Self-watering Plant System

Inspiration

Mary left her plants at home last semester and came home to find them all shriveled up. We wanted to ensure that wouldn't happen again.

What it does

The two sensors stay in the soil with the plants and monitor the moisture of the soil near the roots. Every time we scan in the values from the sensors, we calculate the average and see if the soil needs to be watered. If it does, the arduino signals to turn the pump on and it waters the plants until the sensor tell it to stop.

How I built it

First, we designed and laser cut a wooden box to house our flowers. Then, we used an arduino to do the scanning and hook ups to the sensors and pumps, with a breadboard to handle the circuits.

Challenges I ran into

The pump was very challenging to get working and it was a little difficult to organize the circuits at times.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We are super proud of the pump having enough pressure to spray out onto both plants and also the hardware setup.

What I learned

To test hardware parts before beginning the project.

What's next for Self-watering Plant System

We would like to add an LCD screen to display the last time the plants were watered. We also hope to build a top to the plant box to hold grow lights so the plants can be completely self-sufficient indoors.

Built With

• arduino
• moisture-sensor
• potentiometer
• transistor
• water-pump