New horticulture applications site shines light on LEDs, sensors and IoT

Mouser has unveiled its new Horticulture Applications Site on providing design resources for engineers seeking to develop cutting-edge indoor and outdoor plant cultivation systems. The new site draws together the newest resources for a broad spectrum of growing systems.

The new site comprises valuable resources for engineers interested in creating horticulture and small-scale agriculture systems. The applications section offers an overview of horticulture lighting, including a comprehensive system diagram with recommended components. Clicking on a block on the diagram serves up a list of applicable components, including LEDs and LED drivers, thermal substrates, and heat sinks. The section also offers a clickable visualisation of horticulture LED colours, with links to corresponding products available from the company.

The Featured Products section lists important components employed in horticulture systems, including LEDs, sensors, and embedded solutions. Products comprise the Osram Opto Semiconductors Duris S 5 horticulture LEDs, Bosch BME280 humidity and pressure sensor, and the Microchip Technology AVR-IoT WG evaluation board, plus many more.

The Articles section of the new site comprises links to papers centred on key horticulture topics. Solution-based essays include 'A Smarter Green Thumb', which offers a sensor-based monitoring platform using a Microchip Xplained board, and 'LEDs and Li-Fi Brighten the Future of Connected Lighting Systems', which explores how LEDs and Li-Fi technology allow simultaneous illumination and data transfer.

The Resources section offers links to suppliers’ applications pages, white papers, and more — all assisting engineers with device choice and other factors for horticulture applications. The section also incorporates a video from the company's Shaping Smarter Cities series, part of the Empowering Innovation Together program. In the video, celebrity engineer Grant Imahara visits Tokyo to learn how indoor vertical farming uses 40% less power and 99% less water consumption than traditional outdoor farming.