Author Topic: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system [awesome!]  (Read 43570 times)

dickson

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Just want to share what I've been working on lately which, of course, involves the awesome Moteino. This is one of the projects that I am working on for my portfolio to get into grad school.

Basically, it is a soil moisture/temperature/humidity sensor system for indoor plants. All the characters are constructed with 2.9mm bamboo plywood and then laser cut. The battery operated nodes (Moteino) transfers the data via wirelessly to a base station (raspberry pi + moteino) and alerts you when the soil is dry via email/sms/blinking light. I have other features planned but there is still a lot of code to write and learn (I just starting playing with the Arduino UNO, learning about electronics and learning how to program in April of this year). If I have time, i'll might venture into writing an android/iphone app to talk to the plants.

This is a still a work in progress as I still need to figure out the raspberry pi <-> moteino, and raspberry pi backend part. But the design and all the nodes are sending and receiving data and working very well.

I wasted some $$ on other arduino clones that were too small, too big, or used too much power. Good thing the Moteino fits my needs perfectly. Ok, I am starting to sound like an annoying fanboi already. Here are some pics!


Dbot


Bunny


Bunny in action


Bunny guts


Dinosaur guts


Dinosaur


Base station light test


Moteino for the base station. The power board has a 3.3v regulator that feeds power to the base LED lights. 5v goes into the moteino and raspberry pi.


modified raspberry pi. USB header, RCA, audio headers removed to save space. SD card was cut in half to save space.
The raspberry pi site diagonally in the enclosure to maximize space.


Finished base station.


Base LED light test/


Base LED light test. I wanted the unit to have a "floating" effect.


Dbot, finished.


Dbot back. Note the humidity/temperature sensor.


Robot guts.


More robot guts.


Dbot with soil probe.


Dbot and his friends.


« Last Edit: July 02, 2014, 08:56:38 AM by Felix »

Felix

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #1 on: July 22, 2013, 11:07:55 AM »
Aww thats so totally cool, Thanks so much for sharing! :D
Once you have these all working with the base you should post your project on HackADay!
If you don't have a blog or place to put all the details, you can just use this or a new thread and then tip them to this thread's link.
« Last Edit: July 22, 2013, 11:10:35 AM by Felix »

dickson

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #2 on: July 22, 2013, 03:33:13 PM »
Thanks Felix, i'll totally do that!

Dazza

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2013, 02:58:43 AM »
Impressive and great build quality!  Look forward to seeing you on Hackaday, don't let the Pi haters put you off.

Daryl

Felix

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2013, 11:46:05 AM »
Yeah, no kidding, there's some bad vibe posters on Hackaday that seem to dislike everything.

dickson

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2014, 09:01:03 PM »
Hi there!

I'm officially bringing this thread back from the dead. I actually finished this project last August 2013 but I have been sooooo busy. Now I finally had some time to write about it. I was also able to write an Android app for the whole system. :)

You can check out the project on my website : http://dicksonchow.com/plantfriends



Anyways, I did a small write up explaining how the whole thing works and included pictures of the process. I'll be sharing all my code on Github soon. :)



I also want to thank you Felix for making the Moteino and sharing your code. I learned so much working on this project!
« Last Edit: June 14, 2014, 12:40:45 AM by dickson »

Felix

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2014, 09:56:40 PM »
How nice, I was checking this thread and saw the broken photo links so I thought here's another cool project that just kinda died away but I'm happy you were able to get back to it and finish it. Hoping your sources/code will be available soon!
Hey I tipped hackaday, maybe they pick this one up, and you should consider submitting this project for their go-to-space contest ;)

dickson

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2014, 03:58:48 PM »
Thanks Felix! I also posted this over at the Raspberry Pi forums. Moteino is mentioned. :)

SvendP

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2014, 05:37:11 PM »
Any chance of seeing your code on github soon, I'm very interested in seeing it. Since I don't have a chance in hell of making it my self. :-)

dickson

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Re: Plant Friends : Moteino + Raspberry Pi plant monitor system
« Reply #9 on: May 31, 2014, 09:42:32 AM »
@SvendP, yes i'll be posting all my source code soon. I've gotten few request and questions on how I built this system so I am going to write a 'how-to'. The idea is pretty simple so I think you can totally build one and even improve on it. :)

dickson

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Its been awhile since I last posted but I come back with good news!

During the midst of cleaning up my code for release, I ended up re-designing and re-writing everything including the Android app. The Plant Friends system is now expandable, adaptable and easy to build! The system looks completely different now but uses common parts. Of-course it still uses the Moteino. :)

I also wrote an extensive how-to-tutorial-instructable so beginners can have a stab at building a Plant Friends system of their own. I commented almost every line of code so there is a lot of information on how the system works.




Here is what it looks like:

The Sensor Node




The Base Station




The Plant Friends App






As you can see, the sensor node is basically a shield for the Moteino. haha. I am very happy with how this turned out. The sensor node runs on 4x AA rechargable batteries and I am able to get a little over 5 months of life out of it by taking a reading every hour and have the Moteino go to 'sleep' the rest of the time. I also added a battery meter too!

Some stuff is still really rough. Mainly the web interface to add sensor nodes into the database. The app looks nice but missing some functionality like scrolling through the list of nodes (lol) and the ability to edit sensor node information. I have other plans for the app like adding sensor nodes to the system and controlling ( an army?) of Moteinos so i'll be working on that. :)

The main python script that runs on the Pi and the sensor node / gateway Moteino code all works great.

Oh and all the enclosures are made out of bamboo! All the pieces snap together and doesn't require glue. Now I am going to experiment with finishing the bamboo with oils, staining, painting it etc. :)


The how-to tutorial instructable is here:
http://dicksonchow.com/plantfriends2



My source code is on GitHub:
https://github.com/dicksondickson/PlantFriends



If you like my Plant Friends enclosures, you can buy it from me here:
http://dickson.bigcartel.com/



This is an on going project for me so expect more fun stuff in the future.


@Felix, thanks for making this a sticky!


Comments, suggestions welcome!

« Last Edit: July 19, 2014, 05:06:37 PM by dickson »

Felix

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Oh so cool, thanks again, it's really great to see nice writeups and nice pictures!
And I'm humbled that you still find Moteino a good candidate for your project.
By the way, you should REALLY consider entering this in the hackaday prize: http://hackaday.io/prize
I think you got a good shot at getting in top 10 if not better. I like the android eye candy app :)

dickson

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Thank you for the encouragement Felix! I just entered Plant Friends for the hackaday prize: http://hackaday.io/project/1982

I still have a lot of project ideas for the Moteino and I have a few that I am working on right now. I'll have more updates for Plant Friends soon.

PS Can't wait for the Moteino MEGA. :)

dickson

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Plant Friends made it on the front page of hackaday!

http://hackaday.com/2014/07/22/hey-there-little-plant-lets-be-friends/

Felix

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I noticed, congrats!
See .. good things happen when you do quality :)