The APDuino Project Written By András Schreiber
In agriculture the quality and quantity of crops greatly depend on the environmental conditions. In traditional agriculture we can make little impact on most factors. Even if we can make an impact, we often make things worse: just think about all the unnecessary fertilization poisoning underground waters or pesticides poisoning all the bugs most likely playing an important part of the natural cycle.
Fortunately there are new growing techniques (some may be ancient or rediscovered), hydro-cultures, such as Aquaponics that are pointing towards a possible solution for several problems and beyond...
Greenhouses and urban growing conditions (window farms, growing cabinets, etc) are getting more and more spotlight and gaining popularity across the globe, especially as there is an exponentially increasing awareness of global problems. Hydro-culture could also answer challenges of places where water is the most precious resource of all.
In closed systems, however, specifically, it is possible to have a tight control on the environment. Theoretically it is possible to maintain an ideal environment for the exact flora and fauna hosted in the closed environment.
Maintenance of an optimal environment takes effort, tedious execution of checks and prompt actions is needed to balance out changes in the external and or internal conditions and ensure avoidance of stressful imbalances.
Project Goal
The APDuino Project aims to provide aid in automation for the pioneering aquaponics and hydroponics farmers, enthusiasts, researchers in a way that even less technical knowledge is required to build a microcontroller-based automation system than before, whereas unlimited complex computing power is fitted to it through the ubiquitous computing already present: the Internet.
Project output, high-level technical overview
The project produces free, open-source binaries for the popular Arduino Mega 2560 + W5100 EtherShield (or equivalent clones) hardware combo, as a basis for any Node.
Nodes can host many kinds of sensors and actuators, making it possible to monitor environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, light, conductivity, pressure, water quality, etc. and to interact with the environment by controlling appliances like lights, pumps, heaters, coolers, etc.
Nodes can be wired and configured according to the individual needs and specifications, within the constraints of hardware datasheets and software support. The reference hardware is low cost and widely available and known to aquaponics + arduino enthusiasts. Already several systems have been created based on them prior to APDuino Project, but in a less flexible (if open at all), less adaptable design and implementation.
Besides the official Arduino site and forum, there are tons of blogs, how-to’s, forums and companies providing excellent, reliable documentation on how to wire up the hardware components.
Again, the key difference with APDuino Project is that those programming parts can be skipped; supported hardware can be configured using APDuino Online.
Nodes provide a web-based graphical user interface with charts and interaction with the device; switch between open and closed-loop control, change actuator states, etc.
Key Features:
• No-coding needed to fit supported sensors, actuators
• Closed-loop control (automation) based on custom, user provided logic
• Offline and online data logging
• HTTP API for LAN applications
• Free, open-source
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