Low-cost electronic system for monitoring vapor pressure deficit and sunlight using a Raspberry Pi Pico board

Edgar Serrano-Pérez; Manuel Sandoval-Villa

doi:10.29057/est.v8i16.9651

Edgar Serrano-Pérez Universidad Tecnológica de México | Campus Atizapán https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4012-9709
Manuel Sandoval-Villa Colegio de Posgraduados | Campus Montecillo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0228-0734

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29057/est.v8i16.9651

Keywords: Monitoring, microcontroller, low cost, vapor pressure, deficit

Abstract

The development of an electronic system for monitoring atmospheric conditions in an experimental greenhouse is presented. The core of the system consists of a 2021 recently launched Raspberry Pi Pico board, programmed with the Micropython language. A DHT22 module and a light-dependent resistor were selected as sunlight sensors for monitoring the environmental conditions. The system performance test was carried out for 3 days during the germination stage of 6 red salad bowl lettuce and 6 Amaranthus seeds; agricultural foam was selected as substrate using the manual drip irrigation method. Temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure deficit, and sunlight sensor readings data were captured, recorded, and accessed using the Thonny IDE in a text file with columnar format stored in the RP2040 microcontroller memory. The total cost of the electronic system used to design the system was around $US 11, which makes it an attractive alternative for academic activities and research projects.

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