenhouse requirements with Kanon as soon as possible. Sarah is also planning to install the camera and RPi onto the greenhouse next week, so we are planning on integrating the camera into the greenhouse system soon.

This week, I adjusted the watering tube to distribute water more evenly to the plants, and started adjusting the wire length of the components so that I can figure out the specific layout of the electrical components. I need to order a case to enclose the electrical components in, so I did some research and found some junction boxes on Amazon that would be suitable for our greenhouse. I also spent some time working on the ethics assignment.

I spent more time on the ethics assignment than I would’ve liked to this week, but I think I am still on schedule and ready for our demo. I plan on ordering the junction box next week and finish adjusting the wire length of all of the electrical components so that I can place everything in the junction box when it arrives. Also, I am planning on testing the sensor data accuracy/lag to make sure that our sensors meet our greenhouse requirements.

This week, I connected the water pumps to the relay system that I assembled last week, and measured the flow rate of the water pump. Kanon and I met up and calibrated the soil moisture sensors in order to figure out when and how long to turn the water pumps on for. I planted the pea shoot plants earlier this week, so we used the soil to test the soil moisture sensors and water pumps. We also tested communications between ESP32 and AWS by sending sensor data to AWS, using the data and user inputs from the website to determine when to turn the greenhouse components on/off, and sending the on/off commands from AWS to ESP32.

Overall, I think I am on schedule. Next week, I plan on adjusting the watering tube to distribute water more evenly to the plant, and figure out where to physically place and connect the components in the greenhouse. I will need to adjust the wire length of all of the components connected to the ESP32 and determine the specific layout of the electrical components so that I can order a case with the right dimensions to enclose the electrical components in.

Last week, I was able to go to the ECE lab to solder the light intensity sensor and connect it to the ESP32 board to obtain the sensor readings. Now I have all of the sensors connected to the ESP32, and can obtain all of the sensor readings. I also worked with Kanon to set up the connection between AWS IoT and ESP32, and was successfully able to send data to AWS and receive data from AWS. Also, I spent a substantial amount of time last week finishing up the design review report with my teammates.

This week, all of the components for the relay controlled outlet box arrived, so I soldered and assembled all of the parts. I also wrote Arduino code to be able to control the relays from messages received by AWS, which Kanon and I tested by actually using the website backend to remotely control the relays.

Overall, I think I am on schedule. Next week, I plan on calibrating and testing the individual components of the greenhouse and planting the pea shoot seeds so that they are ready by the interim demo. I want to measure the flow rate of the water pump, light intensity of the LED plant lights, sensitivity/accuracy of the soil moisture sensor, etc., so that Kanon can use the information to create an algorithm to determine when to turn the system on/off.

This week I received all of the parts that we ordered, and was able to start building the physical greenhouse. I was able to put together the greenhouse shelf and connected the temperature sensor and soil moisture sensor to the ESP32 board. I also installed the Arduino IDE and the necessary sensor libraries on my laptop and was able to successfully upload some code to the ESP32 board to read the sensor readings. I haven’t touched the light intensity sensor since it needs to be soldered.

Also, we spent some time this week starting to write the design review report. I wrote the abstract, introduction, and design requirements, and currently in the process of writing the system specifications for the hardware subsystem.

Overall, I think I am on schedule, but would’ve liked to have the soldering/relay wiring done this week. I’m hoping that I can get a time slot early next week in the labs to solder/wire the relays. Once I get all of the sensors connected, I will try getting the sensor data sent to AWS over wifi. I will also be finishing up the design review report next week with my teammates.

This week, I continued to do more research on the specific types of sensors and equipment that we would need to physically build the greenhouse system. Using the information I gathered and the feedback we got from our weekly meeting with the instructors, I refined the shopping list and block diagram that I created last week. After that, I filled out the purchase request forms for the items on the updated shopping list, and filled out the form to request TechSpark access in order to wire the sensors to the ESP32 and solder the temperature sensor. 

While processing our purchase request forms, Quinn contacted me about our order from Home Depot saying that it may be better for me to pick the items up directly from Home Depot since Home Depot uses their own drivers, which requires us to arrange a specific delivery date and time to receive the order. Therefore, I took the bus to the Wilkins Home Depot in order to pick up the LED plant grow lights on Friday. I was also able to drop by HH 1307 in order to pick up a breadboard and some wires on Friday as well.

Also, we spent time this week putting together the design review presentation slides. I added the slides that had to do with the hardware aspect of our project, and created a visual image of what I imagine the greenhouse will look like when it’s assembled.

Overall, I think I am on schedule. I’m hoping that the orders will start arriving next week, so that I can start assembling the greenhouse and programming the ESP32 boards. I will also be working on the design review report next week with my teammates.

This week, I practiced presenting our proposal presentation earlier in the week, and continued to do more research on the specific types of sensors and equipment that we would need to physically build the greenhouse system. Using the information I gathered on these topics, I started to create the block diagram for the hardware side of the greenhouse. Drawing the diagram helped me break down the project into smaller parts, and helped me think about the small details that I hadn’t noticed before.

 

Also, taking into account the feedback that we received from our status reports that we submitted last week, I created a rough shopping list of the parts that we would need to build the greenhouse (excluding the camera, since Sarah is in charge of them). There definitely needs to be more work done on the shopping list, since I need to contact the ECE lab to see if I can borrow some parts, and I realized there are some parts that I do not know if I need them until I start building the greenhouse.

Overall, I think I am on schedule. Next week, I hope to complete the shopping list by communicating with the TA and the ECE lab technician, and start submitting purchase request forms. Also, I would like to finalize my block diagram and integrate it with the software side of the project, and work on other parts of the design review presentation slides.

This week, I did some more research on the specific types of sensors and equipment that we would need to physically build a greenhouse system. Since we need to send the sensor data and commands to the system over wifi, I looked into “smart” sensors and water irrigation systems that come with the capacity to connect to wifi, as well as ways to connect analog sensors to wifi using various equipment such as RPi, STM32, ESP32, Arduino Uno, etc. We needed to decide on how we were going to water the plants, so I did some research on the pros and cons of various watering systems such as sprinklers, drip irrigation, surface irrigation, etc.

We also took into consideration the feedback we got from our abstract and decided we needed a more quantitative requirement for our greenhouse. Using the research Sarah did on plants, specifically pea shoots, I came up with specific metrics (temp, soil moisture percentage, light intensity) to determine the success and effectiveness of the greenhouse.

Using the information I gathered on these topics, I created slides in the proposal presentation that had to do with the hardware and sensor systems of our project. Overall, we are on schedule to submit our proposal presentation slides on time and give our presentation next Tuesday.

Next week, I hope to narrow down the equipment that we need for our project by doing more research and receiving feedback from our proposal presentation. I plan on making a spreadsheet with specs and prices of the various components to make sure we have everything that we need within the budget. I also plan on looking up documentation and repos of similar projects that are online.