Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Weekend Projects – Potted Plant Protector”.
Hi I’m Sam Freeman, with make in today’s weekend project we’ll be building a digital guardian for your favorite plants that we like to call the potted plant protector. Luke Iseman designed this project to help keep his plants happy by monitoring the plants environment, utilizing a few inexpensive sensors and some DIY probes. The make ultimate microcontroller pack with Arduino has all the electronic components. You’Ll need to complete this build head over to Radio Shack. To pick up the kit, along with a few nuts and bolts and you’ll, be ready to get started. You’Ll also need the following basic tools. This is a great project for anyone wanting to get started with Arduino.
It’S an easy build that should only take a few hours to complete, we’ll get started by building the soil probes. These will measure the moisture level of the soil surrounding the plant. Now, let’s wire up the sensors and probes following the schematic build the circuit on the breadboard, the soil probe is connected to the Arduino as analog pin a 0, the thermistor to pin a 1 and the photo resistor to pin a 2. Now we can upload the basic code to the Arduino and take some readings from the sensors. The link to the code can be found on the project page along with circuit diagrams and step-by-step instructions. Once you download the code simply upload it to your Arduino and open up the serial window to see what the sensors are reading, you should be getting some data sent to the serial port if not go back and check all the connections and try again once you Verify that the Arduino is receiving the signals from the sensors, we can go ahead and add them to the plant hope the DIY moisture sensor into the soil. Next to your plant mount the photo sensor where we’ll receive the same amount of light as your plants leaves and then the thermistor next to the photo sensor, power up the Arduino and watch the serial monitor on your computer to see the sensor values updated every second. For the best potted plant protection you’ll need to calibrate your sensors. Your local Master Gardener can advise you on the amount of moisture.
Your particular plant desires. Take note of your sensor values when the soil is totally dry, sopping, wet and within your plants desired. Moisture range. You might even be able to borrow a soil moisture sensor from a local farmer nursery or plant center to calibrate your sensor against true moisture percentages. Whatever the case making sure your sensor is calibrated will make the data much more useful once you get the basic system working it’s time to start adding some visual feedback of your plants, health, we can start by adding an RGB LED to indicate how happy your plants Are based on its color, the LED that comes with the kit is called the common cathode RGB LED.
That means the cathode or positive connections in the LED are all shared start by wiring. The long lead of the LED to 5 volts the short lead all by itself next to the long lead, should be wired to digital pin 11 via 330 ohm resistor. The lead on the other side of the cathode should be wired to digital pin 10 be another 330 ohm resistor and the last lead wired to digital pin 9 again through a 330 ohm resistor. Now the program can indicate the plant’s health by flashing blue for 1.
Second, if the soil is moist enough red, if the plant is warm enough and the green, if our plant is receiving enough Sun, now you can download the new code that includes all the function to display colors on the LED, based on the sensor, readings full explanation Of the code can be found on the project. Page LEDs are very useful for indicating the various states of the senses, the let’s add an LCD screen that will allow us to display all the data without having to use a computer. It also makes the project much more portable start by building the LCD screen that came with the kit. It requires some basic soldering if you’ve never soldered, before check out the link to our soldering tutorial on the project page or ask a friend to help you.
It’S really easy and should only take a few minutes once it’s all cited together wire it up. According to the circuit diagram, pin one connects to ground on your breadboard in two connects to 5 volts and also the potentiometer outer pin, pin 3 connects to the potentiometers wiper or Center pin 10 4 connects. The Arduino is digital pin. 7 10 5 connects the ground and the potentiometers other outer pin, pin 6 connects the Arduino digital pin. 6 10 11 connects to the Arduino digital pin. 5 pin 12 connects to the Arduino digital pin. 4 10 13 connects the Arduino digital pin. 3 pin 14 connects to the Arduino digital pin 2.
Now we need to upload the new code that includes the LCD screen for displaying the sensors values. Again, you can grab the code from the project site and upload it to your Arduino. Once it’s uploaded, you should be able to see the values of the sensors on the LCD, not try turning the potentiometer slowly to adjust the contrast of the screen. If everything is working properly, you should see the screen cycle through all the various sensor readings.
This project is a launching point for further automating. Your plants needs once you get these basic sensors working. Think about how you might record the data over time or send alerts. If something goes wrong, the Arduino can handle more sensors too. How about adding a pH meter light spectrum, analyzer or humidity sensor? What else can you do? Let us know in the comments of the project page .
