Inspiration
The inspiration for this project was that my mother was out of the state and loves plants, but she can't currently take care of them. She wants me to care for them, but sometimes I go home late, so I can't tend to them like my mom does. So, I created this project so that my mother and I could watch each other and take care of this plant. I also want small scale gardeners being able to tend to their plant, crops and vegetable like my mom.
What it does
So, using my computer, I can SSH into a Raspberry Pi. Using that, I can run my script. We can see a real-time video of the plant and its current status regarding its environment and health, such as water level depth, moisture, and light in the surrounding area while a video is being shown.
How we built it
This was mainly used using a Raspberry PI to run the script and Pi2Camera, which took the real-time video of this project. This was connected to an Arduino Uno, and this was connected to the several modules that were used to collect the environment and health of the plant. The DHT11 was used to find the humidity of the surrounding area; the water level sensor was used to find the water level of the soil, and the Photoresistor
Challenges we ran into
The camera was not working in the beginning. I did not project any video for this project from the start, and I could not solve it. I tried following instructions from videos and websites, but I need help to get it to work. I found a manual created by Raspberry PI, and then I could download the right packages and import the correct libraries to make it work.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I got the camera to work because I spent most of my time in the hackathon trying to make the camera feature work, and it finally worked. I also tried doing a computer vision project using the Pi2Camera but could not.
What we learned
What I learned was getting the Pi2Camera to work and how to incorporate Arduino and RaspberryPI. I never really worked with both of them together in one project. I have used them separately for years, but now I have learned to use them in one project and incorporate them together.
What's next for PiGarden
I want to integrate a self-watering system, but I did not have the tools to do so in this project to create the self-deploying water for the plants when they need it or manually do it via computer. I want to integrate it into a website so it can teach people how to create this project and even monitor the videos using that website so they can see the current status of their plants and a real-time video of it as well.
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