Week 3 and 4 Update

So it's been a little while since my last update.  I've done some work though.  I received my sensors in the mail last week and bought most of the electronic components necessary for the project.  I built up the control circuit for the light, heating pad, and solenoid on a small breadboard.  I've got the circuit working, but have only tested it on an LED.  The picture below is the first go around and I believe it's wrong, but I doubt anyone would have noticed. Click the picture to see the rest.


As for the solenoid, I'm still having trouble figuring out what voltage to send it to get it to operate.  I get the feeling this will be the choke point in this project.

I have finally located some mister nozzles that I feel confident in purchasing.  They are 0.5 gallons/hour mister nozzles intended for outdoor patio cooling.  They connect to 1/4" flexible tubing which is really cheap.  To affix the tubing to my solenoid valve, I'll use an off the shelf adapter from Garden Hose Thread(GHT) to 1/4" barb adapter.  I have found the female GHT adapter, but can't find a male version.

In the short future, I plan to make a cost table.  I'll make two of these, one for the prototype build costs, and the other for production build costs.  The prototype cost table will include everything bought for this project, while the production cost table will only include parts used in the final build and will be a better measure of the cost for anyone that wants to duplicate my work.

Until next time, continue being creative.

New Stuff

Yesterday I stopped by Lowe's after work and picked up some new toys. I bought a 2-gallon pump sprayer, an electronic valve, and a 6 ft. garden hose. The only part of the pump sprayer I'll be using is the tank and hand pump, so if anyone wants a new wand for their sprayer, maybe we can cut a deal. I spent a little time playing around with it last night, doing some "testing." I filled up the sprayer, pumped it until it would pump no more, and sprayed Mojo's cage to see how long it would take to get a proper soaking. Surprisingly, only about 3 seconds. Then I took the sprayer to the tub to see how long it could sustain a spray. I got bored of counting at around 360 seconds and decided that was plenty. So, in use, the sprayer will last 120 sprays at 3 seconds each every 4 hours. That's about 3 weeks on one charge. I was only planning on this setup lasting for a weekend without having to pump it. This is added reassurance that my pet will be properly cared for whenever I leave for a few days.

The electronic valve is just one that goes with a automatic lawn watering controller. It has a male and female hose threads and a cord, which I assume just plugs into the controller. The only problem is it didn't come with any documentation, so I don't really know what kind of power to feed it to get it to switch. At first, I thought it might take 24V just like most of the solenoid I've seen around, but after doing some research on the brand, I found out that the controller runs off 3 AA batteries. At most, this could provide only 4.5V. The Arduino has a 5V output, lucky for me. But I have a sneaky suspicion that the current requirements for the solenoid will be more than the Arduino can provide. The contacts on the valve are buried inside an environmental plug, which I'm assuming keeps the water out. I'll be trying to solve this problem for the rest of the week.

I'm taking the garden hose back. Yeah, it nicely hooks up to the valve, but nowhere else. Not the tank and not the misting nozzles I plan on getting. End of that.

If you don't know where this project is heading, take a look at this similar project: http://www.trix.com/binx/mister/
This is where I got my inspiration to build my own system.