Plant HP Bar

Inspiration

I love taking care of plants, but sometimes I forget to water them. We wanted something more than sensor readings, so we made a device that gamifies plant care.

What it does

Uses sensors to gather information on the environment of the plant. Using this information, we calculate a score from 100-0 that is a representation of the plant's health. We display that info in the form of a video game HP bar.

How we built it

We used an Arduino Uno with sensors and displays. Coded mostly in C++.

Challenges we ran into

We knew we wanted to make something physical for this hackathon, both as a challenge and as a statement. We didn't know what we were going to build beforehand, so we weren't able to purchase parts; instead, we used the components we had leftover from previous projects. We ran into issues with some of the components just not working, or not working well together, causing us to redesign our circuit and swap out parts.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We knew doing a hardware solution would be tricky, so we are very proud that we not just meet but exceeded our minimum viable product within the time limit.

What we learned

When doing a hardware project, it is important to plan out what parts you need and make sure they are all compatible and work.

What's next for Plant HP Bar

If we had more time, we would switch the 16x2 LCD display for a 64x64 display in order to do sprites. We wanted to do more with the gameification side of the project. Also, we would like to tweak the algorithm to perfect it insofar that it maximizes the benefit of optimal care and reduces the benefit of non-optimal care, as well as adjusting the penalty for more neglectful care.

Built With

• arduino
• c++