Rancang Bangun Sistem Pengering Putar untuk Rumput Laut Berbasis Mikrokontroler

Abstract

Eucheuma cottonii is a type of seaweed that is cultivated in the coastal area of Nagari Sungai Pinang, Koto XI Tarusan District, Pesisir Selatan District, West Sumatra Province. Before being sold, seaweed farmers must dry their seaweed first, because what can be sold is dried seaweed. Drying the seaweed takes two to three days depending on the weather conditions. In this research a seaweed drying system has been designed with a tool that rotates the seaweed in the drying chamber. In this rotary drying system, the soil moisture sensor is used which functions to detect the moisture content of the seaweed, if the moisture content of the seaweed is still read > 30% then the microcontroller turns on the relay which forwards instructions to the heater and the DC motor starts rotating the player container. The DS18B20 sensor is used to detect the temperature of the drying chamber, if the total moisture content of the seaweed is 30%, then the state of dry seaweed has been reached. Tests have been carried out to determine the difference in time required between the seaweed drying process using the system that has been built in this study and the seaweed drying process that utilizes direct sunlight. To achieve a moisture content of 30% in the seaweed drying process with the system designed in this study it takes an average of ±50 minutes, while using direct sunlight it takes ±9 hours to dry the seaweed.