Adding multiple sensors is a good way to collect a range of data for analysis purposes. Such as; Humidity, temperature, CO^2, PH level sensors. Which would allow for a greater control over the subject plant, in our case Arabidopsis. Which however would lead into a problem with memory. Currently the system is run by a Arduino Uno which has Flash Memory 32 KB of which 0.5 KB used by, bootloader, SRAM 2 KB, EEPROM 1 KB. With the Lux sensor 80% of the flash memory is already taken.

In order to store data from the system the arduino needs a host shield. The ‘Mini Micro 3.3V’ would be suitable and there are plenty of forums online detailing the application of this device. [1]

With a memory stick attached, the system can record the data every hour. Later this can then downloaded onto a laptop and plotted showing if there are any fluctuations. Unfortunately this means we have to upgrade the Arduino model so we have enough memory to store the code for the extra sensors and the USB stick. There are a number of models that have more storage, Arduino Due has 512 KB flash memory and 96 KB SRAM. Which is more than enough for our project.