DIY Smart Plant Pot

by Akin Yildiz

83K79593

Intro: DIY Smart Plant Pot

hello world,

please support our mission;igg.me/at/smartplants

it was one year ago that i have published the plant pot - world's first stand alone smart plant pot that can email you when it's thirsty, cold, hot, sleeping etc.

a lot has changed since the first release. today I would like to share with you our latest and most stable version yet.

the plant pot is still,

open source hardware + software

solder-free, suitable for any age group

an all around educational tool

once completed the end user will know how to build circuits, write code and end up with a finished device that can teach you how to garden. no prior electronics or gardening experience needed.!!

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here is a list of what we will be using;

wifi microcontroller - updated to wifi nodemcu

battery pack

breadboard

RGB led module

temperature/humidity module

light sensor

water sensor

jumper wires

magnets

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-- project kits available --

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let's build..>

kits are now available on ebay, including the frame + all electronics. comment or message here or on facebook for more info

STEP 1: Glue the Frame

download the laser cut frame here; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8bvYGugxvFFaVFjT...

download 3D printed covers here; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8bvYGugxvFFbHJXT...

ponoko online laser: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/products/pot...

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the assembly is very straight forward. hot glue one piece at a time, making sure all your joints are water sealed to protect the electronics

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don't forget to place the magnets for the door

STEP 2: Water Sensor

before inserting the water sensor, first carefully bend the connector legs to a 90 degree angle, this will help when wiring the circuit.

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after this put the sensor in to the leg slots and hot glue the openings so they are water sealed as well.

STEP 3: Battery and Arduino

the powerbank comes with a short usb cable that you can use to power the microcontroller.

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for a more discrete look, you can hack the power bank and connect it to the microcontroller internally on the breadboard.

STEP 4: Temperature, Light Sensors + RGB LED

now hot glue the remaining sensors, light and temperature.

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RGB LED goes on the magnetic door.

STEP 5: Wiring + Code

wire according to the schematics above

connect the usb cable to laptop

scroll down to upload sketch,

remember to change wifi settings on lines 18 & 19

choose "lillypad arduino usb" and the correct COM port and click ->run on arduino

you should see the data uploading on your thingspeak channel now (allow upto 2 minutes)

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line 22 is the online webpage address so we can see the plant data on the internet;

1. go to https://thingspeak.com/users/sign_up & fill out the form to create an account

2. once the account is created, the page will change to your channels, click "new channel"

3. change the channel name and type in the fields that you want to record (temperature, light, humidity etc.) - save channel

4. click to "API Keys" tab and copy your write API key, this will be inserted into the code. - we are now ready to upload and capture data to our online channel where it will be graphed automatically and can be downloaded later on in excel format. - after you have created your channel you can also set e-mail alerts where the web page will automatically tweet "alarms" -

5. go to https://twitter.com/ and create an account

6. go to https://thingspeak.com/apps/reacts and create a "new react"

7. name your react and change the alarm values, choose thing tweet as your action and add a twitter account (link your accounts). condition type: numeric, test frequency: on data insertion etc.. for more help: https://thingspeak.com/docs/thingtweet

8. once your react is saved and your twitter account is linked everything should be working, and you should be getting the alarms on your twitter channel/phone.

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you can adjust light, temperature and water levels within the code (lines 119, 129 & 144) you will learn about the pattern of the location where your plant pot will be staying. and eventually get the settings just right. the pre-set numbers should be good for many plants. read more here; www.instructables.com/id/Envolysis/step2

STEP 6: Paint + Logo

make sure to put tape around the openings to protect the electronics. i have used white matte textured spray paint. apply minimum 3 coats waiting in between minimum 30 minutes. make sure to paint outside.!!

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download the official logo here; https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8bvYGugxvFFUlNBV...

STEP 7: Soil + Seeds or Plants

it is now time to add soil and seeds or plants depending on which route you would like to take.. here are a few good instructables on how to start plants from seeds;

. https://www.instructables.com/id/3-Days-from-Seed-t...

. https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Start-Seeds...

here is another instructable on showing you how to transplant an already grown plant;

https://www.instructables.com/id/re-pot-a-Plant/

STEP 8: Conclusion

my dream is to teach the world how to garden and build electronics. combining the two just makes things better. i believe that in the future (very near) all plant pots will be "smart"

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i already have a few companies as competitors, million dollar companies.. however the plant pot still stands as the most advanced one of them all because it is made by YOU and the open source community we have here at www.instructables.com !!

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thank you everybody for your support. please favorite and share this post with friends + family. also like us on www.facebook.com/theplantdoctor2014

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love & peace

akin,

90 Comments

nisirinbanucv 4 years ago

Can we use nano or somethng as a substitute????????????

Akin Yildiz 4 years ago

any arduino will work but it won't have online capabilities

ariefhirmanto7 4 years ago

Hello, why did you use the water sensor? why don't use the soil moisture sensor instead?

sue2000 5 years ago

Hello, I've received the smart plant pot kit from ebay recently, but it just contained the electronics(without battery pack), not including the frames. I thought the kit included the frames as you posted that the kit included frames and all the electronics. Is it my misunderstanding of what you meant, or is the kit missing the parts?

miladAzizzadeh 5 years ago

Hello

What is the width and height of your plan?

IddhamS 7 years ago

do you have the coding in wifi shield ?

Akin Yildiz 7 years ago

hello, sry for late response. there are too many different possibilities why it might not be connecting. do you get sensor data readings.? your wiring maybe wrong..

if the wiring was wrong at first, sometimes it does brick the board. that's a possibility. i'm pretty sure name with spaces are ok. at home i have spaces and it connects.

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please consider upgrading to nodemcu board, $5. i havent done a new instructables yet about this topic but if you follow the facebook page you can see more recent updates; www.facebook.com/theplantdoctor2014 & http://goo.gl/9OQ6T4

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hope this helps..

saivani007 7 years ago

what is the ideal moisture limit for a plant when it is watered sufficiently??

where zero being full moisture and 1023 being no moisture(readings in my sensor are reverse)

Akin Yildiz 7 years ago

when its not reversed, 0 being the driest. i set mine to <300..

so in your case you can try >700 - to get a good adjustment. fully water the soil, until water comes out of the bottom of pot. and then don't water for 3-5days and check the numbers once/day same time at 3rd day and on. you will understand the number

RossN4 7 years ago

Is it possible to connect a ds18b20 sensor to this as well? I've tried a number of different wiring and code methods. Anyone able to do a guide on how to do this? I have my plant pot using water from my fish tank and I want to read the water temp with my smart pot.

bookeater26 7 years ago

Could you upload the 3D covers template in .stl instead of .skp form?

Akin Yildiz 7 years ago

here you go, please share your work with pictures.!!

KMLKGN 7 years ago

i wrote on Facebook if my teacher accept this project i'll start. thx for everything.

RossN4 8 years ago

My sensor readings don't make any sense,

Temp: 1023
Light: 877
Water: 876

I don't know what units any of these are in, I'd like to be able to see Temp in C. Anyone know what units these sensors are in?

Akin Yildiz 8 years ago

hello Ross, numbers you are seeing are raw readings, limited to 0-1023. 0 being most dry/cold/dark and 1023 being the most wet/hot/light (or vice versa).

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if you look at this article; https://learn.adafruit.com/tmp36-temperature-sens... you can see an example of how to convert this data into C or F or basically anything that you want. even a 0-100% " float temperatureF = (temperatureC * 9.0 / 5.0) + 32.0; "

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that being sad, i'm glad to hear that you have successfully connected your components. congrats.!! the reason why the temp is saying 1023 is that because it is actually a digital sensor. you can connect it to a Digital pin on microcontroller and actually get both temp/humid reading from it, both in C and F in a different way. the code needs to be adjusted; https://learn.adafruit.com/tmp36-temperature-sens...

RossN4 8 years ago

I followed the guide and downloaded the DHT.zip library as well changed my data wire to use SCL/PIN 3 (according to this diagram: http://7fvk57.com1.z0.glb.clouddn.com/pinouts-txt.... now all I get for Temp / Humidity is 0.0 not sure what I did wrong or what port to use?

Here is my code: https://github.com/devfunkd/arduino_lab/blob/master/sketch_apr01a/sketch_apr01a.ino

Akin Yildiz 8 years ago

your shared links are not accessible..

RossN4 8 years ago

https://github.com/devfunkd/arduino_lab

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