Sprout: Modern Indoor Self Watering Planter
Made by jonathanrjpereira / Environmental Sensing / Garden / Home Automation / Sensors / Sustainability
About the project
Sprout is a Modern Indoor Planter which automatically waters your plants, herbs, vegetables, etc and will revolutionize your gardening game.
Project info
Difficulty: Moderate
Estimated time: 5 hours
License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY version 4.0 or later (CC BY 4+)
Items used in this project
Hardware components
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Story
Sprout is a Modern Indoor Planter which automatically waters your plants, herbs, vegetables, etc and will revolutionize your gardening game.
It consists of an integrated water reservoir from which water is pumped & keeps the plant's soil hydrated.
A soil moisture sensor is calibrated such that it periodically measures the moisture of the soil thereby regulating the water flow. If the soil is too dry, the water pump automatically switches ON and goes OFF when the soil moisture has reached the desired level.
If you're the person who underwaters their plants, Sprout will ensure you will never have to worry about being a bad gardener again. And if you're the sort of person who overwaters their plants to compensate for absenteeism, it means your not in danger of drowning your plants or seeds.
Sprout's water reservoir capacity is around 500 ml / 17 fl oz, which allows you to neglect your plants for as long as a month before it needs a refill.
The optional Bluetooth feature can be used to manually toggle & control the water pump wirelessly from your smartphone.
Develop:Are you a programmer, engineer or designer who has a great idea for a new feature/design in Sprout? Maybe you're just a beginner or you've spotted a bug? Feel free to grab our code, schematics, 3D design files & laser cutting files from Github and tinker with it.
Step 1: Electronic Design
Electronic Components Required:
1x Arduino Nano/ Arduino Pro Mini
1x DC Water Pump 12V or 9V
1x Soil Moisture Sensor
1x LM7805 Voltage Regulator
1x IRF540 MOSFET
1x 220 Ohm Resistor
1x IN4001 Diode
1x Header Pins Strip
1x 2Pin Screw Terminal
1x DC Power Jack (Male + Female)
Optional: 1x HC-05 Bluetooth Module
Power Block
The 7805 regulates the supply voltage and reduces it to a constant 5V making it suitable to run the Arduino & Soil Moisture Sensor.
Pump Control
The MOSFET acts as a switch which is controlled by the Arduino. We use the MOSFET since the Arduino cannot directly power the DC Pump. The resistor connected to the gate of the MOSFET prevents the MOSFET from getting damaged. The flyback diode connected across the pump provides a path for dissipation of stored energy when the pump is switched off.
Moisture SensorThe sensor feeds an analog value to the Arduino. The threshold level of moisture is calibrated by the user depending on the type of plant used and the typical h
Bluetooth Module
Uses Serial Communication to transfer data between the Arduino and your Smartphone.
Step 2: Electronic Assembly
A 1x Scale printable PCB as well as the board view and schematic is available in the GitHub repository.
The repository also contains an A4 size PDF which contains multiple PCB's on a single page. This can be used to make multiple PCB's at a time for mass production
Solder all the components according to the given Schematics.
The editable Eagle files are available below.
Schematics, diagrams and documents
CAD, enclosures and custom parts
Code
Credits
jonathanrjpereira
I'm Jonathan Pereira, a novice Electronics Engineer. I like to make Doze Lamps, Lumen Powered Thingamajigs, Almighty Brainy Buttons, Tweeting Fart Detectors
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