Arduino Smart Garden Basics

<p>Before you begin, please clear yourself a workspace, gather your Arduino Workbench, Arduino Smart Garden Add-On, garden&nbsp;supplies from your teacher,&nbsp;and get your computer. A notebook and writing utensil are recommended, but not required.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="/api/storage/uploads/legacy-images/4s1m2irb7txkbpjzc8sn7rkoiku0/Basic+Garden+(1).jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /></p>

<p><img alt="Image Source: Canva" src="/api/storage/uploads/legacy-images/c7bhdh5vikd05733rjkc0ingbaoy/Smart+garden.png" style="width: 610px; height: 409px;" /></p>

<p>Welcome to the Arduino Smart Garden: Basics&nbsp;Course! You will be using an Arduino microcontroller and other components&nbsp;to:</p>

<ul>
<li>Wire&nbsp;and code&nbsp;a photoresistor&nbsp;sensor</li>
<li>Use the photoresistor&nbsp;sensor to measure lighting conditions in different growing locations</li>
<li>Wire&nbsp;and code&nbsp;a capacitive soil moisture&nbsp;sensor</li>
<li>Use the capacitive soil moisture sensor&nbsp;to control a relay/pump</li>
<li>Incorporate soil moisture and relay/pump system into a growing system to water pinto beans</li>
</ul>

<p>While gardening and agriculture have been around as long as civilization, the automation of these systems is quite a new advancement. Smart gardening&nbsp;uses technology to provide and manage light,&nbsp;water,&nbsp;nutrients, temperature, and a wide variety of other factors that can influence the growth of plants. This can be done with many readily available and inexpensive devices like an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or similar controller.</p>

<p>Smart gardening has these benefits over traditional gardening methods:</p>

<ul>
<li>Added convenience - Gardening can be a chore. With smart gardening devices, you can automate much of it.</li>
<li>Improved energy efficiency - You can optimize&nbsp;your garden to conserve power and water.</li>
<li>Better productivity - Smart gardening optimizes everything plants need to live, so you should get a better yield from crops.</li>
<li>Digital Green Thumb - If you&#39;re a novice gardener, a smart garden can help you keep your plants alive</li>
</ul>

<p>In this project, we will design and build a smart garden to grow readily available pinto beans. We will be using <a href="https://www.thespruce.com/pinto-beans-growing-guide-7508566">this guide for growing pinto beans</a> and we will refer back to it when we are making decisions about growing conditions and automation.&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>In this step, you will&nbsp;learn about the photoresistor and then create a circuit to help determine the best spot for you to place your Arduino Smart Garden!</p>

<p><img alt="EE Tech Media, https://eepower.com/resistor-guide/resistor-types/photo-resistor/#, No Date" src="/api/storage/uploads/legacy-images/9hne2me314ytsol0bjs3ezn8332s/Photoresistor+picture.png" style="width: 153px; height: 151px;" /></p>

<p>This is a photoresistor. If you are a fan of your Greek and Latin words, you can probably figure out that this is a resistor that is augmented by light. When placed in the dark, photoresistors have very high resistance. But, when interacting with light, they have very low resistance. The little, zig-zag band between the two sides of the photoresistor is very sensitive to light. So as the light increases, it allows more current to flow from one side to another. But, when that light shuts off, the material no longer allows current to flow as freely.</p>

<p>The Arduino can read the change in resistance and tell us how bright something is! And, we are going to be using an analog input. So the values we will get can range from 0 (absolute darkness) to 1023 (super duper bright).&nbsp;</p>

<p>Notice how the photoresistor has a flat side (the side with the zig-zag metal part)? That is most effective when that &quot;face&quot; is pointed directly at a light source. We will do a quick demonstration of that with your cell phone in the next step!</p>

<p>Follow the wiring diagram and video below to wire your photoresistor:</p>

<p><img alt="" src="/api/storage/uploads/legacy-images/yx37ht194c4b9rvh32pumdm8lm57/Photoresistor.jpg" style="width: 800px; height: 345px;" /></p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay" height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QuELV2qyloFXVO5_OarQ0_em5sN4pZIn/preview" width="640"></iframe></p>

<p>Once you have your circuit set up, then we can move on to coding and testing!</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>