• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1997.06c
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• pp.89-98
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• 1997

This study was conducted to develop an automatic nutrient-solution control system for small-scale growers. The nutrient-solution control system consisted of a low-cost and precise metering device and a personal computer. The system controlled electric conductivity(EC) and pH of nutrient-solution based on the time-based feedback control method with the information about temperature, EC, and pH of the nutrient-soIution. The performance of the nutrient-solution control system was evaluated through the control of EC and pH while compared with those of commercial nutrient-solution control system. Also an experimental cultivation of tomato was conducted to verify and to improve the developed system. Results of this study were as follows. 1. An automatic nutrient-solution control system based on a low-cost and precise metering device was developed. 2. The developed system controlled EC and pH within $\pm$0.05 mS/cm and $\pm$0.2 pH full scale error respectively at $24^{/circ}C$. 3. When using the commercial system, the controlled values of EC and pH of the 500l of water were 1.29 mS/cm and 6.1 pH for the setting points of 1.4 mS/cm and 6.0 pH respectively at $22^{/circ}C$. 4. The developed nutrient-solution control system showed $\pm$0.05 mS/cm of deviation from the setting EC value over the experimental cultivation period. 5. The deviation from the average values of Ca and Mg mass content in the several nutrient-solution were 0.5% and 1.8% respectively.