January 12, 2016 at 11:08Auto-watering colors: automate regular tasks
New Year's holidays have passed, the results of the past year have been summed up, and you can safely take on new and interesting things. And I want to talk about the dream of almost all women: automation of watering flowers.
One of the gifts for NG was a set of auto-irrigation flowers "Autoleika" from the online store. And I will tell you the technology of its work and the reliability of its functions under the cut.
According to the rating among women, automatic watering of flowers is somewhere between a robot vacuum cleaner and automatic aquarium control. Well, since there is no aquarium yet, and the robot vacuum cleaner is already riding, it was decided to tackle the problem of autowatering. Moreover, the New Year holidays involved a lot of travel, which means there is no time to follow the flowers especially. Such a device is relevant all year round.
The essence of this device is to automate the simplest operation: watering flowers. If you look at the components, that is, a reverse countdown timer, a pump operation timer, a pump and tubules. At the appointed time, in a cycle, the pump turns on and works for as many seconds as it will be given. The pump itself is programmed from 1 to 99 seconds of watering, the minimum cycle time is 0.1 days or 24 minutes, and the maximum is 30 days or 720 hours.
Power
It is worth noting that the device is non-volatile and does not connect to an outlet. Instead, the device is equipped with four AA batteries. The batteries themselves are not included in the package, and depending on the frequency and duration of the pump, the device can last from one set of batteries up to 6 months.
Customization
After installing the batteries and turning on, you need to configure the device. The setup is reduced to several actions: the transition to the next setting item is carried out with the “Set” button, the current parameter is changed with the “+” or “-” buttons, and well, the launch or performance check is performed with the “Test” button. Delivery
and start-up
The delivery set includes the control unit itself, combined with the pump. A green hose 10 meters long to independently distribute the length to the pots, 1 meter black hose for connecting drip irrigation, 10 dispensers for drip irrigation and 10 springs for fixing the hoses in flower pots.
Connecting hoses to the manifold. If you do not need to water 10 pots at once, a free collector can be plugged with a stopper.
Drip irrigation dispensers allow you to vary the amount of liquid entering the pot.
The black hose is designed to extend dispensers to flower pots. Its length is 1 m. The kit includes 10 dispensers. This differs from Green Helper, which do not include dispensers and a black hose. Dispensers more rationally and economically consume water and provide optimal watering of plants.
The spring-clamp allows you not to worry about the fact that the tube will jump off and water will not reach the consumer.
So the device looks in working condition.
Testing
Bearing in mind that each plant needs its own amount of water, installation and calibration of drip irrigation may be required. In addition, during the testing process it became obvious that if you use 10 flower pots, then they can stand no further than a meter from the device, since the kit includes only 10 meters of hose. Well, the assembly and launch of irrigation can be seen on a small clip.
Conclusion
It is worth noting the simplicity of the device, and therefore a small number of points of failure. Before leaving on vacation, you should leave a sufficient amount of water (by the way, the pump stops working without water), insert new batteries and set up automatic watering. Sophisticated systems include setting up watering for each channel, but it's about simple and straightforward devices. And the launch of this device took no more than 10 minutes from the moment of unpacking to the start of irrigation.
The AutoLock device is available for sale at the following link .
One of the gifts for NG was a set of auto-irrigation flowers "Autoleika" from the online store. And I will tell you the technology of its work and the reliability of its functions under the cut.
According to the rating among women, automatic watering of flowers is somewhere between a robot vacuum cleaner and automatic aquarium control. Well, since there is no aquarium yet, and the robot vacuum cleaner is already riding, it was decided to tackle the problem of autowatering. Moreover, the New Year holidays involved a lot of travel, which means there is no time to follow the flowers especially. Such a device is relevant all year round.
The essence of this device is to automate the simplest operation: watering flowers. If you look at the components, that is, a reverse countdown timer, a pump operation timer, a pump and tubules. At the appointed time, in a cycle, the pump turns on and works for as many seconds as it will be given. The pump itself is programmed from 1 to 99 seconds of watering, the minimum cycle time is 0.1 days or 24 minutes, and the maximum is 30 days or 720 hours.
Power
It is worth noting that the device is non-volatile and does not connect to an outlet. Instead, the device is equipped with four AA batteries. The batteries themselves are not included in the package, and depending on the frequency and duration of the pump, the device can last from one set of batteries up to 6 months.
Customization
After installing the batteries and turning on, you need to configure the device. The setup is reduced to several actions: the transition to the next setting item is carried out with the “Set” button, the current parameter is changed with the “+” or “-” buttons, and well, the launch or performance check is performed with the “Test” button. Delivery
and start-up
The delivery set includes the control unit itself, combined with the pump. A green hose 10 meters long to independently distribute the length to the pots, 1 meter black hose for connecting drip irrigation, 10 dispensers for drip irrigation and 10 springs for fixing the hoses in flower pots.
Connecting hoses to the manifold. If you do not need to water 10 pots at once, a free collector can be plugged with a stopper.
Drip irrigation dispensers allow you to vary the amount of liquid entering the pot.
The black hose is designed to extend dispensers to flower pots. Its length is 1 m. The kit includes 10 dispensers. This differs from Green Helper, which do not include dispensers and a black hose. Dispensers more rationally and economically consume water and provide optimal watering of plants.
The spring-clamp allows you not to worry about the fact that the tube will jump off and water will not reach the consumer.
So the device looks in working condition.
Testing
Bearing in mind that each plant needs its own amount of water, installation and calibration of drip irrigation may be required. In addition, during the testing process it became obvious that if you use 10 flower pots, then they can stand no further than a meter from the device, since the kit includes only 10 meters of hose. Well, the assembly and launch of irrigation can be seen on a small clip.
Conclusion
It is worth noting the simplicity of the device, and therefore a small number of points of failure. Before leaving on vacation, you should leave a sufficient amount of water (by the way, the pump stops working without water), insert new batteries and set up automatic watering. Sophisticated systems include setting up watering for each channel, but it's about simple and straightforward devices. And the launch of this device took no more than 10 minutes from the moment of unpacking to the start of irrigation.
The AutoLock device is available for sale at the following link .