Soil Hydration Monitor and Watering System

[GVSU Grad Student]

Havent received any feedback here, so I changed the questions and updated a feature: it would allow the user to monitor the light exposure to the plants.

Doing a small project for grad school, and looking for some feedback on a potential soil watering control system. The idea is to enable growers in semi-arid areas to control / optimize the water they use on their crops. This would be a networked sensor system that has a small battery backup but gets its power primarily from the sun. It would enable the user to measure the amount of water dispensed from the unit, and also measure the soil hydration level as the control variable. My questions are:

(1) Would the product be useful for home/personal usage, or business usage?

(2) How much time do you spend daily watering your plants?

(3) Have you ever had problems over- or under- watering your plants?

(4) Would you prefer a networked system or standalone units?

(5) If a standalone unit is preferred, would you prefer a lightbar display (i.e. Low -- Med -- High) or a numerical display with characters?

(6) Would you be willing change batteries in the unit? How often?

(7) How large could it be? Size > Remote Control / Breadbox / Monitor - sized?

(8) Would you install this system yourself, or would you rather have it be professionally installed?

(9) How much would this system be worth to you?

< 200.00, 200.00 - 250.00, 250.00 - 300.00 , > 300.00

(10) Are there any options / requirements that you would like to add to this product?

(11) Could we contact you again for further questions / demonstrations?

Thanks,

GVSU Grad Student