Version 2.0 - 'Back to the drawing-board'
I quickly discovered the clay pebbles continually became lodged in the pipes connecting the troughs which ultimately led to the problem where the first few troughs filled up with hydroponics solution and took a good 30 minutes for all ten troughs to fill and drain. This posed a real headache preventing the reservoir getting pumped dry and burning the pump out. The workaround was to pump for one minutes and wait for five minutes then repeat, ugh.
So v2.0 was a fundamental redesign whereby I removed all the flower troughs, leaking pipes that clogged with a simple PVC sheet lining the ground trough.
Lessons learned
At this point I was reminded about the laws of gravity.
I had mounted the water pump in the relative safety of my garden shed which is next to the troughs with the thinking to protect it and be close to the Arduino control equipment (I'll cover this later). By mounting it there it meant that as soon as the pump switched off water siphoned out of the pipe leaving the pump needing to be manually primed. Cue max irritation.
The v2.1 design moved the pump under the reservoir which meant it never needed to be primed.
I also realised I needed protect the setup from the elements such as rain and debris so I purchased some grow tunnels.
Shopping list
I quickly discovered the clay pebbles continually became lodged in the pipes connecting the troughs which ultimately led to the problem where the first few troughs filled up with hydroponics solution and took a good 30 minutes for all ten troughs to fill and drain. This posed a real headache preventing the reservoir getting pumped dry and burning the pump out. The workaround was to pump for one minutes and wait for five minutes then repeat, ugh.
So v2.0 was a fundamental redesign whereby I removed all the flower troughs, leaking pipes that clogged with a simple PVC sheet lining the ground trough.
Lessons learned
At this point I was reminded about the laws of gravity.
I had mounted the water pump in the relative safety of my garden shed which is next to the troughs with the thinking to protect it and be close to the Arduino control equipment (I'll cover this later). By mounting it there it meant that as soon as the pump switched off water siphoned out of the pipe leaving the pump needing to be manually primed. Cue max irritation.
The v2.1 design moved the pump under the reservoir which meant it never needed to be primed.
I also realised I needed protect the setup from the elements such as rain and debris so I purchased some grow tunnels.
Shopping list
- AmgateEu 30-Pack 2.8 Inch Mesh Plant Pot @ £9.90 Amazon
- 25 Litre Plastic Water Container Food Grade @ £10.58 eBay
- Kingfisher Transparent PE Grow Tunnel @ £7.28 Amazon
- GroDan Cuttings Rockwool Seeds Cubes 1 inch x 77 @ £11.97 Amazon
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