chrisgilmerproj

In my work towards building an indoor garden I realized I'd have to somehow control the power outlet with my arduino.  This presents a problem.  Working with 120V power lines can be dangerous and I certainly don't want to hurt myself or burn down my house accidentally.  While the instructions for setting up a Garduino recommend simply stripping extension cords and then soldering/hot-gluing them back together, I just don't seem to feel that it's safe enough for me. While working on this problem I was directed to a great tutorial by SparkFun Electronics titled, "Controlling Big, Mean Devices".  Turns out this tutorial was exactly what I was looking for.  I needed to be able to control two separate 120V lines to handle my lighting and water needs.  It also looks to be a lot safer than the previously mentioned method, plus it could turn out to be a great weekend project! My next step then is to build a couple of these.  When buying supplies for the Garduino I bought extra relays and diodes, so I'm definitely set.  I now need to find a place where I can get some PCB's manufactured so I can put it all together.  I'd certainly like to use some of my prototyping boards that I have lying around, but I'm more than a little worried about the safety again. I'm now one step closer to having this project become a reality.  Now if only I could figure out how to protect my plants from pests.