Difference between revisions of "Team:Valencia UPV/Hardware"

Starting with the prototype from the Open Agriculture initiative and with our goal of stretching this concept to the SynBio community, Valencia UPV iGEM came to the idea of ChatterBox, a modular, opensource and scalable device.

Control over climatic and growing conditions is the first part of this hardware. The growing chamber is able to regulate temperature, humidity and illumination. Adding to this, a NFT hydroponic system is used to manage irrigation, oxygenation and crop nutrition. Secondly human interaction is achieved thanks to our “Optogenetic” lamps, equipped with two wavelengths. On the other hand, plant’s phenotypic expression is detected with the camera and a recognition software. Thus bidirectional communication is allowed. Through ChatterApp and the coupling of an Arduino and a Raspberry, we are able to control the systems mentioned above.

All and all, our device provides ChatterPlant with a solution to improve agriculture sustainability by implementing SynBio technology.

The ChatterBox is a device with many parts that are non-commercial, therefore our hardware team had to design many items and repurpose others.

During the construction of this prototype different tools were used. For the main structure a circular saw, electric drill and table saw were used to process the aluminum profiles and insulation sheets. In the case of electronics, a multimeter and a soldering iron were mandatory.

Most of the large items were manufactured in the Fine arts workshop and it could not have been done without the help of the design team.

The ChatterBox’s layout was under many constraints during its design, such as the fact that it had to be delivered from Valencia to Spain. These facts make up the reason for which the hardware was restricted to size it has, perhaps a larger size could have been more useful and real.

An important fact about this project is that Valencia UPV iGEM is a team based in Spain (Europe) were we use 50 Hz, AC 220 V power, so some specific components may not work in your country. Moreover, all the measurements that follow this text have been done using the Metric System and European codes.

The Chatterbox is a high humidity ambient with liquid water flowing, this represents a challenge in terms of security. Our goal was to keep the system as watertight and secure as possible, to achieve this we used different approaches.

• The led illumination was chosen with an IP65 protection level, meaning that it can withstand direct water flow.
• In the case of the electrical connections heat shrinking tubes were used.
• The most sensitive equipment was the optogenetic lamps which were protected with epoxy resin and a box.
• Cable width was picked taking into account the maximum current and specific regulations.

A necessity in the SynBio world was found at the beginning of ChatterPlant, a Phytotron capable of exploiting Optogenetic systems and biologic sensors did not exist. Therefore, we came to the idea of the ChatterBox and autonomous systems with ability of controlling plant’s growth with cutting edge technologies in the agro alimentary and engineering field. Different systems have been combined but all of them help to deliver a more sustainable way of growing food.STRUCTURE

First step is cutting the profiles, a metal saw was used to have the lengths needed and a metal file was necessary to obtain a better finish. An important tip is to drill the holes before mounting the structure to avoid problems later. Assembly of this part is a piece of cake, just introduce the protruding part of the polyamide connectors inside the aluminum profiles following the order in the attached pdf.

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