We’re going to look at 5 ideas for projects you can carry out in your garden. The idea is to have projects that are simple to carry out, and that can improve the use and safety of your garden and therefore your home. These days, we’re using more and more electronic devices in the garden without even realizing it. Whether it’s an automatic lawnmower, garden lights, pool pump…
You’re about to see a number of different projects designed to bring added security or autonomous functionality to your garden.
How would you like to have little connected lights that recharge with solar panels and switch on and off with a remote control?
Arduino makes it possible!
To do this, you’ll need several LEDs to connect to the Arduino board. Then you can buy a solar panel to make the lights self-sufficient.
Then you can use an infrared remote control to turn the LEDs on and off remotely!
How about an autonomous greenhouse that automatically waters fruits and vegetables and tells you when to plant them and when to pick them up?
With Arduino, it’s possible!
To do this, you’ll need an Arduino board and a humidity sensor. When the soil is below a certain humidity threshold, the Arduino board will activate the water pump to water your vegetables.
You can then add a timer to your Arduino board to let you know when to water, so you don’t water in direct sunlight and fry your plants.
The clock can also tell you the current date, so you’ll know whether it’s time to plant or collect your plants. You’ll need dates calculated by yourself and pre-saved in the card.
Finally, you’ll need a sms module (GSM) to send information to your phone, i.e. when to plant the vegetables you want, or when they’re halfway to be picked up, so you can come and check on them.
How would you like to collect rainwater from the roof of your house in a container and reuse it to water your plants?
Arduino makes it possible!
This project doesn’t necessarily require any electronics: you just need to place a water collection tray under your gutter. However, with an Arduino board you can add some practical elements to this project:
You can check the water level in your tank with a water level sensor and send an SMS to your phone when the water level in the tank is too low, with a GSM module for example.
Then you can use a 3-way solenoid valve which will allow the Arduino board to send water from the tank to the outlet pipe as long as there’s water left. When there’s no more water in the tank, the Arduino board will know this thanks to the water level sensor, and switch over to your home’s running water. This saves money, while ensuring uninterrupted water supply.
Finally, if you have a pipe running from the top of the tank, you may find that you lack pressure at the end of the pipe. For this, you can use a pump controlled by the Arduino board, which will restore pressure to your pipe.
How about a camera that watches over the outside of your house while you’re away?
Arduino makes it possible.
There’s a small camera that allows you to take photos in bursts and thus reproduce a video. You can then add a wifi module to receive the images. You can also store these photos on an sd card with an sd card extension available on Arduino.
An easier way to monitor your home is to use a Raspberry pi board. This connects more easily to Wi-Fi and has a real video camera for filming your exterior. What’s more, you can easily plug in a hard drive to record videos.
How about a gate that opens automatically when you drive up?
Arduino makes it possible!
To do this, you’ll need stepper motors to open the gates. These are high-torque, low-speed motors, which are well suited to our gates, which need to lift a certain load, but not at high speed.
You’ll also need distance sensors, which you’ll place at the end of the gate to make sure the gate can open and that there are no objects or people in the way.
Finally, you’ll need an infrared remote control with a receiver to open the gate remotely without having to get out of your car.
You can also use an RFID sensor with a badge to open the gate. However, the problem with the RFID badge in this project is that it has to be stuck to the sensor to be read, which is less practical than a remote control.
How would you like to be able to control your pool’s heat remotely with an Arduino, turn on the lights and even access it if it’s protected by a fence?
All this is possible with an Arduino board!
You can connect your heat pump to the Arduino board. As the latter can only control components with a voltage of 5V, you’ll need a relay to power up the heat pump and control it from the Arduino board.
You can then use a GSM module to have the Arduino board send text messages to your phone to let you know when the pump is running, what the water temperature is, whether you want to switch the pump on and at what temperature the heat pump can be switched off.
If your pool is protected by a barrier, you can manage entry with an RFID sensor: to do this, you need to place a sensor on your barrier, which will unlock the lock when it reads a badge or a card stored in the Arduino board. This makes it easy to protect your pool, especially if you have children.
Please check that your system works as you intended before putting it into final operation. Arduino factory declines all responsibility in the event of an accident.
With the Arduino board, you can also control the lights around your pool. To do this, connect the LEDs to the Arduino board, then use a Bluetooth, WiFi or GSM module to remotely control your project!
This project requires a 220V power supply to operate the heat pump. So be careful when handling the mains!