DIY Plant Manager

Another Internet Connected Thing :)

Yes, this is a electronic manager for your plants which will keep them in good health all the time and like all other devices this guy is also internet enabled, which means you can monitor you plant from anywhere in the world.

So what does this manager do simple:

1. Waters your plant when its thirsty
2. Monitors Soil Temperature
3. Monitors Soil Moisture
4. Monitors tank water level
5. this guys doesn't even ask for charging works fully on solar energy

Costed me around 3 to 4K INR but i tell you its RnD that costs and its worth the experience.

My current Dashboard:https://freeboard.io/board/uqKnOe

I was inspired by ESP8266 mini Witty board its an awesome little package for ESP8266, I mean its a neat little package since its has headers you can just plug it in the main board and when we need to program it we can just remove it off. and like all of us know it brings Internet to your project pretty neat.

So the next inspiration i got was from garden which needs to be watered always and as seasons change you need to water them appropriately like summer is water them more winters and monsoon are don't bother them too much with water else they rot.

As a simple innovation was needed it was time for a plant bot to take over the gardening but then it has to look pretty and should be internet connected nor i wanted a complex configuration this is where i deviced below architecture its simple and has following features:

• No charging required built on Solar charger with high capacity batteries to keep it powered for a month
• Collects Soil Moisture Data
• Collects Soil Temperature
• Drives Water pump
• Low water level indicator
• Continuous collection of all the parameter every 5 mins

As shown in the picture all sensors and actuators connect to Witty which then uses the wifi capability to post data on internet.

1. ESP8266 Witty
2. Power Bank
3. Solar Panel
4. Proto PCB board
5. Arcylic Sheets
6. Arcylic Waterproof Glue
7. BC547 x 3
8. 10K x 2
9. Water proof Temp sensor DS18B20
10. 4.7k x 1
11. M3 x60mm Screw as Soil moisture probe.
12. 1K x 1
13. 500 ohm variable resistor x 1
14. Project box
15. Tubes for water plumbing
16. DC 3 V motor
17. 1N4001 Diode

Building the Circuit is quite simple just Solder the Panel to the battery and assemble the circuit as shown in scematics

Acrylic Box:

This is also easy process just follow the photo's the dimensions may vary mine is 10 by 6 inch in height and i can tell you its big, Secondly it has to be water tight to hold enough water under pressure for watering follow the pics..