LOW COST SENSORS AND CONTROL SYSTEMS:
by Lee Allen
If you’re a home horticulturist and are looking for some
low-cost automation to help with your small greenhouse,
there’s no need to spend a ton of money, as Lee Allen explains.
W
hile many automated agricultural control systems are
expensive and geared towards commercial operations, a little
Raspberry Pi is perfect for home growers. A single-board Raspberry
Pi (originally developed to assist in computer technology needs
in poor countries) works great as a controller for a bunch of single
program operational micro-controllers like Arduino’s that can be
looped indefinitely and will do simple and repetitive tasks.
The device is perfect for a hobby greenhouse.
“I call these folks micro-culture growers,” says Brian Little,
agricultural and biosystems engineer and systems administrator at
the University of Arizona. “Sophisticated environmental monitoring
and control systems like those found in commercial controlled
environment cultivation can often be cost-prohibitive, but a single
board Raspberry Pi is inexpensive and works great as a controller
that can be connected to a bread board and a ton of sensors.
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