cameron-ray/irrigationpihat

Irrigation System μPiHAT for hobby or scientific use. This repo provides a full design process to create your own μPiHAT PCB from scratch. It allows you to control solenoid valves (although the system can be modified slightly to control various sub systems) from input taken from soil moisture sensors (these can also be substituted with other sensor types).

Irrigation System μPiHAT
for RaspberryPi Zero

The irrigation PiHAT can be used for the irrigation of small gardens/vegetable patches via soil moisture level sensing and water dispensing. It may also be used in lab environments where scientists need to hold the moisture level of the soil at a constant level.

An optional configuration, which shows the modular ability of the HAT, is to replace the moisture sensors with a float switch or humidity sensor to either fill up pools; ponds; or water tanks or to operate ventilation systems if an enclosed space reaches a maximum humidity level.

The PiHAT will allow more advanced users to continuously perform measurements or monitor the soil moisture levels by sending its input from the sensors into the main Pi GPIO header.

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Table of Contents

1. Getting Started

2. How To Operate The...

   • Amplifier Module
   • LED Module
   • Power Module

3. Circuit Design Process

   • Requirements and Specifications
   • Simulation Output
   • Final Individual Circuit Schematics
   • Combined Circuit Schematic

4. Final PCB Resources

   • KiCAD PCB Design File
   • Bill of Materials
   • Manufacturing Notes

5. Contributing To This Repo

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Getting Started

Here's how to get started with your own Irrigation System PiHAT project!

Step 1:

Clone this repository to your computer to get started by using the following command line git command:
git clone https://github.com/ryxcam002/IrrigationPiHat

Step 2:

Change directory into the newly cloned repo using:
cd IrrigationPiHat

Step 3:

Make sure you have the latest version of KiCAD and LTSpice installed. The download links to these open source programs can be found at:
KiCAD - https://www.kicad.org/download/
LTSpice - https://www.analog.com/en/design-center/design-tools-and-calculators/ltspice-simulator.html

Step 4:

Go through the design files to check if all is working well. If you wish to make any changes to the design, pay particular attention to the Individual Module Schematics, Combined Schematic & PCB, and Simulation Files folders.

• The Individual Module Schematics folder is where you will find each submodule KiCAD schematic design. These can be modified individually to suit your needs.
  
• The Simulation Files folder is where the V2.0 circuits weere simulated to determine if all parameters ffor circuit components were setup correctly.
  
• The Combined Schematic & PCB folder is where all the submodules have been combined to form a single schematic, ready for PCB footprint assignment and BOM generation.
  
  

Step 5:

Generate gerber files for final PCB manufacturing. To do this, open the .kicad_pcb file in the Combined Schematic & PCB folder, ensure that all components/PCB specifications are correct and generate the gerber files from there.

Step 6:

Manufacture PCB and solder all components or have this done by the manufacturer if they support this. You now have a micro irrrigation controller!

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Contributing To This Repo

See the full contribution documentation here.

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