(This has been replaced by Smart Garden System Version 2)
See Version 2.0 here.
Smart Garden System - Raspberry Pi Plant Watering and Environmental Kit
This is a perfect project kit for advanced kids with some help from the adults and for adults trying to learn some new things. We have done this before with our successful OurWeather kickstarter so we know what we are talking about. People all over the world have built the OurWeather weather station with great success.
Smart Garden System (or SGS for short) is an introductory, easy to build Raspberry Pi based environmental monitoring and plant watering system using advanced sensors to monitor the soil moisture, monitor the sunlight, watch the air quality and monitor temperature and humidity.
It is designed to be easily and simply put together and tested with No Soldering Required!
And you get all the source code for the Smart Garden System software so you can do what you want. Modify the code to your own application! Add sensors! Add functions! Add more plants!
Now all Kits include the 3D Printed Stand!
Quick Demo of the Smart Garden System
Please go to the Product Support Forum for the Smart Garden System on www.switchdoc.com for comments and questions.
News
- (December 27, 2018) Version 009 - Fixed minor incompatibility with new PubNub library
- (November 26, 2018) Version 1.3 of Assembly Manual Released - Fixed 8 Pixel Grove Connector Instructions
- (October 29, 2018) Version 008 - Initial Production Release
What is the Smart Garden System?
The SmartGardenSystem is an introductory, easy to build Raspberry Pi based environmental monitoring and plant watering system using advanced sensors to monitor the soil moisture, monitor the sunlight, watch the air quality and monitor temperature and humidity. It is designed to be easily and simply put together and tested with No Soldering Required!
Downloads
- SGS Assembly and Operations Manual (V1.3)
- Installing the Blynk App support on the SGS System
- Full Python Open Source Software for the Smart Garden System
- 3D Printed Parts - STL and OpenSCAD files
Extender Kits
- 4 Plant SGS Extender Kit
- 4 Plant Wireless SGS Extender Kit (coming in 1Q 2019)
- Weather for the SGS System (coming in 1Q 2019)
- Solar Powered Wireless 4 Plant Extenders
- 4 Plant Extenders with Valves rather than Pumps (if you have a permanent water supply!)
- Hydroponics Sensors
- Soil Temperature Probes
- Soil Ph Probes
- And the holy grail - using a Raspberry Pi camera and AI Machine Learning to track plant growth! We actually can do this!
What Will You Learn with Raspberry Pi Smart Garden System?
The educational goals for Smart Garden are:
- Learn about the Raspberry Pi and installing software on the Pi
- Connecting up sensors to the Raspberry Pi
- Learning about Feedback loops and regulating water to plants
- Understand your indoor environment and what affects it
- Learn about the new technology called the Internet of Things
What is in the Kit?
The base Smart Garden System supports one plant. You can add additional plants using the SGS Extender Packs.
- Pi2Grover Board
- SI1145 Sunlight/IR/UV Sensor
- 8 Pixel RGBW Strip
- Sensitive Grove Air Quality Sensor
- 4 Channel 16 bit Analog to Digital Connverter
- HDC1080 Indoor Temperature and Humidity Sensor
- Grove OLED 128x64 Display
- Grove Ultrasonic Sensor
- 8 20cm Grove Cables
- 1 50cm Grove Cable
- USB PowerControl NE Solid State Relay
- Capacitive Moisture Sensor
- USB Activated Pump
- Hose 200mm, Clip for hose
- 3D Printed Ultrasonic holder
- 3D Printed SGS Stand
Placement of Capacitive Moisture Sensors
Check out our Blynk App for observing and controlling the SGS across the Internet and the World!
We are using Blynk for controlling and displaying the SGS system. Here are a couple of screenshots.
What about Alexa and the Amazon Echo and Dot?
We have this working right now in the laboratory.
It's pretty cool to be able to ask your Smart Garden System how it is doing!
While we will be publishing a tutorial on how to connect your Smart Garden System up to your own Alexa skill, it is a pretty complicated process for a beginner.
However, we will release a general Alexa skill that will allow you to connect up to your Smart Garden System in a very easy fashion, with little technical work.
That will be the real magic!
The Science Behind The Board
Our beloved (most of the time) CTO, Dr. John Shovic, always insists on putting in something about the theory behind the project. Here are his thoughts.
This was a great project to design and build. It was really an interesting process learning about the sensors, how to interconnect them and then learning about flow meters, USB Pumps and especially the software bringing them all together.
Where is the science and engineering in this project? All through it from the bottom to the top. I could go through the entire system, but that will have to wait. The most interesting points? One, we are using feedback in the system. Negative feedback to be exact. We aren't just watering on a timer, we are looking at the soil moisture and if it is high enough, we don't water. We don't water unless we need to. Very cool.
Secondly, the sensors we have in this project are amazing. For example, the Air Quality sensor is very, very sensitive. We can detect hairspray from 50 feet away (more on that in an update).
Thirdly, I got a lot out of learning how to display the data from Smart Garden on the Blynk IOT App for Android and iPhones and I had a lot of fun designing the Alexa app, although they made me take out all the cool statements. Such as asking Smart Garden "who is the coolest person you know?". The answer to that was obvious to me, but since it was debatable, we removed it. :(