I'm a chilli pepper enthusiast. To be able to get a bigger harvest next year I'm saving some of my plants inside to let them survive winter. I have tried to automate as much as possible to ensure a good habitat for them.

My Raspberry pi zero is connected to nine soil humidity sensors (one for each plant), The sensors are through threshold values connected to nine R/G LED's to indicate if they are dry or moist.

There's relays to control the lights that are set on a schedule to turn on in the morning and off at night and another scheduled relay that turns on and off a water pump that waters the plants through my home-made drip system.With as TMP36 temperature sensor I'm keeping track of the temperature.

Parts needed:

Raspberry pi zero
Wifi
Cayenne mydevices app or web.
9x Soil humidity sensors
PCA9685 PWM control
2x MCP3008
1x TMP36
9x R/G LED's
18x 470 ohm resistors
Relay switch
2x breadboard
Way to many jumper wires
Aquarium water pump
Water tank
Lights Garden hose
Chili plants

Step 1: Connect All Components

This project connected nine analog soil moisture sensors to a Raspberry pi zero to detect moisture levels in the soil of my chili plants. The LED's are red an green to indicate if the plant is dry or moist. The Light and water is also connected and controlled by the Raspberry.

Most LED's are connected to a PCA9685 (Picture no.2) module becuase of the amount of led's and the lack of GPIO pins on the Raspberry. To read the analog values the soil moisture sensors and temperature are converted through a MCP3008 chip that sends digital signals to the raspberry pi and with those signals I have made the charts in Cayenne my devices that are seen.

The relay switch is controling the lights on and off and the water system and and off. (Picture no.3)

Step 2: Add All Sensors and LED's to Cayenne

Add all sensors the your Cayenne dashboard. Remember to keep track of the individual sensors if there's many. I used tape with numbers to keep a track of mine.

Step 3: Create the Water System

I used an aquarium pump to power the drip system. To the pump I connected a regular garden hose that i punctured with a knife with a fine tip. Then I have added cable straps to control the water flow.

Step 4: Set Up the Dashboard

Order your dashboard and enjoy the realtime monitoring of your plants.

Step 5: Schedule Your Events

Schedule your events and set the time for light to turn on and off and the water system to turn on and off.

Step 6: Set Triggers

To switch between the red and green LED I have used the triggers to set a value where the green turns on. (When the green turns on there needs to be a trigger that also turns off the red LED). And then I set my value to turn on the red LED and off the green.