Arduino Edge Control

Hi Everyone,

Has anyone done anything with the Arduino Edge Controller? It’s specifically designed for agricultural purposes. I bought one but it seemed too restrictive for what I wanted to do with it. So I went back to the drawing board (literally!)

Regards,

Gerard

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Hey Gerard,

I don’t have any experience with these myself, however, they seem like very capable boards! The optional addition of an Arduino MKR means they have some expansibility as well.

What sort of features were you looking for? We might be able to make some suggestions!

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The main thing I don’t like about the AEC is the way they connect to the outside world. They use Phoenix 9x2 male connectors and the female side of things has a push fit for attaching wires. This would work really well for prototyping but if you were manufacturing even on a medium scale, the assembly times would blow out. I did design the Arduino Edge Control PCB to mount on a “backplane” that I designed. This backplane uses screw terminals to interface the Arduino to the big, wide world.

I’ve got a photo somewhere that I’ll post up.

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Hey Gerard,

We’re sorry to hear that one wasn’t quite suitable for the project.

You’re completely right on that, it’s just a little unfortunate they haven’t opted to use something a little more suitable for commercial/industrial use. My recommendation would be a custom PCB but you’ve already gone and done that :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

I’ve had a look around into other “Agriculture” boards and can’t find much I’m afraid, so my best suggestion would be to find someone to do a custom build so you can get the features you’re after and scrap the parts you don’t need.

You can check out our commercial support page where we recommend getting in touch with SAPHI who do some great prototyping and design work right here in the Hunter.

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Hi Gerard
Good looking interface. I note you have used better quality terminal blocks with wire protectors. Good thinking for the long term reliability.
Cheers Bob

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Thanks Owen & Bob,

I redesigned the whole kit to revert back to the Arduino Atmega 328 and am laying out a purpose-built PCB using I2C to “talk” to the peripherals out in the field. This decision was partly based on the excellent tutorial on I2C that I found here! I discovered Core Electronics searching for information that I read up in the Arduino Edge Control stuff. So it’s gone full circle in a way.

What I actually need is for someone to take some work load off me and write some C code. That will enable me to pursue the hardware design and project management (my day job is PM’ing IT infrastructure for Linfox which I do as a contractor)

My wife thinks I’m a mad professor type especially now that I’m at Uni!!

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Hi Gerard,

You definitely seem to be in deep now! Glad to see such in-depth prototyping work in the wild! Keen to see where you go with this one… Automated agriculture is definitely already/going to be a big thing.

-James

Hi James,

I think you are right with Agriculture.

I redesigned the PCB so that I included a complete Arduino Uno into the schematic. I’ll have to post the schematic up for comments, etc. I used KiCAD eeschma for the schematic. Seems pretty easy/intuitive to use.

What I realised is that I need a small PCB for each bed. That means communication from each bed back to the ‘mothership’. Not a big deal really as nothing happens too fast in this design.

Over distance (say 1km) I could use a Cambium point to point link but others here might have a simpler solution.

Anyway, I start at Swinburne on 2nd August having moved across from UniSA so I guess that will take a big chunk out of my day!

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