• 

  Blueprint

"In the gardens of memory. In the palace of dreams. That is where you and I will meet." --Mad Hatter

Call to Action

Hey there, fellow plant assassin! If you're like me and have a bit of a black thumb—you know, the kind that turns green plants brown—I've got a solution for you. Introducing the Garden of Amnesia: a smart device that keeps your plants alive despite your best efforts to neglect them. This little lifesaver uses soil moisture sensors to water your plant only when it's thirsty—no more drowning it in guilt-induced overwatering or letting it dry out like your last succulent. Plus, it has ambient light sensors to make sure your leafy buddy gets just the right amount of sunlight, even when you forget your plant exists for weeks on end. It's like having a personal assistant for your plant, minus the judgmental looks when you walk by with another cup of coffee instead of a watering can. With the Garden of Amnesia, you can finally stop being a serial plant killer and start being a... well, at least a semi-responsible plant owner!

What it does

Using an Arduino Uno, some Sensors, Voltage Regulators, Power Relays, a Water Flow Switch, and a Light, our contraption will sense when your plant needs to be watered or if it is without adequate light and remedy the problem for you. With a 2 liter water reservoir, it may only need weekly filling once your plant is hydrated, and if equipped with a grow lamp your plants should be happy even if they’re living in your parents basement.

How we built it

It was designed in Concepts, a vector drawing software, and implemented on breadboards and through the Arduino. The design was tested using solder-less breadboards, and the code was quite easy to implement. After running quick calibration code for the moisture and light sensors, the final code was uploaded to the board. Once we had a working prototype, we began soldering onto its final fixtures. Our blueprint was key to our success as it depicted all of our wiring and gave us an idea of how to maximize our space efficiency.

Challenges we ran into

We realized that the Arduino was not able to output enough volts to trigger our power relays, and had to design a solution to supply them with additional power. We therefore added in NPN BJT transistors, supplied with 12V, that would ensure the relays had enough power. This meant that the Arduino only needed to give a digital output to indicate if it needed to turn on or off.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our form factor design makes it portable and discrete when sitting on your counter. Secondarily we are very happy that we have made a working device that can manage our plants with little to no user input.

What's next for Garden of Amnesia

Next up we plan to implement the Garden of Amnesia as our Christmas Tree watering system. With final exams, and numerous errands, the weight of watering our tree will now be completely lifted off our shoulders. Having used an Arduino Uno, we can implement a website, and IOT features like turning on and off remotely.

Built With

• arduino
• electrical-engineering