Plant Talk App

💡inspired by codex team's open source project 🌊Swift UI, featrued with fluid animation ⚙️code, but also esp32 hardware 🤖text and realtime LLM plug in 🛠️tool calling ability 🧠in-app memory system

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Inspiration

Inspired by the openai/planttalk project — but rather than replicating it, I turned it into a standalone iOS app. Not everyone has a Mac mini running 24/7, after all. My mom also loves gardening, so a sensor-driven tool that quantifies plant conditions could genuinely help her with daily care.

What it does

Plant Talk monitors plant health using temperature/humidity, soil moisture, and light sensors, all coordinated by an ESP32 microcontroller. The ESP32 connects directly to the iOS app via Bluetooth, streaming live data to the interface. It supports unattended operation with on-device data logging, historical data tracking, multimodal LLM-powered conversations, and a built-in memory system within the app.

How i built it

Development proceeded on two parallel tracks: hardware and software. On the hardware side, I personally designed and hand-soldered the circuit board — not just flashing firmware. On the software side, I used Codex to rapidly iterate on the iOS app through continuous development cycles.

Challenges i ran into

  1. Soldering issues. I spent an entire afternoon troubleshooting why a sensor returned no readings. The root cause turned out to be excess solder bridging two pads, which caused abnormal voltage spikes. Codex was a huge help in diagnosing the problem.
  2. Animation quality. Honestly, while Codex has improved at frontend aesthetics, its ability to produce polished software animations is still lacking. I invested significant time learning and manually refining animations myself.

Accomplishments that i'm proud of

Nothing flashy — I'm simply proud that the hardware and software work together reliably. I don't claim major innovation, but I believe I solved a real, practical problem.

What i learned

  1. Hardware skills — soldering, wiring, and systematic debugging.
  2. Software skills — especially SwiftUI animations, Liquid Glass effects, and UI/UX design aesthetics.
  3. Effective use of Codex — decomposing problems clearly, writing precise descriptions, setting reasonable boundaries and test criteria, iterating continuously, and loop engineering.

What's next for Plant Talk App

  1. Multi-ESP32 mesh networking — enabling multiple units to operate simultaneously.
  2. Cross-platform sync — synchronizing data and memory between the iOS app and a web dashboard.

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