PINKY ARUNWATTANAMONGKOL
ECOPONIC
By: Pinky Arunwattanamongkol, Graden Martin - 2022
"Ecoponic is a budget friendly hydroponic system for small space. This project is a part of my honor program experience and presented at the CEAS Innovation Challenge Summer 2022"
Scope: May 2022 - January 2023 Project Type: Product design and development ,building prototypes
Role: Product Designer , Prototyping technician Tools: Illustrator, Arduino, Solidwork, Electrical solder
OBJECTIVE
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To design and an affordable and beginner friendly hydroponic grow kit.
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To learn more about hydroponic and general gardening.
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To find a solution to save cost on grocery bill.
Our target market is people who live a busy lifestyle and want to add more home grown greens into their diet and become more sustainable with their life actions. This is also perfect for people who live in the cities and have limited space of living. Ecoponic is beginner friendly, meaning that our target market doesn't necessarily need any prior experience to operate Ecoponic correctly. There is no specific age range but mostly people who are interested in this lifestyle are young professionals to adults.
PROBLEM
A lot of people want to live a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle by growing their own food and adding more greens into their diet. However, not everyone has the time,space or gardening skills to start their own herb and a vegetable garden. There are products out in the market that try to help people begin their home garden initiatives, however these are normally made from plastic, and aren't very user friendly for beginners stepping into the home garden space for the first time.
PAIN POINTS
1. Vegetables and herbs get soggy after few day of purchase
Most of the time,vegetables and herbs get soggy and sad after a few day in the refrigerator and go to waste.
2. Busy lifestyle and No gardening skill
Not everyone has the time,space or gardening skills to start their own herb and a vegetable garden.
3. Current products in the market are not sustainable
There are products out in the market that try to help people begin their home garden initiatives, however these are normally made from plastic.
DESIGN AND DRAWING
HOW IT WORKS?
BUILDING PRODUCTS
Prototype 1.0
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First Ecoponic prototype was automated by using a Raspberry Pi programmed to turns on and off the pump and grow light system by using relays to turn on/off power coming in the outlets.
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Keriug cups were successfully used as grow pods to grow microgreens and plants.
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The enclosure made from 2 plywood in a cross-lagged design to hold up the light.
Feedbacks and comments
Require minimal circuit design, and easy to program using Python language, Suitable to grow smaller vegetables( greens and herbs) However, there are still a lot of areas to improve for example, using Rasberry Pi as a controller took more time to set up the system and require level of expertise to do that and need to redo the whole process again every time the power goes down or switch wifi network. The enclosure took a lot of time to build but yet not ergonomic and the whole system is still pretty big and there is no indicator on when to add water or food plant more into the system.
Prototype 2.0
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Redesigned the enclosure, and made it easy easier to assembly.The acrylic material was use to created this prototype as a prove of concept. but still on a look out for more sustainable option
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Consolidated the electronic components and circuit, changed the controller to Arduino.
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Pump and growlight were switch from using AC circuit to DC circuit.
Feedbacks and comments
The enclosure is easier to assembly by the user, however, it's still a little bit wobble, needed to adjust tolerance.The size of circuit is smaller than prototype 1.0, but still not practical to use in real life because it built on a breadboard. On the other hand,using Arduino as a controller helped reduced the set up time and process of setting up the system, Only required to plug-in an outlet and good to go.
Prototype 2.1
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The tolerances were adjusted and key was added. to locked all the parts together. Now the enclosure is steady. The baltic birch wood was picked as material because it's more sustainable.
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A customized PCB was designed and used as a control board.
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The input voltage is 9 V
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The indicator light was added to show the status of water level and food plant level.
Feedbacks and comments
The enclosure is easy to assembly by the user and steady.The new control board is now significantly smaller than prototype 2.0 and more organized. User loved that there was an indicator light to remind them to add more water and plant food when needed.
PRODUCT UNIQUENESS
Eco friendly
EcoPonics grow pods are made from Used Coffee pods, giving the coffee pods another use before the landfill. Ecoponic plans to use sustainable sponges in the Grow pods in the future.
Expandability
The starter pack is enough to get growing, but Ecoponic plans to offer add on packs, featuring water & plant food systems, real view cameras, multiple sensors including temp, water level, plant food content, and PH level. All sensor data and camera feeds are accessible in the Ecoponic app.
pH sensor
Water level sensor
Food sensor
Temperature sensor
Auto fill water tank
Camera
Touch screen
Grow pods
Plant pods layout
Etc.
