A few years ago, I wrote about collecting soil moisture data to tune a plant-watering robot. This is a follow-up to that post, but it won’t be a satisfying one.
I started this project with a few goals in mind:
Re-introduce myself to microcontrollers after a long hiatus
Learn how to design a custom PCB
Keep my plants happy while on vacation
I’m happy to report that I did, in fact, make some progress on this project, going so far as to develop a PCB and write most of the code.
Still, I decided not to continue working on the project for a few reasons. The biggest is that there was no way to make it work without connecting it to a tap or some kind of tank. Since there would be no elegant way to do either in our apartment, it didn’t make much sense to continue working on it.
I may return to this project eventually, though probably not in this form. Probably an outdoor garden or aquaponic system would be a good application. At any rate, here are some pics I managed to get along the way:
PCB:
Power + data lines to reprogram via FTDI
RTC and corresponding crystal
Buttons – used to modify time of day, watering schedule, and tuning characteristics
Moisture sensor input
Flow meter input
Solenoid valve output
Boost converter, MOSFET, and flyback diode to drive solenoid valve
OLED output
Reset button