Idea: Remote controlled automatic plant watering

[Deleted73907]

Hi,

okay, this isn't really something new, but during this summer vacation I felt a need for the following item that I would actually buy:

It would be really nice having a cheap automatic plant watering, where there is also the opportunity to control it from remote. I have a lot of sunflowers on my balcony which are quite thirsty in the summer months, needing watering every day.

The idea would be something like I lie somewhere at the beach, open an app on my phone, take a look at my plants through a camera and switch on my watering, or, alternatively, switch to an automatic program.

Out of curiosity and as a first shot I built an ad-hoc plant watering on my balcony (see video and pic), without any remote control so far.

View: https://youtu.be/nuq1i-I2zDA




The thing is very primitive as you might recognize at the first glance. It just consists of a small pump, a float switch, a small box which separates pump circuitry and float switch circuitry (via relay), a clock timer and wiring. Plus, of course, the mechanical parts (hoses and a valve).

The advantage: It was cheap (around 20€ for the electrical parts excluding the power supply, around 10€ for the mechanical parts), and I was able to build it quickly with recycled parts in under 1h.

As we are discussing ideas and basic concepts I would appreciate basic feedback for the idea of further developing such a watering device. As mentioned, I want to implement a remote control via android app, and on the mechanical level it would be cool having rather a kit with different-sized hoses, valves and hydraulic distributions.

With a Raspberry Pi for instance, one is able to devise a remote control via a couple of lines python code (Input/Output ports) that can be activated via app, and also to connect a camera (but I have not much experience with a Raspberry Pi so far). Of course that cannot be the actual solution if I want to scale this (?) since a Raspberry Pi costs between 80€ and 100€. Nobody would buy a plant watering for >100€ I guess.

Goal would be of course as always, developing something low-priced that fulfills an actual need.

Before I created this post I made some mandatory quick research of course, but I wasn't able to find something in this context that I would actually buy. If you have something like a link, I would really appreciate it.

This thread on the FLF was quite funny to read: Why did this product fail?

But anyway, thanks in advance.

 

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[Parks]

As you said this is isn't anything really new but you are improving upon an old idea that is if this really already hasn't been done yet.

I think for this project it will all come down to marketing for you. Don't be scared to do some unconventional marketing too like offline ads/signs. I've always been obsessed with bandit signs, so maybe get your app created and start placing signs around cities with high traffic points showing your easy download app to start watching your plants and watering automated etc (get the download first and maybe allow to order the tubing/setup via the app as well, you'd only be advertising one thing then, the app vs two) As for some obvious pointers I'd recommend a notification tied to whatever plant you are growing (you'd be able to select) so based off the conditions you could know how often to tell it to water.

Then again you may never know this might work better for commercial use like for indoor cannabis growers. Good luck with it if you decide to pursue it looks fun.

Best Wifi Plant Watering System | 2019 Devices and Sensor Guide

Find and compare Wifi and Bluetooth plant watering sensor systems. Set automatic timers and remotely monitor health using your Android or iOS phone.

www.postscapes.com

 

[Kid]

small plant growing businesses or ambitious plant growers,

Hobbyists? That could work.

"PlantPet"

PlantPal

When it comes to computing unit, you could go even lower.
With some small CPU parts and without GPU you could go very low.
(But probably coding them is a bit harder, but not not-doable)

Btw. Pi Zero is for $5 Raspberry Pi Zero
That would be $35 dollars off the price.

 

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[Kid]

Cool to see you're going with it

For a challenge, I'd try to do it all in a day.

And record it, time lapse it , upload to your YT channel and make 10x more from ads than selling the device.

 

[MrRobot]

Hi
I have some bonsai trees and needed a solution to substitute sunlight with artificial light. I used a raspberry pi for scheduling the lights (turn on and off, simulate sunrise, sunset) and philips hue lightstrip. I wrote some python scripts myself so the pi can communicate with the lightstrips and set the light color (this is important for a bonsai and for plants in general). OK this solution is not cheap but that was not my goal as I did not think about selling something like that.

You might rethink your product idea and your audience. You could sell a complete solution which involves a led light and a watering + fertilizing system.

As for your potential customers: A bonsai tree might cost thousands of dollars and its not always easy to care for one. This might mean that you can work with higher margins (not sure about it, I have no idea about sales).

Another type of potential customers: Smart farming is already a popular topic and many startups / big companies are working on it. But maybe all these companies only thought about large scale farming. What about the smaller size family farms? Maybe there is a niche there?

 

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[LordGanon]

I already did that. Didn't market it, though. You'd need to make it ultra-convenient, make it kawaii and market it as "PlantPet" or something like that. Should start with the push of a button, only need input on target moisture and do the rest by itself or on command.

 

[LordGanon]

Hobbyists? That could work.

PlantPal

When it comes to computing unit, you could go even lower.
With some small CPU parts and without GPU you could go very low.
(But probably coding them is a bit harder, but not not-doable)

Btw. Pi Zero is for $5 Raspberry Pi Zero
That would be $35 dollars off the price.

PlantPal is much better (y).

You could go even lower when it comes to the computing unit. ESP32 should work fine. Two bucks.

Actually, this is a no brainer for prototyping:

1. ESP32, Camera Module, Moisture Sensor - Programming will take less than a day.
2. Source a cheap pump
3. 3d model some kawaii case
4. Find a 3d printing service
5. Put it all together

6. Kickstarter

7. $$$

For a challenge, I'd try to do it all in a day.

 

[Deleted73907]

So the Hong Kong PCBs arrived today. 2$ for 5 PCB.

The current prototype will now resemble slightly more a finished product and doesn't look like that ugly ad-hoc assembly any more (you can see that on the left in the picture).

I've rewritten entirely my automatic program. Now it does monitor the sensors in a fixed cycle time (5 seconds monitoring, 5 minutes idle time; then start over), and if the soil moisture is below a threshold it will water.
I've also implemented an plausibility check (for e.g. valve is closed, sensor is pulled out etc.). Let's see how this works.

Right now I am doing a several days testrun to see if my program is somehow functional. This test run is also meant as kind of a durability test.

That's all for now.

 

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[Deleted73907]

I want to make a short update of this thread. I was not really active in this community recently, sorry for that.

Lately I haven't been doing much in terms of practical work, but I promoted this project on a few other platforms, like on hackaday.io and on my own website.

I am offering quite different kinds of articles on my website, and monitor the google analytics data on a frequent basis to get an idea about what people are interested in. A sort of tendency is visible here:

Travel, self-development, photo-projects, sport/fitness: meh
Electronics, SW-development, DIY: Give me more

This is not very surprising I guess, and I think this just confirms once more that HW and SW related stuff (even if it is just rather average material) is in high demand while other topics get mostly ignored (unless you produce something really groundbreaking and spectacular, I am not able to do that).

A few days ago a PCB manufacturer who got a glimpse at my projects contacted me and asked whether I am interested in some kind of co-operation. He would supply me with free HW, and support me as far as possible conceiving further projects. So after one year passed by I think the work I put into (that wasn't that much, but anyway) is starting to pay off. Let's see how this further evolves.

Here the current status of my projects:

Soil moisture measurement device

This is a simple, durable and cheap soil moisture measurement device showing a double-digit value on two 7-Segment-Displays. A probe (either resistive or capacitive type) delivers an analog value (i. e. voltage) representing the soil moisture, a Raspberry Pi Pico converts the sensor signal into...

hackaday.io

Remotely controlled plant watering

With this plant irrigation system, I am able to take care of my plants via Smartphone even when I am far away from home. The heart of the configuration is a Raspberry Pi with implemented VPN-Server, so access to the GPIO ports is no big deal. By means of the SSH-Shell a Python script can be...

hackaday.io

GitHub - Florian-Wilhelm/Raspberry-Pi: Small Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi Pico projects

Small Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi Pico projects. Contribute to Florian-Wilhelm/Raspberry-Pi development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Thanks for reading.

 

[Deleted73907]

Maybe I can use this thread to hold me accountable, I might not be the only one who learns something in the process .

So,

got hold of a cheap older version of the Raspberry Pi and it works properly. Could start right now with Python programming.

Have also a first idea for a low-cost electronic control (see sketch). Ordered already the components, let's see how good my first prototype works . Feedback would be appreciated.

Ah looks like a fun project with potential .

 

[LordGanon]

So,

got hold of a cheap older version of the Raspberry Pi and it works properly. Could start right now with Python programming.

Have also a first idea for a low-cost electronic control (see sketch). Ordered already the components, let's see how good my first prototype works . Feedback would be appreciated.

Ah looks like a fun project with potential .

Why didn't you go with an ESP32? Built-In WiFi, much smaller, two bucks...

If it's because you only know Python: Trust me. The C you need for an ESP32 is absolutely easy peasy.

 

[Deleted73907]

Why didn't you go with an ESP32? Built-In WiFi, much smaller, two bucks...

If it's because you only know Python: Trust me. The C you need for an ESP32 is absolutely easy peasy.

Yes you are right, Raspy might be oversized. I think it is good for a first shot, to get a feeling for this project.

So here's the idea:

The guy who wants an automation for his plant watering just installs the app for the wlan remote access, installs a slim code (watering programs or whatever) on his Raspy (maybe already existent, this device is popular here in Germany) and plugs in the connector for the additional electronic (see sketch). Optional cameras/sensors etc. -> easy to implement with the GPIOs.

Afterwards he can go on his 3 week vacation, respectively doesn't need to be physically present any longer and can let his tomatoes grow.

(Of course you can develop it fully automatized as well with many humid sensors etc. without a need for a remote control).

Yeah, nothing groundbreaking or spectacular, but maybe cheaper/more comfortable than other solutions -> at least that is the goal.

Most challenging for me is indeed programming the app for the remote control (never created apps), though there are apparently many prefabricated solutions already out there that I might just have to tailor.

I know some C++ (programmed a little robot a couple of years ago), but no Python so far . But I've planned to learn that language anyway, so this project is a good pretext to do it .

 

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[Deleted73907]

So I am quite enthusiastic about this small project.

I built a small circuit board today (according to the sketch I posted), and it seems to work.

For the case someone is interested: the board consists of two transistors BD243C (0,30€ each), an UA741 amplifier (1,50€), and two 100 Ohm resistors (0,1€ c each). So with the wiring you have a price of around 2€-3€.

Here is a demo:

View: https://youtu.be/KZcAzOEf4Ws


The output port of the Raspy needs of course some intelligence (now it is just permanently switched on with 3,3 V), so, as said, the next step is to implement that intelligence via python.

Hopefully I can make an update of this thread soon.

 

[LordGanon]

And finally some devil's advocate: Not sure how effective it is but there are self-watering pots and the ol' trick of putting a cord on the pot and the other end on a full bottle of water. You'll have to make the product better than that.

That's a very fair point. I always say "never ever make anything electrical that you can accomplish by means of mechanics", but it seems like no manufacturer or consumer is willing to listen.

 

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[Deleted73907]

So here is just another video about the progress with this little project (I deleted the older videos).

I am not quite sure if this thread generally fits in with the purpose of this sub-forum. But if not I can open a new thread in the "Process/Execution" subforum (or I post less frequent, for the case it is not really interesting for anyone).

Again, here is the goal of this project:
"Automatic plant watering" plug&play 100€ (or less) system; remote control via App with the option to automate it entirely; hydraulically scalable; it must be easy to handle for a non technical-savvy person.

View: https://youtu.be/qCdcb1ewRvQ


Further information about the prototype:

Integrated now:

>Pump (20€, 12l/min) and rudimentary mechanical water distribution (hoses, T-fittings, around 20€)
>Switching on/off the pump via Raspberry Pi (50€) GPIO-ports (+additional electronics, 3€) and a simple python sequence
>Switching on/off the pump via Floating switch (3€)
>Check Status of Raspberry Pi via App within home wifi

Missing:

>Remote control via App outside home wifi Camera and humid sensors (optional)

 

[jackBruh]

Setting it up the way you envision (full remote control outside the home) is definitely possible to do, for an embedded system it might be easier to code another device (ESP32 or another low power chip with wifi capability) other than a raspberry pi due to the OS complicating things. However if you choose not to go that way and focus on only controlling one device when you're nearby then BlueTooth is probably your best bet. There are other methods such as Zigbee which could allow you to do mesh networking (to control multiple seperated devices at once) which would really help you market it as a modular solution to fit any type of garden. The chips are pretty cheap too.
As for market need, if it was fully automated so I could set and forget, then I for one would definitely be willing to pay for an effective, reliable and easy to use solution.

 

[Deleted73907]

I've integrated the AD-Converter now. Here a short demo video:

View: https://youtu.be/AJNGpfgUX2k


What you see here executed is just a rudementary python program, rather for demonstration purposes.

The analog measurement range for the moisture sensor (that is basically just a resistor) is from 0.0V to 3.3V.
That means:
Completely wet approximately 3.3V 1.7V. Completely dry approximately 0.0V. "Half-wet" 1.65V 0.85V (values according to datasheet).
Threshold for pump-activation I set more or less arbitrarily on 1.1V (1/3*3.3V). Needs further calibration of course.

I am "simulating" the water-pump (respectively the electronic amplifier, the pump needs 12V) with the volt-meter since I have presently no plants on my balcony.
That means:
Pump on: 3.3V. Pump off: 0.0V.

 

[Deleted73907]

Here's a short video that summarizes the results with the project so far (the other videos are not longer available).

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FirQ23VTQU4



Video-editing is a lot of work and I do not know much about it - but I'll try to improve here as well. Btw there are a lot of videos on YT about plant watering and similar topics, and some of them have tens or hundred thousands of clicks (take a look at this video for example).

Anyway, there are a lot of improvements that need to be done:

The automation is anything but trivial. What if someone pulls out the moisture-sensor? The system thinks the soil is dry and starts watering. Therefore I have to implement further safety mechanisms and plausibility checks.

And what if I have three or four sensors? How do I calculate a variable out of that? I don't want to have a complex hydraulic for watering individual plants because they'll make the system expensive. Quality hydraulic is much more expensive than the electronics.

Additionally, there is always a current through the sensors by default, which leads to quick aging of the sensors (that has to do with chemical processes). Therefore I have to invent a logic that switches on the sensors on demand only.

A lot of work, but I don't think I'll post anything for the next weeks, in order to keep this thread concise. To many details will be too tedious I guess.

EDIT: Replaced video with a better edited version

 

[Deleted73907]

So I started this thread on August 29, that means it is exactly 2 months old.

With the prototype (that works quite well by now) I made some further improvements:

1. switching on the moisture-sensors solely "on demand" (otherwise they corrode very fast)

The solution was basically very obvious here. I just connected the sensors directly with the GPIO-ports (I just have to take care that the maximum current doesn't exceed 50 mA).

2. second electronic amplifier implemented (for e.g. a second pump, not used yet; a more powerful pump needs usually 12V and 1-2A, the Raspy can only provide 5V maximum)

I attached a schematic, if someone is interested in the practical realization. It is just a basic amplifier that one can find easily in a textbook about electronics. No rocket science or something

The assembly of the electronic board is still DIY (tinkering), as you might recognize on the attached photo (on the right there is the Raspy+camera; the tiny board is the A/D converter).

But there is a (for the most part) free SW available ("Eagle light") with which one can design so-called PCB ("Printed Circuit Boards"). Such boards could be manufactured in small batch series. I already experimented a little with this SW, and my PCB doesn't look that ugly I would say (attached also a picture).

Next steps:
- improve my python-code and get closer to the goal of a partially or full automated system
- make better and digestible videos that presents how this device basically works
- develop a super-convenient GUI for the smartphone (very last step)

Hope it made my thoughts somehow clear . I'll do an update here in 1-2 weeks I think.

 

[Lyinx]

ran across this company and had to think of you... Super Deluxe Controller - FarmTek
also checkout their other things, if anyone has an industrial version that is close to what you are making, they would be it...
and if they don't have it, they might be interested in a solution for large scale projects and/or for greenhouses to sell to customers

 

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[Deleted73907]

So here you can see a short summary as I am working since almost three months on this project (green: finished/available; yellow: has to be improved; red: completely missing):

I do not make any practical tests for the time being because of the now freezing temperatures outside.

But I'll do programming for the next weeks.

The python sequences on my RasPi are working fine (have one automatic and one manual program), though (naturally) there is always something that can be improved (especially the control loop, so my check mark isn't green but yellow ).

Every python sequence can conveniently be started through the SSH-shell that is provided by a free RasPi App (you just need the "nohup" command for this - otherwise your program gets aborted when you close the RasPi App).

But of course, the SSH-Shell is unsexy. Graphics, Buttons etc. would be cooler.

So I made my very first tries with Android Studio this week. But it is very obvious that my skills are too limited in this case. I spent half a day just barely setting up the developent environment, and didn't write one single line of code so far (my knowledge in Java and Kotlin is zero).

Hence as already suggested in this thread, I very likely outsource this endeavour to a specialist when it is exactly clear what the App should do.

Another thing was that I created a blog article on my HP about this "invention". I have no clue if I can somehow gauge interest via google analytics for these kinds of devices (or get a better idea about certain keywords), but it is worth a try I guess.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and nice weekend.

 

[Deleted73907]

Still working on this project.

As said, I set up an article on my HP about my device by the mid of November, just to see what happens in terms of overall traffic. And there seems a slight increase. But maybe it is just noise, who knows.

Will try to set up a further article soon, because I am curious about this (sidenote: my HP is very small and has very few articles published so far, so one deep and interesting article could indeed make a difference).

Traffic:


What brings me directly to my next point: The android app .

I've actually found a few people in my company (I am an engineer working for a rather small automative company btw) who are interested about a small development project with Android Studio.

It even has the approval of my boss because it generates fresh knowhow in our department (in fact we have a lot of SW developers, but app-development wasn't really high priority until quite recently).

So I might be able to develop the App myself after a couple of months of concentrated effort in this regard, and other people might even have an immediate benefit from it as well.

Another idea that just occurred to me lately was to develop not an app but simply a python GUI. Wouldn't be that sexy, but could also be very comfortable to use. Have to spend some thoughts and some testing on this.

This is how the electronics of my prototype looks right now btw.:



That is is all for the moment. My next update will be in the next year.

 

[Deleted73907]

Hi there,

The garden season is one month away or so, and I have been working on my project the last couple of weeks. That kind of stuff that one can do without having actual plants.

1. I tried to develop or to reverse engineer some of the hardware components I am using, in order to cut overall costs and to get a better understanding of the subject-matter I am dealing with. Here you can see a reverse engineered moisture sensor (next to a China sensor), and a small and super cheap camera module.



2. I code almost daily, in order to get a bunch of somewhat reliable bug-free programms which whom I can carry out long term tests in the summer. I've published and I will publish some of this code on github, for the case someone want to take a look at it

GitHub - Florian-Wilhelm/Raspberry-Pi: Small Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi Pico projects

Small Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi Pico projects. Contribute to Florian-Wilhelm/Raspberry-Pi development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

(I am not sure if it is okay to post a github link here, if it is against forum policies please remove)

3. There is also the idea to create a tailored app, instead of using the SSH shell and python. I didn't do much about this idea so far, beside installing the development tools on my laptop and create some loose contacts to colleagues from my workplace with some actual coding experience. I need more time budget for especially this I guess.

4. And there is also my blog, where I post articles related to this project occasionally. Right now, these articles are the only ones getting some traffic (according to google analytics). I hope these numbers will increase with the beginning of spring.

That's all for February. Thanks for reading.

 

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[Deleted73907]

@Kid That is a point of course. Target groups would be therefore rather small plant growing businesses or ambitious plant growers, someone who produces oil with sunflower seeds maybe where there is a demand for a tricky water supply of sorts. For sure not a grandma who has three flowers on her balcony and is visiting her daughter for a week.

Calculating solely the electronic parts, the costs approximately are not exceeding 85€.

Older version of Raspberry Pi (or another µC system) 40€. Power supply for the pump: 8€. Quality pump: 20€. Floating switch (optional) 3€. Wiring and additional electronics: 4€. Raspberry Pi camera (optional) 8€.

Mechanical parts depend on the actual application. A few hoses and a valve you can get for 10€.

My biggest obstacle would be developing the app itself, since I've never written apps so far (but I have some general knowledge about programming). Could be something that I might outsource, idk.

But just ideas so far, have to do some more research on this before actually starting.

Further input very appreciated :-D

 

[alexkuzmov]

Hi,

okay, this isn't really something new, but during this summer vacation I felt a need for the following item that I would actually buy:

It would be really nice having a cheap automatic plant watering, where there is also the opportunity to control it from remote. I have a lot of sunflowers on my balcony which are quite thirsty in the summer months, needing watering every day.

The idea would be something like I lie somewhere at the beach, open an app on my phone, take a look at my plants through a camera and switch on my watering, or, alternatively, switch to an automatic program.

Out of curiosity and as a first shot I built an ad-hoc plant watering on my balcony (see video and pic), without any remote control so far.

View: https://youtu.be/nuq1i-I2zDA


View attachment 34658

The thing is very primitive as you might recognize at the first glance. It just consists of a small pump, a float switch, a small box which separates pump circuitry and float switch circuitry (via relay), a clock timer and wiring. Plus, of course, the mechanical parts (hoses and a valve).

The advantage: It was cheap (around 20€ for the electrical parts excluding the power supply, around 10€ for the mechanical parts), and I was able to build it quickly with recycled parts in under 1h.

As we are discussing ideas and basic concepts I would appreciate basic feedback for the idea of further developing such a watering device. As mentioned, I want to implement a remote control via android app, and on the mechanical level it would be cool having rather a kit with different-sized hoses, valves and hydraulic distributions.

With a Raspberry Pi for instance, one is able to devise a remote control via a couple of lines python code (Input/Output ports) that can be activated via app, and also to connect a camera (but I have not much experience with a Raspberry Pi so far). Of course that cannot be the actual solution if I want to scale this (?) since a Raspberry Pi costs between 80€ and 100€. Nobody would buy a plant watering for >100€ I guess.

Goal would be of course as always, developing something low-priced that fulfills an actual need.

Before I created this post I made some mandatory quick research of course, but I wasn't able to find something in this context that I would actually buy. If you have something like a link, I would really appreciate it.

This thread on the FLF was quite funny to read: Why did this product fail?

But anyway, thanks in advance.

Its a valid idea.
Ive thought about it as well since I was growing alot if things on my balcony and if you want to leave the home you have to find someone to water the plants, otherwise they die.
The thing is, the market for such a device is probably way too small to make the product viable.

Limitations(each more limiting the the previous one):
1. People who grow plants(not professionally)
2. People who grow plants which need frequent watering.
3. From those, people who actually leave their home for extended periods.
4. And from those, people who have no one to look after their plants and have a water source on their balcony or container large enough to hold water for a few days.

A large part of plant growing is the fun of taking care of the plants. Automation takes away from that. Its not something home growers are likely to do.
For me its a choice between a phone call to e friend and setting up a watering system which will cot me money, will require maintenence at some point and will require room to store. Its just no contest.

With a heavily restricted market and up against the convenience of a phone call, this idea will be born dead.

 

[Deleted73907]

A large part of plant growing is the fun of taking care of the plants. Automation takes away from that. Its not something home growers are likely to do.
For me its a choice between a phone call to e friend and setting up a watering system which will cot me money, will require maintenence at some point and will require room to store. Its just no contest.

With a heavily restricted market and up against the convenience of a phone call, this idea will be born dead.

Yes I agree. Nothing you can get rich from I suppose. It would be a very small market to begin with, and you would take the fun-factor out of a hobby to some degree.

There had been two reasons why I've pursued this idea a little more seriously lately, therefore I was interested in other opinions/experiences with automation projects.

1. My friend who was usually watering my plants (and who kept my replacement keys for my apartment) wasn't available unexpectedly while I was on my vacation, what almost killed my plants hence vaporizing months of work. That sucked. TMF , page 253: "This sucks ..."

2. In an era of global pandemics, the desire for some convenient system of self-supply for a private person might be an actual need? Maybe one owns some acres of land a few kilometers away and want to grow vegetables without putting in too much work? Not sure about this one.

Anyway, when I'll find some time on one of my next weekends I will experiment further to get a more concrete idea about such a project.

Programming a python sequence which controls the I/O ports of a Raspberry is not that difficult.

Maybe I can use this thread to hold me accountable, I might not be the only one who learns something in the process .

 

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[LordGanon]

Yes you are right, Raspy might be oversized. I think it is good for a first shot, to get a feeling for this project.

So here's the idea:

The guy who wants an automation for his plant watering just installs the app for the wlan remote access, installs a slim code (watering programs or whatever) on his Raspy (maybe already existent, this device is popular here in Germany) and plugs in the connector for the additional electronic (see sketch). Optional cameras/sensors etc. -> easy to implement with the GPIOs.

I'm also from Germany.

I get the feeling you're not accomplishing what you want to do. Making it dependent on external devices someone maybe has or doesn't have at home is overcomplicating things. It has to be a one-device, one-button solution. Pump, sensors and computing unit integrated. Stick in, install the app, push the button, beep. That's absolutely doable.

 

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[BellaPippin]

Just here to give some customer PoV since I do not understand anything on the technical side... as someone following and checkin on the r/indoorplants subreddit very often, "plant moms/dads" are a thing and each of their plants is a single important member. I'm talking they upload pics with their whole collection--ahem-- "plant family" to flex on Reddit.

So that said, would it be one device per plant? Because if you own three or four you might not care much to get one of these, but to the people that have 50 plants in an apartment, this could have a lot of potential, I feel, if you could have them group them somewhere before they leave or something like that. Don't only target people with balconies, see if you can have it water it without too much spill on the floor by putting someone underneath.

Note on this: A lot of people seem to have the smaller ones displayed on shelve units, you could make one that is like a shower of sorts, like the way the supermarket sprays the plants from above?

Another thing is that when you water a plant, some of it comes through the drainage holes in the pot, and the plant shouldn't be sitting in water or the roots will rot. So I don't think they would appreciate watering their plant and then seeing them over a puddle, for the plant OR their floors.

You could put the demo video on the subreddit and see what feedback comes up. Make sure you don't sound advertising anything, Reddit hates that. Make the title something like "I made this to water my awesome monstera while I'm away this weekend, what do you think?!" And see what they say. I bet they will give you a lot of ideas to improve it to their liking.



And finally some devil's advocate: Not sure how effective it is but there are self-watering pots and the ol' trick of putting a cord on the pot and the other end on a full bottle of water. You'll have to make the product better than that.

 

[Deleted73907]

[

Just here to give some customer PoV since I do not understand anything on the technical side... as someone following and checkin on the r/indoorplants subreddit very often, "plant moms/dads" are a thing and each of their plants is a single important member. I'm talking they upload pics with their whole collection--ahem-- "plant family" to flex on Reddit.

So that said, would it be one device per plant? Because if you own three or four you might not care much to get one of these, but to the people that have 50 plants in an apartment, this could have a lot of potential, I feel, if you could have them group them somewhere before they leave or something like that. Don't only target people with balconies, see if you can have it water it without too much spill on the floor by putting someone underneath.

Note on this: A lot of people seem to have the smaller ones displayed on shelve units, you could make one that is like a shower of sorts, like the way the supermarket sprays the plants from above?

Another thing is that when you water a plant, some of it comes through the drainage holes in the pot, and the plant shouldn't be sitting in water or the roots will rot. So I don't think they would appreciate watering their plant and then seeing them over a puddle, for the plant OR their floors.

You could put the demo video on the subreddit and see what feedback comes up. Make sure you don't sound advertising anything, Reddit hates that. Make the title something like "I made this to water my awesome monstera while I'm away this weekend, what do you think?!" And see what they say. I bet they will give you a lot of ideas to improve it to their liking.

And finally some devil's advocate: Not sure how effective it is but there are self-watering pots and the ol' trick of putting a cord on the pot and the other end on a full bottle of water. You'll have to make the product better than that.

Hi,

thanks very much for your good input. I'll write a comprehensive reply to this thread when I've actually created the code for my Raspy and (hopefully) my app.

Then I'll also create a better demo-video in order to get kind of a "reality-check" if this device might offer some value for a more ambitious plant grower.

But here is the mechanical part of my watering. This yet primitive network is basically very easy to scale for the case you have scores of plants (you can do that through cascaded T-fittings for example - very cheap).

View: https://youtu.be/3ShdWZb70hI

 

[Deleted73907]

So now I can control the system via (third-party) app what is a further step forward.

The sequence is (just for demonstration purposes):

Switch on 20 seconds
Switch off 20 seconds
Switch on 20 seconds
Switch off

View: https://youtu.be/ddT5wX0eu2A


Still just nerd stuff of course.

 

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