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Wednesday 28 July 2021

દાતણ

દાતણ એટલે ૪’’ થી ૬’’ ઇંચના વનસ્પતિની ડાળીના ટૂકડા, જે સામાન્ય રીતે આંગળી જેટલી જાડાઇ ધરાવતા હોય. છાલ ધરાવતા હોય અને બરડ ન હોય.



દાંત પ્રત્યેની સભાનતા પ્રાચીન સમયથી જોવા મળી છે. આચાર્ય વરાહ મિહિરે રહેલા ગ્રંથ ‘બૃહતસંહિતા' ના ‘દંતકાષ્ટ લક્ષણ’ નામના અધ્યાયમાં  માં દાંતની માવજત માટે ઉપયોગી એવી વનસ્પતિઓનો ઉલ્લેખ છે. દંતકાષ્ટ એટલે દાંતણ માટે ઉપયોગી વનસ્પતિઓ, સાથે સાથે તેમાં કઈ વનસ્પતિઓનો ઉપયોગ દંતકાષ્ટ તરીકે ન કરવો તે પણ જણાવ્યું છે. અપરિચિત, ઝાડ પર સુકાઇ ગયેલ, અથવા છાલ વગરનું દાંતણ વાપરવું નહીં.


દાંતના વિવિધ રોગો માં જુદી જુદી ઘણી વનસ્પતિ ઉપયોગમાં આવે છે જેમાંથી મુખ્ય વનસ્પતિઓ નીચે મુજબ છે,


બાવળ :

આયુર્વેદ અનુસાર, મોઢાંમાં અવાર નવાર ચાંદા પડતાં હોય, દાંતના પેઢા ફુલી જતાં હોય, મોમાં ચીકાશ રહેતીહોય વગેરેમાં બાવળનું દાતણ લાભદાયી થઈ શકે.


બાવળનું દાતણ જ્યારે ચાવવામાં આવે ત્યારે એનો તૂરો રસ મોંની ચીકાશ દૂર કરવામાં સારો ભાગ ભજવે છે. એનાથી દાંતને થોડી કસરત પણ થઈ જાય અને એનાથી દાંત પણ સારી રીતે સાફ થઈ શકે છે.


બાવળના પર્ણ, થડની છાલ ફૂલ અને ફળનો ઉપયોગ મહદ અંશે દંત મંજન માં થાય છે. 


જામફળઃ - કોઇપણ જાતનો દંનરોગ દૂર કરવાના ૪- ૫ પાન ચાવવા, જામફળ ની ડાળીનું દાતણ કરવાથી મોઢામાં પડેલા ફોલ્લા દૂર થાય છે.


દાડમ - દાડમના પાંદડા, ફળના છોડ ચાવવાથી હાલના દાંત પેઢામાંથી લોહી નીકળતું હોય, પેદાનો સોજો અટકે છે. પાદડાના ચૂર્ણ મંજન તરીકે વાપરવાથી હાલના દાંત, તથા પેઢા મજબૂત બને છે.


વડ - વડની કુમળી લાકડી અથવા વડવાઇનું દાતણ કરવાથી પાયોરિયા મટે છે.


જાંબું: પાયોરિયાદૂર કરે, મોઢામાં પડેલા છાલાદૂર કરે.


લીમડો: - મોઢામાંથી દુર્ગંધ દૂર કરે અને દાંતના વિકાર દૂર કરે છે.


પીપળો: - પીપળાની તાજી તોડેલી ડાળખીનું દરરોજ દાતણ કરવાથી દાંત મજબૂત બને છે. મુખમાંથી આવતી દુર્ગંધ દૂર થાય છે.


કરંજ : કરંજનું દાતણ કરવાથી દાંત/પેઢાનો દુ:ખાવો મટે છે.


Thursday 20 May 2021

Automatic Drip Irrigation System for small plants

 Let's show our love for trees and plants with help of some Internet of Things.

When we go out for 10-15 days, we always have to think about what to do for the watering of our household plants. What if we can water our plants automatically at a scheduled time or remotely? 

Let's see how we can make an automatic Drip Irrigation system to do that:

We will need the below items to make it:

  1. Drip irrigation kit according to the number of plants.
  2. a submersible pump used in coolers or fountains.
  3. water cane of suitable size.
  4. ESP32 or ESP8266 board.
  5. Relay control board.
  6. 5V power supply.
  7. wifi router.

some items were already available, remaining we can order online.

first, we need to arrange a drip irrigation kit as per plants and water level of the water cane, connect it with the water pump placed in the water cane. manually test the pump and see if it is watering plants? note the timings required for watering. 




second, set up the ESP wifi module with a relay control board and test your program separately with the relay module only. The program can vary from a simple Arduino based program to some complex program. I have programmed it with the schedule as well as remotely operatable with help of google firebase.


after some manual testing, it's time to integrate parts to make a whole system. we can make use of any box for an enclosure, I used the box of water pump for the case. now we are able to control it through firebase from anywhere with an internet connection and it is also operating itself based on schedule and reports the information in a real-time database so that we can see the logs of its operating condition. we can see in the below figure that shows the report of its operating, current status, power-on time, and also the option to control it remotely. 

Where the water source tap is easily available, we can use the solenoid valve with the tap instead of the water pump. we can also use ready-made smart plugs and/or timers based on our plant arrangement and availability.

This is also helpful in the nursery and terrace garden. We need to set up once and it will do watering daily for you. at a big level can be made for big size trees as well and in farms also.

I used R.o. wastewater in the water cane so it also helps save water.



Smart Temperature Monitoring System

 



Abstract

Summer is showing its warm red colour, this small exercise of temperature monitoring was carried out to see technically if the Green of trees gives some relief against the Red hot of summer or not. We already know trees make much difference in temperature and weatherwe have felt that. With this we also learn how easy it is to make our own temperature monitoring device that can report temperature readings to cloud through WiFi connectivity and we can easily access readings through mobile phone.

 

How to make our own temperature monitoring device.

We can order below items online to make a Temperature monitoring device with internet connectivity.

1. ESP32 or ESP8266 for WiFi connectivity

2. DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor

3. Power bank to supply 5 V ( you might have this already)

4. Jumper cables

For the software part, we will use Arduino IDE. We will use DHT 11 Arduino library for DHT 11 temperature sensor and Firebase library for internet connectivity. There are so many examples already available for DHT11 for Arduino. We can check separate example libraries separately for DHT and Firebase, once we are able to get the readings of temperature using the DHT library, we can use the Firebase library to send it to the Firebase real-time database. For that, we need to create a project in the Google Firebase. We can also make a simple web server-based program without using Firebase if we want data only on the local network without the internet.

Below is the sample Arduino code that can be used directly.

#include <WiFi.h>
#include <FirebaseESP32.h>
#include "DHT.h"

#define DHTPIN 4     // Digital pin connected to the DHT sensor

#define DHTTYPE DHT11   // DHT 11

DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);

// Change the following info

#define FIREBASE_HOST "https://xxxxxxx.firebaseio.com/"
#define FIREBASE_AUTH "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
#define WIFI_SSID "XXXXXXXX"
#define WIFI_PASSWORD "XXXXXXXX"

// Define FirebaseESP8266 data object for data sending and receiving

FirebaseData firebaseData;

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  dht.begin();
  WiFi.begin(WIFI_SSID, WIFI_PASSWORD);
  Serial.print("Connecting to Wi-Fi");
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED)
  {
    Serial.print(".");
    delay(300);
  }
  Serial.print("Connected with IP: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
  Serial.println();
  Firebase.begin(FIREBASE_HOST, FIREBASE_AUTH);
  Firebase.reconnectWiFi(true);
}

void loop()
{
  delay(2000);
  float h = dht.readHumidity();
  float t = dht.readTemperature();
  float f = dht.readTemperature(true);
  float hi = dht.computeHeatIndex(f, h);
  float hiDegC = dht.convertFtoC(hi);
  

  if (isnan(h) || isnan(t) || isnan(f)) {
    Serial.println(F("Failed to read from DHT sensor!"));
    return;
  }
  else
  {
    Serial.println(h);
    Serial.println(F("%"));
    Serial.println(t);
    Serial.println(F("c"));
    Serial.println(f);
    Serial.println(F("f"));
    Serial.print("Heat index: ");
    Serial.print(hiDegC);
    Serial.print(" *C ");
    Serial.print(hi);
    Serial.print(" *F ");
   
    Firebase.setInt(firebaseData, "/Celcius", t))
    Firebase.setInt(firebaseData, "/Fahrenheit", f))
    Firebase.setInt(firebaseData, "/Humidity", h))
    Firebase.setInt(firebaseData, "/HeatIndex", hiDegC))
  }
}

Once we are ready with the software, we need to program the ESP32 with our software and make connections as per the circuit block diagram then power on using the power bank. You can also program the ESP32 to connect with your mobile hot spot so that you can carry the device with your mobile phone and observe the real-time monitoring of the temperature and humidity in your mobile screen.


Figure 1Hardware Connections.

 

Below is the circuit diagram and the screenshot showing the temperature and humidity readings on the firebase console on the mobile screen.

Figure 2: Circuit Block Diagram

 

Figure 3: real-time temperature monitoring in firebase

 

Now, it's time to monitor the temperature in different surroundings and the environment to see the effect. This is for our personal experience only, for getting actual effect and conclusion, there are so many factors to be considered and there are so many researches available and ongoing. So let’s see if we can get some difference or not.

Before starting our exercise let's check some facts, even though the results of measuring air temperature in areas with more trees and comparing them with results from nearby areas without trees are not sufficient and are disappointing, it is a fact that trees provide cooling through shades and evapotranspiration. Trees cool down the ground surface by protecting it from direct sunlight and they cool down the air by evaporating water through their leaves. Through evaporative cooling, they can decrease the air temperature by several Fahrenheit. This effect is most effective at midday and peak summer. 

Test Cases

We will monitor temperature, humidity, and heat index at various environments and surroundings like, inside the home, outside home, under the tree shadow, without shadow, with concrete shadow, in area with more trees, near by roads, near bare soil, farms, land with green grass, near pond, in-car parked under the tree shadow, parked without any shadow, parked under concrete shadow, etc. Below are some test results for the test carried out so far. These test results are average of so many readings carried out during that time.

Below table shows readings between 9 to 10 AM :

Environment

Celsius

Fahrenheit

heat index

humidity

online weather update

33

92

37

53

in a room with fan

32

90

45

77

outside direct sunlight

45

114

64

39

outside with concrete shadow

34

93

47

70

under small tree shadow

33

91

47

76

 Table:1 Temperature readings between 9 to 10 AM 

 Below table shows readings at around 3 to 4 PM

Environment

Celsius

Fahrenheit

heat index

humidity

online weather update

38

100

39

25

in room with fan

34

94

44

61

outside direct sunlight

47

116

67

40

outside with concrete shadow

38

100

49

50

outside under small tree shadow

35

95

50

67

 Table:2 Temperature readings between 3 to 4 PM 

    We can see that there is no much difference in temperature even though we feel the difference in the morning time but we can easily identify the difference at afternoon readings, and still, these readings are not enough to come to a conclusion but still the test is going on with different environments and different factors. Below is the graph plotted based on temperature reported half-hourly to the database from the forest village area vs the nearby city area using two temperature monitoring devices. Again we need to consider that there are multiple factors on which the temperature depends and not only on trees.


Figure 4: Graph showing the temperature of forest vs city area throughout the day

Conclusion

    Yet to be concluded, but from a small set of observations and test cases, we can say that the Green can win Red. And we learn how to make a temperature monitoring system with IoT connectivity and can utilize it in different applications as well.

References

[1] https://medium.com/@vibrologic/serverless-iots-with-firebase-realtime-database-and-esp32-2d86eda06ff1.

[2] https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/pibots555/how-to-connect-dht11-sensor-with-arduino-uno-f4d239. 

[3] https://climate-woodlands.extension.org/trees-and-local-temperature/

 

 

Saturday 22 August 2020

Make your own TV Box and turn LCD TV into Smart TV

Want to buy an Android TV Box like Mi Box 4k?

Think before you go to buy it! If you can make your own such a box then why give your money to china?

Maybe it would be a little costlier than Mi Box 4k, but it's your own made, and if it is made in bulk by someone then it can really compete with the Mi Box 4k in price too.

Here is my version of the TV Box powered by the Raspberry Pi.


I have a semi-smart TV(Sony Bravia LED TV) that does not have an android but it is able to play some formats of videos, pictures, and audio from a USB drive, supports screen mirroring from some android phones supports casting from Sony Xperia phones only😏 (now not available in the Indian market, but luckily I have an old one). 

There are many cases in which I miss many features and I wish it would be great if I had a smart TV. Then I started looking for some android TV box but most of them are made in china. 

So we can't buy it, really we can't, we must not buy it.

Now there are many smart TVs also available in the market at a very low price than your current semi-smart TV, that you bought some years ago, but they have no smart features of Android TV! But actually, they are very good in terms of display and sound quality, so obviously you don't want to replace it just for some smart TV features.

so why not make our own TV box?

Usually, we do some money calculation when you buy a new gadget, let's also do it for when you make your own.

Rpi 4 with 2 GB RAMRpi 4 with 1 GB RAMRpi 3 with 1 GB RAM
Raspberry Pi400030003000
Micro HDMI cable300300
Raspberry pi case with heat sink and fan500500500
Total480038003500

So in maximum 5000 Rs, you can make your own smart TV box

Now, what is the price of Mi Box 4k? It is around 4000 Rs and if you buy 1GB ram variant of Raspberry Pi then you also can make it in 4000 Rs around.

Software part?

There are many options available based on your use requirement:
  • If you want to use it as an Android TV box? you can download and install Android TV OS for Raspberry pi (not easily done for Raspberry Pi 4), links are given in the reference.
  • If you want to use it for a media center, gaming box, or just want to enjoy videos, images, and audio from your USB drives with almost all files supported? Then KODI is enough for you. There are options for installing KODI over OpenELEC, OSMC, LibreELEC. (OSMC is best but currently not available for Raspberry Pi 4).
There are lots of materials available on the internet for how to install them based on your requirements.

I have tested both Android OS and KODI both works fine in terms of performance, On my old Raspberry Pi 2, even KODI was not that useful as it was lagging while playing videos but Raspberry Pi 4 is awesome in performance. 

If you are not a software engineer then I would prefer Raspberry Pi 3 Model B will be a good option as Android TV OS and KODI OSMC both are easily available for Raspberry Pi 3, In future Raspberry Pi 4 may also have support for both.

Below is my KODI version :



Below is the Android Version :

References :

Android TV box for Raspberry Pi 3:

1. https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-android-tv-box-raspberry-pi/
2. https://www.electromaker.io/tutorial/blog/how-to-make-a-raspberry-pi-android-tv-box#:~:text=Native%20Android%20gaming%20and%20emulation,Pi%204%20Android%2010%20installer.

For Raspberry Pi 4 Android TV:

1. https://itigic.com/install-android-tv-on-raspberry-pi-with-lineageos/
2. http://www.geekysoumya.com/how-to-build-an-android-tv-box-with-a-raspberry-pi-4/

For KODI on Raspberry Pi 3/4:
1. https://mediaexperience.com/raspberry-pi-xbmc-with-raspbmc/#:~:text=Launch%20the%20OSMC%20installer%20application,it%20on%20the%20SD%20card.