More Humane Moisture Sensor

Recently I got a project from Titan industries, who were in search of something as an interactive plant pot which could bridge this gap of emotional communication, in mins this reminded me of brilliant projects done by people where the plant could could tweet and send mails and txts and on your command over the cloud, could also self water them.
But all this is good only if you stay away from your home for a long time. How the plant pot communicate when you are around? You obviously don’t tweet your sister in the next room for cookies!! That’s not humane. Often the most difficult part in making and designing is “elimination”. So my system is a small modular hand held plat moisture level indicator which gives facial expressions based on moisture level of soil. a Moe humane approach , just ilke a kid. No internet connection :p. So all you do is make multiple of these(I’m going to shortly release detailed instructions of making them ) and put them on your indoor plant pots. And they make faces depending on moisture content of soil.

Step 1: Things You Require

1. 1- 8X8 LED Matrix. (Link to buy in India)
2. 1- Arduino Pro mini 5V ATMega328. (buy it from here in India)
-If you don't know what is Arduino; it's time you do and head over here
-To know about the different variant and our version of Arduino head here
3. 1-FTDI Board - 5 Volt logic level means all the pins have operate on max 5 volts; for geeks the term is 5Volt TTL level (It will be used for programming Arduino Pro mini as it doesn't come with on-board system to do so like Arduino Uno). (buy it fro here in India)
4. USB mini Cable. (here )
5. Moisture sensor (here to buy )
6. Transparent Acrylic Boards (Design and drilling pattern are in my Git and can be downloaded from here)
7. Tools as per your expertise.
8. Black tint sheet for transparent acrylic plates.
9. nuts, bolts spacers.
10. 8 X 220 ohms resistors.
11. on/off switch.

Step 2: Step: 1: Knowing and Glowing the LED MAtrix

Download the latest Arduino IDE and follow the instructions on the website to install it.
Then, as according to the above diagram, wire all the components on bread board and around Arduino.
Then upload the Matrix_basic.ino code to the Arduino.
If you are new, don't be afraid, Go through the code as it is self explanatory.

Step 3: Step:3 How to Use the Moisture Sensor (Troubleshooting the Sensor)

This Moisture Sensor can be used to detect the moisture of soil or judge if there is water around the sensor.Let Your plants reach out for your help when needed. They can be very easy to use, just insert it into the soil and then read it. With the help of this sensor, it will be realizable to make the plant remind you : hey, i am thirsty now, please give me some water.
1.Connect the VCC pin from sensor to 5Volt DC pin of Arduino.
2.Connect the GND pin from sensor to GND of Arduino.
3.Connect the signal to Arduino Pro mini's A6 Pin (Analog 6 - measures analog variance in voltage).
4.Insert it to soil.
5.Connect FTDI board to Arduino Pro mini.
6.Connect FTDI Board to computer via mini USB Cable.
7.Upload the code Moisture_meter_calib.ino (here's how)
8.After successful upload fire up the serial monitor to see the results. (Here's how to open a serial monitor).
9. keep a note of results from different soil conditions as they will be used as determining conditions in later version of code for our final project compilation.

Step 4: Step : 4 Preparing the Housing/cabinet

It's all in the pictures.
I just now connected the water sensor and LED matrix to the same Arduino pro mini, added a switch for power on/off and housed in as in pictures.
The .svg files are down below for laser cutting of acrylic plates.

Step 5: Step:5 Now You Program It.

Open the semi_final.ino in your Arduino IDE and in the void loop{} edit the if else conditions for sensor readings corresponding to soil moisture levels and replace them with what ever resulting values you get from trouble shooting (Step:3)

Step 6: Step:6 It's Now Time to Play

Now just power up and insert it to your plant pot and let it tell you when it's hungry.

Comments

[SudiartoHsu]

hey everyone! I have a problem with calibration moisture sensor. The describe on the above if in the air the value is "0", but i don't get "0", it's always floating point between 20-50. Thanks. Please help!

[RenatoM20]

I´m having problems with the display. All the wiring is correct and following the sketch above, but only lights random leds. I´m using a 1588AS 8x8 matrix.

[Aching]

I am trying to make this as a class project. However, our school supplies only the duemilanove boards so we don't have access to the pro mini. Is it possible to still complete the project with the duemilanove? Thanks!

[JOHNGANESAN]

Intelligent project for human and plant integration, emotional interface nice thinking

[elran]

what about power? is it battery operated? lack of information for the power issue, but overall , it's a great project!

[jrjohnwood]

nuts

[rkrishnan7]

Great project, and neatly done.
I think you mean "human", not "humane" - the two words have different meanings :)

[smalcolm]

Your intro/synopsis is rather confusing and perhaps a proofreader might be helpful.
That aside, how is this "more humane" ?

[ASCAS]

Cool project! But you do know you can make something like this without using an Arduino.

[rclymer]

Why even bother to say that? Of course it could be done, but this is the way he did it and wanted to share. Awesome project, I will definitely be building some similar with and arduino.

[ASCAS]

Don't take this the wrong way. Indeed this is an awesome project, and very cute as well. I do appreciate him, sharing this awesome ible. In fact, I'm building one as a gift for my green thumbed friend. It's just that, Arduinos are pretty expensive, compared to transistors.

[jayfehr]

Could you do one on how to do it with transistors? I would be interested in trying that out.

[ASCAS]

I could, probably after the DIY Makey Makey write-up.

[jayfehr]

That would be great. I'm a computer programmer so micro controllers are my hammer that makes all the problems look like a nail. Some new skills would be nice.

[SolidRaven]

Usually a 8051 that costs next to nothing will do the trick. And considering the speed this has to work at a 4-bit microcontroller should be able to do the job, assuming you get somewhat creative.

[Insonicbloom]

I do know what you mean - arduinos and uControllers in general are getting relied on too much these days - on my stripboard electronics site ( www.paulinthelab.com ) I stay away from them for this reason. however I must say in this case - this is a pretty cool project.

[aceammar]

:) nice work

[gkuhlman]

What if you overwater the plants?

[Insonicbloom]

I think I would program it to show a picture of a gallows for that

[jessyratfink]

If my plants frowned at me I'd definitely water them more often. This is genius. :D