2. Diary report - TheMedin/Som9k GitHub Wiki
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2.1 Description of your concept and its updates
Soil-o-moisturizer 9000 is a device for automatically watering a plant. This is useful for when you are not around to water the plant yourself, or are too forgetful or lazy to do it, or just want to concentrate your efforts elsewhere. It consists of a water bottle, a micro controller, a valve and a moisture sensor.
2.2 Diary of the process
Week 1
We brainstormed via text chat and came up with several ideas but finally chose automated watering system.
What we have learned and did:
Sami:
This week I studied some basic electronics and checked tools we are using for this project.
Otso:
Brainstorming.
Week 2
This week we met and refined our idea and drew new scetch(es). TODO: add scetch(es?) We also made a scarce bill of materials which we update when we know better what components we need.
What we have learned and did:
Sami:
Glanced at Fusion and studied some basics of Eagle.
Otso:
Brainstorming, sketches, learning about possibilities in FabLab.
Week 3
Wednesday (April 4) we grouped up at FabLab and started working on an example board.
We designed board using Eagle and exported image which we converted to correct format using fabmodules.org. After that we had to wait quite a long time for our turn to mill the board using the SRM-20.
Our board turned out to be too large but apparently using mac computer might be the culprit (according to Antti).
We think that we could make our own sensor for measuring moisture.
What we have learned and did:
Sami:
Because we had to mill own board I have been learning how to use Eagle and practiced with schematic and layout designs following a provided tutorial.
Otso:
Paid attention to all the surprisingly numerous ways to screw up PCB milling. Pondered suitable UI and parts. Acquired arduino, servo, buttons.
Jaakko:
Thought about ideas for the open/close mechanism for the machine
Week 4
First UI sketch features potentiometers. Upper potentiometer is used to set how dry the soil should be allowed to get before watering starts. The second is used to set how wet the soil should be before watering stops. Legends would be printed on a plate through which the potentiometers would stick out.
Second UI sketch features three indicator LEDs and two pushbuttons. The first pushbutton toggles through three water dosage sizes. The second is used to set the "dry" point. The idea is to stick the moisture sensor in dry soil and reset the current reading as the point at which watering should start.
What we have learned and did:
Otso:
Drew sketches.
Sami:
Pondering different ideas.
Jaakko:
Pondered ideas
Week 5 (mid-term presentation)
Otso:
Made slideshow for presentation.
Sami:
More or less similar to last week. Big changes in personal life this week.
Jaakko:
similiar to last week
Week 6
first draft of our 3d print, we did not print that in the end because it was little bulky and awkward.
we ended up printing this. we are really happy how it turned out.
What we learned and did:
Jaakko:
I learned to use the 3d printer
Sami:
Did little to nothing this week because still distracted by last week's happenings.
Otso:
Concept iteration.
Week 7
What we learned and did:
Sami:
I created a rough Tinkercad simulation with some arduino code.
Otso:
Played with tinkered simulation.
Week 8
What we learned and did:
Sami:
I wrote more code for arduino and polished Tinkercad simulation a bit.
https://www.tinkercad.com/things/9BSnmUKycbb
Jaakko:
Polished the 3d printed design
Otso:
Concept iteration.
Week 9 (Final Presentation)
This week was pretty hectic because we decided to make our own water container, we had to mill final version of the shield and write working code for arduino. On top of these we stiched up some kind of presentation at the last morning.
What we learned and did:
Sami:
I did images for shield using Eagle. I also learned how to use laser-cutter. I also wrote some code.
Jaakko:
Did the water tank using laser cutter
Otso:
Milled and soldered the board, wrote some code.
Week 12
Otso:
Repaired PCB after some solder joint and copper traces had broken loose. Finished code to work correctly with moisture sensor and calibration, added some UI niceties such as LED blinking.