Solar Driven Automatic Greenhouse

I have this summer/spring made a solar driven greenhouse that uses solar power and rainwater to run almost automatically!

The only thing I need to do now is to harvest and make sure it doesn't overgrow.

In this Instructable I will do my best to explain how I made it and hopefully you can get so much inspiration that you decide to make one of your own! :-) Let's get started....

First of all we need a greenhouse. If you have one, that's great! for me, i didn't.

I found mine used on the internet, for free. (lucky me!)

It really doesn't matter which kind or shape of greenhouse you want to use. The only important thing is that the climate for the plant is "growable".

Not that it matters for this project, but I made the flooring inside in wood on a wooden frame. this way i could easily move it if this became necessary. which it did.

I began preparing the inside of the greenhouse to be ready for summer.

I made a "starter" table where i could stand and plant seeds in some pots. At this moment i waited for my electronic part's from ebay. so i watered manually, and i couldn't wait to be done with that already. ;-)

The big black tube is the water tank. I had one laying around, but you can get them at hardware stores. This also doesn't matter to much for the final project. I made the code with the ability to measure the water level in the tank. so if you want this as well, it's possible.

Also! the sun warms up the water in the tank. This works as a heat bank at night.

Finally all my part's from ebay araived!

The full list:

Moist Sensor(s)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Soil-Humidity-Hygrometer-M...

Relay(s)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-1-2-4-6-8-Channel-Relay...

RTC (timer)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-DS3231-AT24C32-IIC-RT...

Arduino Mega

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATMEGA16U2-Board-For-Ardui...

Wires

http://www.ebay.com/itm/120Pcs-Male-Female-Dupont-...

Watering System (I bought something like this, and it worked great)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIY-Watering-System-Garden...

PWM (for Solar Power)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-20-30A-PWM-LCD-Dual-USB...

DHT11 (temp, and moist)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Temperature-and-Relati...

DC female

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-DC-Power-Supply-Jack...

DC male

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10pcs-5-5x2-1mm-Male-DC-Po...

prefboard

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Perfboard-90x70-mm-Pitch-2...

stepdown (12V to 5V)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-PCS-LM2596-DC-DC-buck-a...

sd card reader (i ended up removing this part, although it was awesome. but not useful.)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-SD-Storage-Board-Mci...

Water Hub (yes i know.. it's for air, but it works great!)

https://www.ebay.com/sch/sis.html?_nkw=4MM+2+%2F+3...

sonic sensor (if you don't want a water tank this is not necessary)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HC-SR04-Ultrasonic-Module-...

water pump (Again, if you are not planning on using a water tank you can switch this out with a control valve)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-NEW-Pumps-R385-Aquari...

3S BMS (For the battery)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3S-20A-12-6V-Cell-18650-Li...

I will try to update this list in the future if i change something.

I have not made a electronic schematic of this part... Yet!

I am learning to use a program for this, and will update as soon as possible.

I followed some Instrutables on this part, it started up great! but I ended up with screwing it up to much..
Note to self! be careful! this is fragile as fudge!

Ended up with buying 2x25W panel's and turned out 1 was enough.
The other one i ended up using to my electrical lawnmower!

I drew all my electronic in 3D and aligned them to fit in a casing, with wooden back to screw in place. (see next step)

When the code and the wireing was working i screwed it all into place.

in the top of the case is all the electronic and in the bottom is the Battery.
The Battery is made from old laptop cells and this is also very possible to find guides to online. (that's how i did it)
If you want to use a car battery, it's also an option.

And it works! all the moist sensors uses the DC connectors to easily adjust and replace.

But that only meant that i got even more space! so far the watering and the solar works great and all i do is harvest and cut.

I will update this project over the next cople of months to make it better and more explainable to make you ready for the next spring!

I hope you like it and is able to use it!

- Tue