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So I was going to go out of town in a little bit for a couple weeks and I just
wanted to show everybody my plant watering setup. This is computer
controlled and it's all kind of just sprawled out on the floor right here
actually. What I have here is a ShivaPlug., which is an embedded Linux
device. It's kind of an ARM based processor thing. It's got ethernet that I
can log in remotely then it has USB, which I have connecgted to this USB to
serial converter. runs through this cable, and then the DTR pin of the serial
converter connects to this transistor right here. It's that transistor right there.
It runs through that resistor up at the top to limit the current going into the
transistor. That turns on the relay. The reason I used a transistor instead of just
driving the relay straight from the pin is because there's not enough current
provided by the USB port and by the adapter to be able to click the relay on.
So I have house current coming in here that runs to the other side of the relay
and I'm definently going to tape this up a little better once I'm done here. That goes
to this plug. I didn't have a...[laughing]... I didn't have an actual socket for it so I
just kinda taped it on there, because I made this out of stuff I had laying
around. So that runs up here to this air pump and that's actually what drives the
water into the plants. But we'll show that in a second. Let's watch this work. So
I've secure shelled here into the plug computer, into the ShivaPlug. And all you
have to do to toggle the DTR pin high is 'cat' the TTY. So I'm just going to do that.
Hit that, and you should have heard the pump turn on. You can hear there's
actuall air coming out of this tube. To kill that, all I have to do is come back and
just control-C. So, what happens here with this pump, it drives air into this
water bottle. this is not hooked up right now, but if it was, that would be in there.
It drives air into this water bottle and that forces the water via this syphon tube
that's in there, forces the water out. through here.I have a bunch of these little
'T's it kind of goes to every plant. I made like a loop here and then drilled some
holes in there so the water kinda trickles out. and these ones here I just have the
tube going right in there. I've melted and then crimped the end of the tube and
then drilled a really small hole so the water will still just trickle out and won't
hog all the pressure. Same thing here, same kind of loop deal. So that's it. Just
wanted to show you guys that. And you know, that's what you can build with stuff
you have laying around.