•

Daniel Law

Created April 4, 2021

Lane Tech HS - Plant Waterer

This contraption moves a water bottle with a stepper motor to water plants.

BeginnerFull instructions provided5 hours34

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Digilent Stepper Motor

Particle Argon

Breadboard (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

Texas Instruments BOOSTXL-ULN2003 ULN2003A Dual Stepper Motor BoosterPack

Software apps and online services

Particle Build Web IDE

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic)

Story

The purpose of this project was to create a machine that would automatically water my plants once a day. It uses a stepper motor to move a water bottle with holes in it so it can release water where a funnel would then pour it out on the plants. The inspiration for this project came when my mother asked me to water the plants, and Mr. Law asked me what my project was going to be.

The project begins with a water bottle on a pendulum. I used a soldering iron to poke holes on the side and then used a pencil to told it up. The pencil was boxed in using a shoebox.

The main bottle itself had 3 small holes on the side also poked out using the iron to allow water to flow out when tipped over. The holes themselves were small enough where water did not flow out but slowly trickled through. The funnel to collect and transport the water was another plastic water bottle cut in half hot glued at an angle so that gravity may do the work for me.

The main component of the whole project is the stepper motor. At the tip of the motor, I hot glued a circular cardboard piece to make sure the string would not fall over the edge. As for the string itself, I super glued a strand to the long part of the motor. Once everything was done drying, I used a tweezer to remove the bits of super glue that got on the base. They were fairly easy to remove, and running the motor once cleared up any blockages.

I hot glued the motor to the box and cut a rectangle to feed the wires through.

This was the setup I had for a couple of days. The water itself ran out after 3 uses, but that is better than having to water the plants myself every day.

This is a video of the internal workings of the mechanism:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/aQJSUhWMryMnR3oK6

This is a video of the water itself pouring out:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XreMd6MLAQCRQfw86

Photos of the Wiring:

Code

Stepper

#include <Stepper.h>

// According to the URL I emailed, there's 2038 steps?
// In the doc that comes with the kit, 2048
// In the data sheet I found online, 64
// With testing 2048 seems to be the right answer
const int stepsPerRevolution = 2048;
int current = 0;
int last = 0;


// Change the pins below to match your Argon set up
#define IN1 2
#define IN2 3
#define IN3 4
#define IN4 5

// Pins entered in sequence IN1-IN3-IN2-IN4 for proper step sequence
Stepper myStepper(stepsPerRevolution, IN1, IN3 , IN2, IN4);


void setup() {
  // Adjustable range of 28BYJ-48 stepper is 0~17 rpm
  // Putting anything above this seems to make the motor not spin at all
  myStepper.setSpeed(17);
  last = (int)(Time.now());
  last -= 86400;
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  // step one revolution  in one direction:
  current = (int)(Time.now());
  if ((current - last) >= 86400) {
      Serial.println("clockwise");
      myStepper.step(stepsPerRevolution * 3);
      delay(500);
    
      // step one revolution in the other direction:
      Serial.println("counterclockwise");
      myStepper.step(-(stepsPerRevolution * 3));
      delay(500);
      last = (int)(Time.now());
      
  }
}

Credits

Saddat Ahmad

3 projects • 2 followers

Daniel Law

47 projects • 10 followers

Teacher. Maker. Citizen of the planet.

Lane Tech HS - Plant Waterer

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Schematics

Stepper Motor

Code

Stepper

Credits

Saddat Ahmad

Daniel Law

Comments

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Lane Tech HS - Plant Waterer

Lane Tech HS - Plant Waterer

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Story

Schematics

Stepper Motor

Code

Stepper

Credits

Saddat Ahmad

Daniel Law

Comments