5/22/2016

IKEA hydroponics - First sensor for ambient light

Sensor measures light intensity for the plants

Lights sensor BH1750FVI connected to a ESP8266
The first sensor for my IKEA hydroponics project is a ambient light sensor (BH1750FVI) which will measure the light intensity on the plant bed in both the seed and cultivation unit. It is currently connected to an ESP8266 - a DIY-friendly and hacker-famous microcontroller with WiFi on board. I wrote a library for the light sensor which works with both Arduinos and ESP8266. You can find it here.

Germinated seeds in cultivation unit
The example sketch in the repository currently measures only the actual value of the ambient light. In future versions this sensor will be responsible deciding if and how long the IKEA LEDs have to be switched on depending on the overall light which fell on the plants. There will also be an uplink to a web-service (like Thingspeak or adafruit.io) where all the values are monitored in real time on a nice looking dashboard and will be accessible from everywhere.

In the meantime the seeds that germinated changed their habitat to the cultivation unit.

 

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