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The main purpose of the project is to observe the physiological differences between shaded and unshaded coffee trees. Having never done anything like this before, I fully expect to find things I should be monitoring and aren't and things I am monitoring that I don't need.

My early intent is simply to get a couple of sensors built and deployed so that I can start figuring out how to manage the sensors while gathering useful data.

I don't have much of a specific hypothesis that I'm working towards as yet, except simply to be curious. Conventional wisdom as well as official studies of shaded VS unshaded coffee tend to indicate that shading decreases yield due to less available photosynthate compared to unshaded trees and also an increased retention of soil moisture due to reduced evaporation from the soil. I hope that with these sensors, data will help tell the story.

Lastly, I acknowledge that I am not a scientist and this project will not be conducted following strict, scientific standards. However, my goal is to do my best to gather clean and useful data.

Project Goals

• Measure the amount of light reaching the tree
• Measure the moisture of the soil immediately below the tree
• Compare the differences between a shaded and unshaded tree

Sensor Goals

• Utilize solar power
• Log locally as well as in real time to the Internet
• Log data consistently between sensors (i.e. to have comparable data between shaded/unshaded trees)
• Log data with a high enough resolution to be useful
• Be modular so that it is easy to expand the sensor network for this and future projects

My hope is that I can develop a base sensor that can be used to monitor many different aspects of coffee farming, not just shaded VS unshaded trees. This will likely develop into a network architecture that includes a base station or a master control unit, whatever you want to call it.