Do you love your plants? Well, they will love you back (maybe) if you keep them in a healthy environment. For plants to thrive they need some pretty specific conditions. The most important of these conditions being the temperature, the moisture of the soil, and the amount of sunlight. The sensors in this project are used to monitor these three conditions. The photo-resistor is for the sunlight measurement using resistance values that vary based on the amount of light it receives, the temperature sensor uses a thermistor to measure temperature, and the soil moisture sensor measures capacitance to measure the moisture of the soil that the sensor is placed in.
Usefulness
This project is useful for anyone who has a plant that would like to ensure it is receiving it's optimal sunlight, temperature, and moisture needs. The project allows you to find the optimal place for the plant via the sunlight sensor. The temperature of the environment can be adjusted via information obtained from the temperature sensor and the plant can be shown to need more or less watering via the soil moisture sensor. The Photons also will turn on an LED light when the moisture level is too high, or when the temperature becomes too cold. All of this together will lead to healthier plants. This project could also be scaled up for a large-scale farming operation and would be immensely useful.
Sensor Information
TemperatureSensor: The temperature sensor uses a thermistor to detect the temperature of its surroundings. As the temperature decreases, the thermistors resistance will increase and vice versa.
SoilMoistureSensor: The capacitive soil moisture sensor measures the moisture of the soil by measuring the changes in the capacitance caused by the changes in the dielectric.
Photo-resistorSensor: The Photo-resistor is used for the measurement of the amount of sunlight a plant would be exposed to. The photoresistor's resistance changes as it the light it is exposed to changes. This result is presented as a resistance value in ohms.
TemperatureGraph
The Temperature Adafruit graph for 11/29 between 6:35pm and 6:45pm
The above Adafruit temperature graph is from the filming of our youtube video so the dips in the graph are from putting the temperature sensor next to the ice to prove both the Adafruit web-hook and the sensor work. The live link to the graph is provided below and the above graph can be observed by setting the filter to 11/29 6:35pm to 6:45pm.
The Soil Moisture Adafruit graph for 11/29 between 6:00pm and 6:45pm
The above Adafruit soil moisture graph is from the filming of our youtube video so the dips in the graph are from putting the soil moisture sensor in water to prove both the Adafruit web-hook and the sensor work. The live link to the graph is provided below and the above graph can be observed by setting the filter to 11/29 6:00pm to 6:45pm.
The Photo-resistor Adafruit graph for 11/27 between 3pm and 5:30pm
The photo-resistor graph is shown below as a screenshot from Adafruit. The photo-resistor was put on a balcony outside from 3pm until around 5:30pm. The graph shows the highest sunlight as being when the sensor was first placed and decreasing as the afternoon went on until it encountered the dark. Obviously the ideal sunlight conditions are during the middle of the day and not in the late evening once it gets dark. The live link to the Adafruit data is also provided below the graph within the screenshot can be observed by setting the data filter from 11/27/23 at 3:00pm to 11/27/23 at 5:30pm.
This diagram shows how the data flows within the project. The first Photon receives data from the photo-resistor and publishes this data to the photon console and to Adafruit through a web-hook. The Second Photon Receives data from the soil moisture sensor and this data is sent to the photon console and Adafruit through a web-hook. The Third photon receives data from the temperature sensor and sends this data to the photon console and adafruit through a web-hook. The first photon subscribes to the soil moisture data from the second photon and turns on the D7 on the first photon when the moisture gets too low. The second photon subscribes to the data from the third photon's temperature data. If the temperature gets too low it turns on the D7 on the second photon.
Soil Moisture Sensor Schematic
This is the circuit schematic for the soil moisture sensor to be connected to the Photon 2.
Soil Moisture Sensor Circuit Image
This is an image of the built soil moisture sensor circuit.
Temperature Sensor Schematic
This is the circuit schematic for the SeeedGrove temperature sensor to be connected to the Photon 2.
Temperature Sensor Circuit Image
This is an image of the built temperature sensor circuit.
Photoresistor Light Sensor Circuit Image
This is an image of the built photoresistor light sensor circuit.
Photoresistor Light Sensor Schematic
This is the circuit schematic for the photoresistor light sensor to be connected to the Photon 2.
This is the code used to allow the transfer of data from the sensor to be received in the Particle console. This code also creates a communication line between the temperature sensor and a separate photon that turns on the built in LED if the temperature conditions exceed their healthy limit. A web hook was also created to send the data to the Adafruit graph from the particle publish command.
#include"Particle.h"//define the soil moisture pinintsoilmoistpin=A0;intledPin=D7;#define IO_USERNAME "insert-username"#define IO_KEY "insert-key"// Replace "soilmoist_data" with the name of your Adafruit IO feed#define IO_FEED "soil-moisture"voidsetup(){//put initialization codeParticle.connect();pinMode(ledPin,OUTPUT);Particle.subscribe("temperature",temperatureHandler,MY_DEVICES);}voidloop(){//read the analog value from the moisture sensorintsensorValue=analogRead(soilmoistpin);//Punblish the sensor value to the Adafruit IO feedParticle.publish("soildata",String(sensorValue));// Wait for a few secinds before reading againdelay(10000);}voidtemperatureHandler(constchar*event,constchar*data){inttemperature=atoi(data);if(temperature<60){// If the temperature exceeds 85 degrees, turn on the D7 LEDdigitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);}else{// If the temperature is below or equal to 85 degrees, turn off the D7 LEDdigitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);}}
Photoresistor Code
C/C++
This is the code used to allow the transfer of data from the photo-resistor to be received in the Particle console. This code also creates a communication line between the soil moisture sensor and a separate photon that turns on the built in LED if the moisture conditions exceed their healthy limit. A web hook was also created to send the data to the Adafruit graph from the particle publish command.
#include"Particle.h"//define the soil moisture pinintphotoresistpin=A0;intledPin=D7;#define IO_USERNAME "insert-username"#define IO_KEY "insert-key"// Replace "soilmoist_data" with the name of your Adafruit IO feed#define IO_FEED "soil-moisture"voidsetup(){//put initialization codeParticle.connect();pinMode(ledPin,OUTPUT);Particle.subscribe("soildata",soilHandler,MY_DEVICES);}voidloop(){//read the analog value from the moisture sensorintsensorValue=analogRead(photoresistpin);//Punblish the sensor value to the Adafruit IO feedParticle.publish("light-data",String(sensorValue));// Wait for a few secinds before reading againdelay(10000);}voidsoilHandler(constchar*event,constchar*data){intsoildata=atoi(data);if(soildata<2000){// If the temperature exceeds 85 degrees, turn on the D7 LEDdigitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);}else{// If the temperature is below or equal to 85 degrees, turn off the D7 LEDdigitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);}}
Temperature Code
C/C++
This is the code used to allow the transfer of data from the temperature sensor to be received in the Particle console. A web hook was also created to send the data to the Adafruit graph from the particle publish command.
voidloop(){// Read the analog value from the sensorintsensorValue=analogRead(A0);// Convert the analog value to temperature (adjust the conversion factor based on your sensor)floattemperature=sensorValue/28.35;// Publish the temperature to the Particle CloudParticle.publish("temperature",String(temperature));// Delay before the next reading;delay(10000);}
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