WEEK 4.1: ELECTRICALLY-OPERATED VALVES

This week, we met up on Tuesday, before our lab period. We decided that the next day we would meet up again and head to Home Depot with a list of materials to be purchased. The shopping list consisted of:

-flower seeds
-tupperware containers
-clear, 1/2" tubing
-flower pots
-electrical wire

We made the decision to purchase flower seeds upon realizing that the lettuce seeds were meant to be planted in a field or garden rather than a pot.

We realized that Home Depot didn't carry any electrically-operated valves, so we took to the internet to find a provider. We ended up making the purchase on adafruit.com, which offered two plastic water solenoid valves on next day air shipping for only $24.17 (Figure 1). We plan to have the valves by Thursday morning, in time for us to work with them during our lab period. Even if they don't arrive in time, we will still be able to use the resources and time offered during the lab period as well as the materials we will purchase from Home Depot to build a proof of concept prototype system.

Figure 1: A picture of the order confirmation screen for the valves we purchased.