Project Assistance with Design/components

Sensors Environmental
1

Hi There!

I am familiar with forums and also realize that all of my following questions could possibly be answered in already asked questions, but I cant find anything similar to what I have planned. I am also brand new to this forum, so I apologize if I’m going about this incorrectly!

My Project: Environmental Control System for 3,000 sq ft greenhouses.

I want to be able to:

Log Humidity, Temp, CO2, Soil Moisture

Turn on Exhaust fans with those sensors (RH + Temp controlled) (120v 10 a fans x2)

Wifi enabled/App enabled real time data access

Components I am ordering from Sparkfun:

Humidity and Temp Sensor (RHT03)

<https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10167>

  • CO? Humidity and Temperature Sensor - SCD30

<https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15112>

  • Whats a good Relay you have that would handle the fans and some

additional future equipment?

etc… via app or something similar

  • 3.3 V power supply

  • LCD Screen

  • Breadboard

What else am I missing? What advice could you give? I am an Agronomist/Cultivator but was a High School STEM Teacher for 2 years…however, I never had the funds to play with an ardiuno system. I want to learn though!

Thanks,

Curious Mycologist

Longmont Colorado

2

Check out this product: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14236

It should make it easier to connect commercially available fans

3

thanks! this is perfect

4

Below is what I ended up going with after some research into the Qwiic system. I realize now that the arduino will be located at the front or the back of each greenhouse, meaning the sensor data must travel up to 90 or so feet. Is there an alternative to this other than the SparkFun Differential I2C Breakdout - PCA9615 Qwiic? Could I do this as a wireless version using the “Wireless Remote Weather Station with micro:bit”?

Spark Fun Order

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14871 (Wifi Arduino)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15314 (Arduino Power Supply)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14352 (Shield for Arduino)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13637 (Soil Moisture)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/16466 (Humidity, Temperature sensors) (x2)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10167 (RH + Temp sensor)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14236 (4 channel Relay)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11026 (Jumper Wires)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12002 (Breadboard)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/16396 (LCD Screen)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12009 (Volt Converter)

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14589 (sensor extender) (x6) (Sold Out backorder anyway we will need this) or see link below instead

https://www.digikey.com/products/en?key … 589&v=1568

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15081 (cables)

5

This is going to be a VERY BIG project especially if you’re new to electronics and Arduino.

(It may be better for you to look for a commercial off the shelf solution unless you’re prepared to spend a lot of time tinkering.)

I’d recommend starting with one sensor and a Arduino Uno (not the WiFi one) and learning how that one sensor works. Start with that one sensor attached directly to your Uno, and when it works, then attempt making it work 10 feet away and so on until you have it running in the desired location.

Once you have that one sensor running reliably, then add another and continue testing. The more complex your setup, the harder it’s going to be to debug when you run into problems. And you WILL run into problems, that’s the nature of this kind of work, it’s part of what makes it rewarding when you get to the end of a project.

Also keep in mind that you’re going to need to write all the code and software to make this all work and that’s going to be a whole other set of challenges. Not trying to discourage you, but if you try to ‘eat the elephant’ in small bites over time rather than all at once you’re going to have a much better experience.

6

Ditto to YellowDog. If this is your first time, start your project in stages and work up to the end goal. Unless you are extremely experienced debugging issues… diving straight into a complex setup will be a miserable experience.

I’ve never used the Arduino Wifi board, so I can’t speak to it’s compatibility to the other products. That being said… if you are using WiFi microcontrollers with a central (WiFi) access point for them, you could run them as separate wireless nodes. This tutorial might be helpful for you to get started with something similar to what you are looking to do: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/in … ent-guide/