ARDUINO-OPERATED PH LEVEL CONTROL SYSTEM FOR DEEP WATER CULTURE. I IYDROPONICS SET-UP

The study of designing an Arduino-operated pH level control system for deep water culture hydroponics set-up was basically done to aid the uprising urban farming incorporating hydroponics. The study aimed to fabricate an automatic pH level control system with the use of Arduino to lessen human intervention in gardening while maximizing the yield. Upon evaluating the performance of the designed p1-1 control system, it was left operating 12 hours each day and lettuce plants were used and their agronomic characteristics, weight, number of leaves, plant height and root length, were gathered at the end of the conduct. There were two set-ups being prepared —the set-up for automation and the set-up for manual operation and each set-up was assigned with 8 lettuce samples (20 days old). The samples were grown in the set-up for 15 days. For accuracy purposes, the Arduino meter pH readings at 6am, 12pm and 6pm were gathered, averaged and then compared to pen meter readings. After all the data were recorded, further analyses were done using different statistical tools. Statistics has it that somehow; incorporating pH control system would improve the weight of lettuce plants as compared to manual operation. Talking about accuracy, the Arduino pH meter significantly differed at 5% level from pen meter in its readings. It is advised that to make an optimum pH control system, calibration should be done by a skilled individual with much knowledge about the system involved.