Automating A Home Snowmaking System Using An AVR Microcontroller

Since its invention in the 1950s, snowmaking has been vitally important to the ski industry, lengthening season length, and bringing skiing and snowboarding to areas where it would not previously have been possible. In the past decade and a half, snowmaking system automation has become widespread due to its potential for increased efficiency and decreased costs. Snowmaking has also gained a foothold in the personal market, with small-scale systems being sold by several companies for decoration and entertainment purposes. However, no home snowmaking system on the market today includes automation, despite automation’s potential to decrease the difficulty in operating these systems by eliminating the need for the user to constantly check weather conditions and to wake up at unreasonable hours to turn the machine on. Presented is a method to automate an existing home snowmaking system using an Atmega328p microcontroller with various sensors and control devices. A full-scale test was recently performed. There were issues with the method used to control the water supply to the system, but aside from those, the system performed flawlessly. A better method is necessary to allow the system to control the water supply.