Inspiration
When I first read FreyHack's prompt of creating anything related to the summer, all I could think of is climate change. How hot summer is this year because we failed to protect our planet. The effects of climate change have been devastating, and I wanted to design a solution to solve it.
What it does
How we built it
I built Farmoid — a product dedicated to increasing yield and decreasing water wastage of the industry’s disadvantaged: small farmers. Farmoid will place one-two sensors per 300 square feet (depending on the farm layout) and will collect moisture, nutrient, and temperature readings to provide customized feedback that inform farmers how much fertilizer to add if a crop’s nutrient level is low, how to lower/increase their crops’ temperature, and how much water to add. The Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor v1.2 sensor will measure soil moisture level and temperature. The RS485 measures the three soil macronutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. I utilized ESP8266 to connect the sensors to the web database via the farmer’s WiFi network (75% of small farmers have internet access), perform calculations, send raw data to the database, and then calculate appropriate thresholds. The thresholds of appropriate plant conditions are extracted from a Typescript Express server that lists users and their respective plants in two tables within our PostgreSQL database. Using Prisma as an ORM to access the data, I compare sensor readings with the optimal amounts to provide user feedback. At the interface level, Farmoid’s mobile app (for iPhones and Androids) uses React Native, while its authentication system uses Firebase Auth.
Challenges we ran into
For me, there were two main challenges. First was actually finding a nutrient sensor that would be cheap enough for my parents to let me buy. Nutrient sensors online are typically extremely expensive, ranging from $30-$100. It took a lot of research for me to find a sensor limited to only the three macronutrients and accordingly find a sensor I could use that was available in stores. The second was finding a way to connect the sensors to the database. I had two options: either BlueTooth or WiFi. I had to actually experiment with both, but BlueTooth turned out to be much harder to work with. Luckily, I was able to find the ESP8266, which is used in the final product.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I'm honestly really surprised I was able to get this much done. Going into the hackathon, I knew the goal I set for myself was extremely high and reaching that goal meant I would have to code for hours at end. I barely had time for breaks and sleeping. But, at the end, I was able to create a product that I am so so proud of. This hackathon has honestly taught me how much potential I have, and I will continue to challenge myself in the future.
What we learned
My most important lesson was to set high goals because if I am motivated to accomplish something, I can push myself to reach that goal. This has definitely been the fastest I've worked on an app, namely because I coded for hours on end, but I'm really proud of myself for reaching to this point. I've also gotten a lot more familiar with connecting hardware and software, an area I didn't have much experience with before. But, my struggle in this area has helped me gain so much more knowledge about it!
What's next for Farmoid
Farmoid actually has the potential to be a product that I sell to small farmers, so I might do some market testing to see if small farmers would be interested in using it. If they are, I would actually like to use the seed funding to help Farmoid grow.
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