Development of an open source soil water potential management system for horticultural applications, “Open_Irr”.
Description
ABSTRACT: Development of data driven, sensor-based irrigation has become possible with recent advancements in technology, yet due to a cost-barrier to entry, equitable adoption remains out of reach. Therefore, a simple microcontroller based LoRa platform, Open_Irr, was developed in the Arduino IDE to record resistive measures of soil matric potential and automate irrigation events. A single Open_Irr Node may connect with ≤ 16 Watermark® soil sensors and manage 4 irrigation settings; Node sampling frequency, irrigation settings, and radio transmission settings are end-user adjustable without programming knowledge. Multiple Nodes may connect with a single Gateway to provide a scale-neutral solution for irrigation automation. A preliminary trial was conducted in Spring 2022 to validate the performance of the Open_Irr platform in water deficit scenarios. Open_Irr recorded soil matric potentials in line with a commercial Watermark® sensor reader (n=655); regression analysis yielded a coefficient of determination of 0.91 with Bland-Altman estimated fixed bias of ~2 kPa. The Open_Irr platform was demonstrated to automate dripline irrigation events at several matric potential thresholds through connection to external solenoid valves. This demonstration directly conveys suitability for commercial and academic horticultural applications where automation of irrigation events or imposition of drought stress is desired. SOURCE FILES: Open_Irr_Node_copy: Open_Irr Node program written in the Arduino IDE, uploaded to Moteino-Mega microcontroller in the Node unit. Should only be altered by advanced users. Open_Irr_Gateway_copy: Open_Irr Gateway program written in the Arduino IDE, uploaded to Moteino-Mega microcontroller in the Gateway unit. Should only be altered by advanced users. Gerber_HardwareX_Open_Irr_Node_PCB.zip: Open_Irr Node gerber zip file. Provide to PCB manufacturers to obtain PCB. Gerber_HardwareX_Open_Irr_Gateway_PCB.zip: Open_Irr Gateway gerber zip file. Provide to PCB manufacturers to obtain PCB. Schematic_HardwareX_Open_Irr_Node.pdf: Open_Irr Node electrical schematic of included components. Schematic_HardwareX_Open_Irr_Gateway.pdf: Open_Irr Gateway electrical schematic of included components.
Files
Steps to reproduce
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