Autonomous wireless sensor network for greenhouse environmental conditions monitoring

The paper describes a prototype of wireless sensor network for monitoring of greenhouse environmental conditions including temperature and soil moisture. The proposed system consists of measurement nodes powered from small-size solar cells and a central node that can be connected to a Personal Computer via USB or work independently. The wireless sensor nodes are responsible for signal acquisition, processing and data transmission via ZigBee radio interface. DC voltage generated by the solar cells is processed by especially designed DC/DC converter and electric energy is stored in a supercapacitor for peak power consumption. Low power solutions are used for minimisation of energy losses. Presented results, conclusions and possible future improvements may be valuable for designers of autonomous habitat monitoring systems.