Published March 19, 2017 © GPL3+

ESP-Controlled Plant Watering System

Water plants in your balcony with solar power and control the pump from anywhere in the world!

BeginnerFull instructions provided4 hours10,057

Things used in this project

Hardware components

NodeMCU ESP8266 Breakout Board

RobotGeek Relay

Submersible pump

Pneumatic hose 4 mm

Pneumatic TEE

USB Powerbank

Solar panel 3W

Software apps and online services

Cloud MQTT

Story

About

This project automates the process of watering small plants in your home. This solution allows you to control the pump even if you are away from the house (assuming your WiFi router and ESP8266 module are on).

A solar cell is used to power the submersible pump to ensure safety (didn't want to use Mains Power in contact with water). It also ensures availability of pump for use during the day.

Ample sunlight and any ESP8266-based WiFi module are essential items to execute this project. I am using water collected from the air-conditioning drain.

I paired a 3W Solar panel with a 6V DC Submersible pump.

Circuit

Follow below steps for connecting the circuit:

1. Connect +ve wire from solar panel to +ve wire of pump.

D.C Submersible pump

2. Connect -ve of Solar panel to "Common" terminal of single channel Relay.

3. Connect -ve of Pump to "NO" terminal of Relay.

4. Connect V-in and Ground pins of Relay to 3.3V Pin and Gnd Pin respectively.

5. Connect D3 Pin of NODEMCU module with Signal Pin of Relay.

6. Power NODEMCU module via micro-USB cable connected to a 2500 mAh Power bank.

7. Custom Build Lua firmware with MQTT and basic modules using the Cloud Build service at this link: https://nodemcu-build.com/.

Modules for Lua Firmware

8. Follow instructions in the following video for flashing the Firmware and getting started with Esplorer:

9. Flash code attached.

10. Water distribution setup: Connect a small hose to the pump (pneumatic hose 4mm O.D can be used). Use small tees and route hose to your plants in the balcony.

Depending on the sunlight received, the pump will start pushing water through the hose. Remove any air bubbles at the tee if water flow is stopped. Adjust slope of the hose to facilitate flow. This pump creates enough static pressure for 3 to 5 plants.

init.lua

-------Module created by Visvanathan Srinivasan (www.thingsbuzz.com)------
wifi.setmode(wifi.STATION)
wifi.sta.config("xxxYourWIFIxxx","xxxYourPassxxx")
wifi.sta.setip({ip="xxxStatic IPxxx",netmask="255.255.255.0",gateway="xxx"})
print("ESP8266 mode is: " .. wifi.getmode())
print("The module MAC address is: " .. wifi.ap.getmac())
print("Config done, IP is "..wifi.sta.getip())
print(wifi.sta.getip())

-- MQTT connect code Engineered by rutierut, inspired by MikeV
broker = "m11.cloudmqtt.com"     -- IP or hostname of MQTT broker
mqttport = YourPortxx          -- MQTT port (default 1883)
userID = "useridxxx"              -- username for authentication if required
userPWD  = "passxxx"            -- user password if needed for security
clientID = "Devicenamexxx"        -- Device ID
Pumptopic = "Topicnamexx"
oppin = 3                -- IO Index of GPIO which is connected to a device
chpin = 7
gpio.mode(oppin, gpio.OUTPUT)

function setPort(data) 
  if (string.find(data,"on")~=nil ) then 
     gpio.write(3, gpio.HIGH); 
  end
  if (string.find(data,"off")~=nil ) then 
     gpio.write(3, gpio.LOW); 
  end 
end 

--- CloudMQTT Server info ------ 
function mqtt_do()
m1 = mqtt.Client(clientID, 1200, userID, userPWD); 
--- D0 as indicator light ------ 
m1:on("offline", function(con) 
     print ("offline") 
    end) 
m1:on("message", function(conn, topic, data) 
 print(topic .. ":" ) 
 if data ~= nil then 
   print(data); 
   setPort(data); 
 end 
end) 
m1:connect("m11.cloudmqtt.com", mqttport, 0,  
          function(client) 
          m1:subscribe("Solarpumpcontrol",0,function(client)  
          print("subscribed") 
          end)    
       end,  
          function(client, reason) print("failed reason: "..reason) end);
 collectgarbage();
end
------Timer for MQTT Function---------
tmr.alarm(0, 200000, 1, function() 
   mqtt_do()
   tmr.delay(1000)
end) 
-----HTTP Server-----
srv=net.createServer(net.TCP)
srv:listen(80,function(conn)
    conn:on("receive", function(client,request)
        local buf = "";
        local _, _, method, path, vars = string.find(request, "([A-Z]+) (.+)?(.+) HTTP");
        if(method == nil)then
            _, _, method, path = string.find(request, "([A-Z]+) (.+) HTTP");
        end
        local _GET = {}
        if (vars ~= nil)then
            for k, v in string.gmatch(vars, "(%w+)=(%w+)&*") do
                _GET[k] = v
            end
        end
        buf = buf.."<h1> ESP8266 Web Server</h1>";
        buf = buf.."<p>GPIO0 <a href=\"?pin=ON1\"><button>ON</button></a>&nbsp;<a href=\"?pin=OFF1\"><button>OFF</button></a></p>";
        local _on,_off = "",""
        if(_GET.pin == "ON1")then
            gpio.write(oppin, gpio.HIGH);
               elseif(_GET.pin == "OFF1")then
            gpio.write(oppin, gpio.LOW);
                end
        client:send(buf);
        client:close();
        collectgarbage();
    end)
end)