DIY Blumats?

[Aotf]

I don't have a credit card, so I never have bought a set off Amazon and nowhere within a few hundred miles carries them in stock, lol.

Anyone ever attempted to make their own? Not just a wick, I have the plans to build a tensiometer, but I want to vary the resistance somehow to deliver the water.........

Anyone want to really build some of your own? Then check to make sure they working:

http://www.soilmoisture.com/rentals.html

 

[Desert Hydro]

prepaid from walmart bro, better yet cash in some coins at a coinstar for free with an amazon gift card lol. all walmarts sell giftcards to amazon i think. do it up. DIY blumat seems like a recipe for failure.

 

[Aotf]

Ok, thanks ,but how about some actual info?

Why is diy blumat a recipe for failure? Any specific points to be made?

The 1st part was litigious.

The reason for building my own, is frankly to use them on a much larger scale and tweak them for different conditions, I think that is highly possible.

Fuck walmart

 

[SeaMaiden]

I've never used them, but am curious. The 'carrot' seems to be a special kind of ceramic that allows water through when there's a deficit in moisture from one 'side' of it. I have no idea how that would be DIY'd, but I'm tagging along in case you get it figured out.

 

[Greenheart]

I am up for a learning adventure. Even got a front row seat.

 

[Aotf]

Thanks all! Glad to have everybody aboard.

I will be busting out the Google search terms and try to search better. I have yielded not 1 thing on DIY blumats.

What I do have is the tensiometer design and my theories. I would have to build a micro-tensiometer, but I think that is do-able with a few tweaks.

So here is my partial theory on how they work:
I don't know if they are using a tensiometer per se, but they are probably using a pressure transducer calibrated according to the gravimetric method [only way to measure soil-water content directly]. There is a solenoid, [integrated pressure transducer?] that makes the whole thing operate.

That's what I have so far, there is literally nothing about the innerworkigs of the blumat online, which is fine. I am not aiming to rip off Tropf, I just can't believe that auto watering systems like these aren't being better developed and engineered.

I am no engineer, but I do know my soil/water substrates and I think this can be accomplished.

Thanks for tagging along

Calibrating Soil-Water Measuring Devices [very good]

How to Build Your Own Tensiometer [NMSU]

 

[moodster]

just get the originals m8 best bit of money ive ever spent my back also agrees

 

[SeaMaiden]

Aotf, did you see the DIY spectrometer c-ray posted in the Plant Sap pH 6.4 thread?

 

[JimmyRow]

just get the originals m8 best bit of money ive ever spent my back also agrees

Lol. That's why I got into this thread. I've almost doubled my meds to get to sleep.
I've hooked up a pond pump w/ a wand, that's better than the watering can, but still a lot of twisting and turning. Next room is gonna be a lot more 'set it and forget it'

Good luck with the project. I'm gonna grab a seat. I got a few weeks till I'm gonna start my new room.

 

[otis33]

I love my blumats, and I love building things, but the blumat is something that, I believe, would not be so easy to recreate. Good luck though, I will be interested to see how you attempt this. You can get a prepaid visa from most drug stores, our just contact sustainable village. They have always Bern very helpful, i'm sure they can figure a payment option for you, and you c get a single carrot and reverse engineer it

 

[Aotf]

Well this might be tops and you could probably add the blumats to it as well:

build-an-arduino+powered-tweeting-self+watering-garden-system

 

[Aotf]

Aotf, did you see the DIY spectrometer c-ray posted in the Plant Sap pH 6.4 thread?

Yes ma'am I did. I also got W89 banned maybe, oopsie. Would that help with this somehow you think?

 

[SeaMaiden]

No, just another uber-cool DIY that leads to growing excellent plants. I think W89 got him/herself banned.

 

[JimmyRow]

Made any progress

 

[Aotf]

prepaid from walmart bro, better yet cash in some coins at a coinstar for free with an amazon gift card lol. all walmarts sell giftcards to amazon i think. do it up. DIY blumat seems like a recipe for failure.

Actually thats a damn good idea, the Amazon gift card, wish Ebay had one or do they?

 

[TribalSeeds]

I've never used them, but am curious. The 'carrot' seems to be a special kind of ceramic that allows water through when there's a deficit in moisture from one 'side' of it. I have no idea how that would be DIY'd, but I'm tagging along in case you get it figured out.

I think the water is actually sucked out through the cap

 

[Aotf]

Made any progress

Whew, caught up. Let's get a discussion going on this.

A blu-mat is essentially a manual soil potentiometer....

Electronic tensiometer probe: (1) porous cup; (2) water-filled tube; (3) sensor-head; (4) pressure sensor Tensiometer Wikipedia

http://www.decagon.com/education/wa...ry-instruments-for-measuring-water-potential/........The Pressure Plate
The pressure plate doesn’t actually measure the water potential of a sample. Instead, it brings the sample to a specific water potential by applying pressure to the sample and allowing the excess water to flow out through a porous ceramic plate. When the sample comes to equilibrium, its water potential will be equivalent to the pressure applied.

These are interesting.......

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15224955..........We addressed this issue by developing an automated equilibrium tension lysimeter (AETL) system that continuously matches lysimeter tension to soil-water matric potential of the surrounding soil.

As far as developing a prototype not quite there, although I did post the DIY tensiometer from New Mexico State U. I do believe you would essentially hook up a reservoir instead of a pressure gauge to start.

 

[Aotf]

I think the water is actually sucked out through the cap

thanks for posting Tribal!

Indeed I am very keen to see this, but I do believe the male part exudes water....... Is the cap controlling output or will you elaborate, please? I am fascinated.