Architecture

1 System Architecture

Hardware architecture

Devices

- Luminosity sensor, adverts when there is too light in front the vase
- Temperature sensor, checks the temperature of the room and adverts you when the temperature goes outside the limits, in the same place of the luminosity sensor
- Humidity sensor of the ground, checks the humidity in the pot; it is placed in the ground
- Water pump actuator, when the system is in automatic mode it waters automatically the plant; it is placed in the pot
- Curtain actuator, it opens or closes the curtain to increase or reduce the light in the room; it is placed at the window

User interface devices

- Display, shows the user all the parametres taken by the sensors and adverts if the user should make some modifications; it is placed near the pot
- Switch button, with this switch the user can decide the mode of operation (manual or automatic); it is placed on the raspberry pi
- Mail notifications, the system sends a warning via mail when the plant needs something

Software architecture

Raspberry pi

It is the computational node of the system. It receives the informations from the sensors, it elaburates them and then it activates the actuators. It is placed near the plant. It is programmed in python. The user can interact with it by changing the position of the switch that allows him to select the proper mode.

Weather forecast

The raspberry pi recives from the internet the Yahoo weather forsecast. Those informations are showed on the display.

2 Selected Components

Hardware components

Off-the-Shelf

AD-HOC

All the connections are made using a breadboard.
To control the pump, it has been placed a relay driven by the Raspberry.
The pump is alimented with stabilized alimentator. It is connected to the raspberry pi with a relay normally open.
The luminosity sensor is made with a low-pass filter with a variable photoresistor

Software components

Weather forecast provided by Python module "forecastio"

Web net bticino MyHome (versione?)