Soil Stoplight
Overall Design
Built as a solution to keep my plants happy, this project utilized an Arduino for a simple reminder to water my plants on a regular basis.
The sensor reads the moisture level in the soil and lights up the stoplight indicator accordingly. It’s easy to glance over and determine if you need to water your plants. Green means you are good to go the soil is sufficiently wet. Yellow means the soil is getting drier and plants will need water soon. Red means need to water now.
Processing System
Utilizing C++ coding with an Arduino processor, a power signal is sent to the sensor every few seconds. The output from the sensor is then bucketed into three categories to light up the stoplight red, yellow, or green. During design, the sensor was tested at various moisture levels to determine the optimum settings for the stoplight.
Future improvements to this project include utilizing an Arduino Uno for a smaller setup and potentially 3D printing a holder for the lights, sensor, processor, and battery all in one.
