Building Your Own DIY Greenhouse: A Guide to Automation

You just finished building your own DIY greenhouse, and you're eager to share it with others. In this article, we'll take a closer look at how you can automate your watering system using a simple yet effective method.

Creating an Automated Watering System

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After completing the main structure of your greenhouse, you realized that manual watering might not be the most efficient solution. That's when you decided to create an automated watering system that would water your plants with minimal effort. To achieve this, you needed a few key components: a large rainwater barrel, a water level sensor, and a solenoid valve.

The first component required was a big rainwater barrel, which would collect water from the roof or other sources. You placed it right next to the greenhouse, allowing gravity to do most of the work in filling the barrel. With that being said, what about the electronic side of things?

Connecting the Water Level Sensor

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Connecting the water level sensor was pretty straightforward. You connected one side to GND and the other side to pin A0 of the LoRa board, which used its internal pull-up resistor to pull the input up to 3.3V. As soon as there was enough water in the barrel, the sensor's buoy would rise up, close its internal reed switch, and let the LoRa board know that it could activate the solenoid valve.

The Solenoid Valve

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Directly connecting the solenoid valve to the LoRa board, however, was not possible. The solenoid required 12V at 1.6A to activate, which the LoRa board both couldn't offer. That's when you had to use a simple relay board, which you connected to pin D4 and the solenoid valve.

Adding a Push Button for Manual Activation

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To provide manual activation, you added a push button from pin A1 and built up the electronics system according to your finalized schematic. The code was pretty much recycled from part 2 of this video series, with only new inputs and outputs added to activate the solenoid valve if the water level sensor said it's fine.

Testing the System

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After uploading the code to the system, you tested it on your workbench according to the finalized schematic. The system behaved just like expected, perfect. And of course, the push button execution did also work just fine.

Drilling a Big Hole in Your Water Barrel

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It was time to break up your test setup and start drilling a big hole into your water barrel. You secured a metal feed-through into which you then screwed your tap. Don't forget to add two more adapters to the tap, making it compatible with a standard garden hose.

Extending the Solenoid Wires

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Almost the last preparations were left to do in your apartment: adding a ton of adapter to your solenoid valve to make it also garden hose compatible. You know that the amount of adapters can be confusing, but you can find more information about them and this project in the video description.

Finishing Up the Electronics

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It was time to place the setup next to your greenhouse, guide all the wires into the chest enclosure, add the push button, and wire it all up according to the schematic. You created a small piece of garden hose and used that to connect the tap with the valve. After laying out the rest of the hose in the greenhouse in the shape of an ellipse, connected that to the other side of the valve, and finally drilled the small holes into the hose.

The Final Test

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After filling the barrel up with water, it was time for a small test. And as you can see, it works pretty well! Of course, you will have to fine-adjust the amount of holes and distances to one another but I would say that this system is more than sufficient for watering my plants when I am on vacation or something similar.

Conclusion

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And that ends my greenhouse automation series for me. I hope that I inspired you to try out something similar in the future. As always, thanks for watching! Don't forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSo you just finished building your own DIYgreenhouse which I partly showed you how todo in a previous video.But you completed it by adding more aluminiumtape to the roof as well as an aluminium ledgeto the roof tip and let's not forget aboutproper handles for the door.You also took the liberty to create a simplewood square with the help of metal brackets,attached hinges to it as well as a twin wallsheet piece and cut out a rectangle out ofyour greenhouses twin wall sheets in orderto attach that wood square there to createa proper window.All that is now left to do is to get yourplants in there and enjoy gardening but thenyou suddenly realize something.While you do have a reliable source of waterin your garden and visit your garden every2 days which means that watering by hand shouldnot be a problem, wouldn't it be awesome toautomate that process?I mean that is also what lots of viewers askedfor after watching part 2 of my greenhouseautomation video series.And that is exactly what I will be showingyou in this video by creating an automatedwatering system that will water the plantsin my greenhouse by either pushing a buttonnext to it or by sending a command throughthe internet if I am on vacation or somethingsimilar.Let's get started!This video is sponsored by JLCPCB!Feel free to visit their website JLCPCB.comto not only find out what awesome PCB andAssembly services they offer but also to easilyupload your Gerber files and thus order affordableand high quality PCBs quickly.Now before getting to the DIY watering systemto which you can skip by following this timemark, I have to address the big elephant inthe room.What happened to the electronics when theold greenhouse got destroyed and in whichway did I install them in the new greenhouse.Well first off, most of the electronics didsurvive without a problem like the battery,solar panel, solar charge controller and temperature/humiditysensor.But sadly the motorized window opener losta part, the main LoRa board had its antennaconnector ripped off and the wood chest asthe enclosure did also not survive.But thankfully I got a LoRa board replacementlying around and ordering another wood chestwas also not difficult.So after painting the chest, I added the previouslycreated roof to it, drilled holes into itsbackside, added the mandatory 5V regulatorto the new LoRa board, placed all the electronicsinside the enclosure, mounted the solar panelto the roof, hung the temperature sensor insidethe greenhouse, guided all the wires intothe chest and finally wired everything upin pretty much the same way as I showed youin part 1 of this video series.What is noteworthy though, is that now securingwires inside the greenhouse is much easierto do due to the used wood into which I canhammer all kinds of things.And also I used a new kind of antenna; notonly for the greenhouse end but also for theLoRa gateway in my apartment which makes theconnection between both sides super stable.Now you might be asking yourself why I didn'trepair my motorised window opener and installedit and the reason is simplicity.For a simpler but also reliable solution Iinstead went with such automatic temperaturecontrolled window opener.After installing them to my wooden frame andwindows with a couple of screws, they requireno electricity at all in order to open upthe windows when it gets too hot inside thegreenhouse.They do so with a liquid inside them thatexpands when they get hot and thus they pushthe windows open, it's so simple its brilliant.OK and now that we are all up to date withthe electronics installed inside the greenhouse,how do we make an automated watering system?Well, the first component required was sucha big rainwater barrel that can hold 300L.My idea is that I will attach a water levelsensor at the lower part of the barrel, underneathwhich I will also mount a tap.The tap will then connect to a solenoid valvethrough a common garden hose which will alsobe used after the valve and inside the greenhousein order to basically distribute the waterin there.To achieve that I simply had to add a sealingend to the hose and drill 3.5mm holes intoit so that water can escape there and watermy plants.So the mechanical side of things is prettystraightforward; when the solenoid valve isturned on and thus open, the weight of thewater creates a force that pushes it out ofthe garden hose.But you might be asking yourself why I didn'tuse a normal pump to get water from my usualwater well into the greenhouse.Well, the reason is that my groundwater startsat a depth of around 3m and bringing thatup requires quite a bit of energy and a powerfulpump which my 12V 44Ah battery will not beable to power for long.Also my water well is 5m away from my greenhouseand I didn't feel like running wires and hosesover such a distance.That is why I placed my barrel right nextto the greenhouse, let gravity do most ofthe work and fill the barrel either up withrain or with other rain water I collectedin different barrels.And with that being said, what about the electronicsside of things?Well, connecting the water level sensor waspretty straightforward by connecting one sideto GND and the other side to pin A0 of theLoRa board which will use its internal pullup resistor to pull the input up to 3.3V.As soon as there is enough water in the barrel,the sensors buoy will rise up, close its internalreed switch and thus will let the LoRa boardknow that it can activate the solenoid vale.Now directly connecting this valve to theLoRa board however was not possible, becausethe solenoid requires 12V at 1.6A to activatewhich the LoRa board both can not offer.So I had to use such a simple relay boardwhich I connected to pin D4 and the solenoidvalve like this.Last but not least I added a push button formanual activation to pin A1 and built up theelectronics system for some testing on myworkbench according to this finalized schematic.What was missing though was the code whichI pretty much recycled from part 2 of thisvideo series; by only adding the new inputsand outputs, activating the solenoid if acode word is sent and the water level sensorsays I am fine with it or activating the solenoidmanually with the button if the water levelsensor is also fine with it.So after uploading this code to the system,we can see that by sending over the code word,the system behaves just like expected, perfect.And of course the push button execution didalso work just fine.That means it was time to break up my testsetup and start drilling a big hole into mywater barrel.In there I secured a metal feed-through, intowhich I then screwed my tap.And let's not forget to add two more adaptersto the tap which makes it compatible witha standard garden hose.As soon as that was done, I drilled anotherhole a bit higher and to the left from thetap in order to mount the water level sensorthere.Almost the last preparations I then had todo in my apartment, was to add a ton of adaptersto my solenoid valve in order to make it alsogarden hose compatible.I know that the amount of adapters can bea bit confusing, but you can find more informationabout them and this project in the video description.Also do not forget to add sealing tape toall the thread connections to make them trulywaterproof.And with the valve finally complete, all thatwas left for me to do indoors was to extentnot only the solenoid wires but also the wiresof the water level sensor.Then it was finally time to place the setupnext to my greenhouse, guide all the wiresinto the chest enclosure, also add the pushbutton to it and wire it all up accordingto the schematic.Then I created a small piece of the gardenhose and used that to connect the tap withthe valve.Afterwards I laid out the rest of the hosein the greenhouse in the shape of an ellipse,connected that to the other side of the valveand finally drilled the small holes into thehose.And after filling the barrel up with water,it was time for a small test and as you cansee it works pretty well.Of course I will have to fine adjust the amountof holes and the distances to one anotherbut I would say that this system is more thansufficient for watering my plants when I amon vacation or something similar.And that ends my greenhouse automation seriesfor me and I hope that I inspired you to maybetry out something similar in the future.As always thanks for watching.Don't forget to like, share, subscribe andhit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time!