House Plant Monitoring System

Winter is here!! follow this instructable to create your own DIY House Plant Monitoring System, using the Mediatek LinkIt ONE board,grove sensors dweet.io to log the following sensor values

• Temperature
• Soil Moisture value
• Light value

And then use freeboard.io to create awesome dashboards., using the sensor data logged at dweet.io

In addition, we will also add a LED to indicate that the soil moisture value is too low, and your plant needs to be watered now, or the temperature is to low , which mean you will have crank up your heating.

Also if you have access to a 3D Printer ,print the STL files attached, to house the electronic components which you can insert in the pot as shown in the pictures above.

Here is the feed URL for my house plant, click the URL below to check how it is doing at this moment.

http://dweet.io/follow/PlantMonitorTorontoON

Step 1: Collect the Components You'll Need

Collected/buy the electronic compontes you'll need

• LinkIt ONE board
• Wi-Fi antenna for the LinkIt One, this comes as part of the LinkIt ONE board package
• Grove - Starter Kit for Arduino this should include
  • Temperature sensor
  • Light sensor
• Moisture Sensor
• Red Led
• 220 Ohms resistor
• 3D printer and filament if you plan to print the part as shown in the second picture above, or you can use a Tupperware container as the enclosure

Step 2: Checking for the Ideal Soil Moisture Value

Mount the Grove base shield on the on the LinkIt ONE and using the connector that comes as part of the Grove starter kit connect the Soil sensor to connector A1 and connect the LED to D2.

Now on your computer install the latest Arduino IDE

To setup the Arduino IDE for the LinkIt ONE register and create an account on the MediaTek Labs website

Then follow the link below to download the latest driver and software LinkOne Board

http://labs.mediatek.com/site/global/developer_too...

Upload the blink example sketch that comes with the Arduino IDE and see if the LED on the LinkIt one board blinks, this is to confirm that your setup is successful.

Download the code attached and Upload it to the LinkIt ONE and then Open your serial monitor , dip you sensor in a glass of water as shown in the picture and make a note of the read , in addition also insert the soil sensor in a dry pot of sad if you have one handy.

Step 3: Putting the Circuit Together

Add the other sensors to the Grove starter kit connect, that is connect

• Temperature sensor to A0
• Soil Moisture sensor to A1
• Light sensor to A2

In addition using a 220 Ohms resistor connect an LED to pin#2 of the LinkIt one as shown in the second picture above

Now connect the Wi-Fi antenna at the back of the board.

Step 4: Uploading Finale Code to the LinkIt ONE

Download the ino file attached and change the WIFI_AP and WIFI_PASSWORD to you home Wifi router name and password.

In addition based on the type of your house plant and previous experience in the previous step of determining the soil moisture value set the "toodryvalue" which in my case I have set to 500,

Here you will also have to decide what is the ideal temperature for your plant, you should be able to find this on the wiki or based on you previous experience set the tooLowTemp, in my case I have set the value to 20 C.

Now select your computer port and upload the code to the LinkIt one.

Step 5: Checking Your Values on Dweet.io

As part of you Arduino Code you may also want to change the line "String s = "POST /dweet/for/PlantMonitorTorontoON?Temperature=";" to your location to location instead of TorontoON to keep you feed link unique on dweet.io.

This part basically determines the link you will use to monitor the health of the plant which in my case is

http://dweet.io/follow/PlantMonitorTorontoON

Step 6: Creating Some Cool Graphs on Freeboard.io

Now to create some awesome dash boards based on your feed url in ther previous from dweet.io, create an account at https://freeboard.io

Go to My Freeboards and create a new free board, which in my case I name as "Test House Plant Monitor"

In your freeboard , first add a data source, in our case the datasource is the dweet.io URL from the previous step and then add various pane like a

• Temperature gauge
• Soil moisture value as a sparkline
• Light value as a Text to include a sparkline

If you have set you freeboard as public you can share it with friends and family , here is my URL which will be up for a couple of weeks.

https://freeboard.io/board/SARX-5

Step 7: 3D Print the File Attached

Download the STL files attached and using 3D printing software slice and 3D print the files

.If you don't have a 3D printer handy you can use one at your local maker club or library or use a 3D printing service like 3D hubs(use the pint using 3D hubs button).

In my case I am using Repetier-Host as my 3D printing software with the Printrbot Simple metal, and the slicer set at 0.2mm layer height .

And printing the files should takes about couple of hours. In addition, I am using Hatchbox green and black 1.75mm PLA filament for 3D printing.

Step 8: Putting It All Together and Testing

Using a 4X40 screw attach the 3D printed base to black soil poker , and then add the LinkIt ONE to the base.

Also attach the Wi-Fi antenna .

Now attache the using 4X40 screws and nuts add the Light sensor and the temperature sensor to the grove starter kit connect as shown in the third picture above

Connect the connector cables and the LED and snap fit the top.

Upload the code one more time to the LinkIt ONE after commenting out the "Serial.begin ".

Insert the 3D printed part in the soil and stick the moisture sensor in the soil as shown in the picture above.

Power up the the LinkIt one using a wall outlet ..

Congratulations you are done ! you now can use you tablet/phone to monitor the progress of the plant and also be on the look out to check if the Red LED glows which means, you need to water the plant.