Inspiration
To the inexperienced plant parent, growing plants can be intimidating at first. Especially with different types of plants needing different amounts of water, it can be hard to keep track of them all. hydroHelper solves those problems by monitoring soil moisture and providing a convenient way for users to water their plants from anywhere.
What it does
hydroHelper senses a plant’s soil moisture level, outputting it on the Blynk app. Users can set a moisture threshold for the soil, and they will receive a notification when the moisture drops below that threshold. Then, the users can remotely water their plant right from their phone.
How we built it
We used a NodeMCU to receive analog input from a capacitive soil moisture sensor to read the moisture level. The NodeMCU communicates with Blynk through WiFi, sending moisture data and receiving watering commands when the user presses the switch to water their plant. When that switch is pressed, the NodeMCU delivers digital output to a DC water pump that waters the plant.
Challenges we ran into
We had some trouble getting the pump to work consistently because the voltage levels were too low at first. Even with a transistor, the voltage was unreliable. Eventually we placed two transistors in parallel, which increased the consistency of the pump.
Accomplishments that we’re proud of
We are proud that we were able to work through the hardware and software issues that we had along the way to presenting the final product.
What we learned
We learned about the basic principles of IoT, using both hardware and software together to solve real world problems.
What’s next
Our next step with hydroHelper would be to improve the appearance of our hardware so that users can discreetly hide it among their plants. We would also design our own app to better customize the user interface to meet our needs.
Built With
- arduino
- blynk
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