If you grow plants indoors, at some point you'll be faced with the choice of going on vacation and letting your plants die, or becoming a shut-in. You COULD purchase an automated drip-watering system, but if you've got even a little maker knowledge, you can make yourself a low-cost, super-flexible automated watering system.

Adafruit 1/2" Water Solenoid Valve ~$8

• Normally closed valve (Requires 12v to open the valve)
• Minimum pressure of 3PSI
• Liquid can only flow in one direction (marked on the casing)

Live Demo:

• We're going to install a solenoid valve into the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket

Parts:

1. 5 Gallon Bucket
2. Adafruit 1/2" Solenoid
3. 3/4" - 1/2" Bulkhead Fitting
4. Teflon Tape

Tools

1. Drill (3/4" or Dremel)
2. Sealant

3D Printed Files

• Interior and Exterior Sealing plates

Claber 8053 Oasis 4-Program/20 Plant Garden Automatic Drip Watering System ~$94

• Gravity fed dripper with a timer
• Opens the valves twice a day
  • How long it opens the valves depends on the setting

uxcell HH54P D 12V Coil Relay ~$8

• Relays are electromagnetically controlled switches
• Most use the same design: a higher power/current circuit can be thrown by a lower power/current circuit
  • They can be normally open or normally close, some, like the UXCELL can throw multiple circuits simul

Uxcell 12V 5-pin Mini Power Relay ~$7

Hosts: Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ and Bryan Burnett

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