Plant Monitoring

A microcontroller based little tool was created that gives a feedback, weather the plants need watering or not, it also sends these information to a home server, that is attached to the same Wifi network.

The used items:

• Wio Lite W600 - ATSAMD21 Cortex-M0 Wireless Development Board
• Grove Shield for Wio Lite
• 2 Grove Soil Moisture Sensors
• Grove - 16x2 LCD (White on Blue)
• grove cables
• recycled transparent plastic pill bottle
• 5V 2000mAh power bank, or 5V adapter
• USB-C cable
• some bolts and nuts to fix

The above circuit was assembled .

The elements of the circuit was placed and fixed in the plastic pill bottle. A hole is needed in the top for the wires.

Before uploading the code in Arduino IDE, Seeed SAMD boards should be installed. Instructions can be found here: https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/Wio-Lite-W600/

The installation of a few libraries are necessary too:

• Seeed Arduino W600 Master
• Arduino
• Wire
• Grove lcd rgb

For upload the Seeeduino Zero board among the Seeed SAMD Boards have to be selected as board type.

/*Plant Monitoring eng 1.0 VI 2021*/

#include "w600.h"
#include <Arduino.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include "rgb_lcd.h"

#define WifiSerial Serial2   //serial number of seeeduino_zero (compatible with Wio Lite W600)
#define SERIAL Serial
#define debug SERIAL

rgb_lcd lcd;
AtWifi wifi;

const char *TARGET_IP  = "\"192.168.0...\""; // This is the IP address of the server
uint16_t TARGET_PORT = 8080;
uint16_t LOCAL_PORT = 80;
int socket = -1;


int connect_to_AP(int retries){
 bool ssid_set = false;
 bool psswd_set = false;
 bool joined = false;
 int attempt = 0;
 debug.println(F("setting ssid ..."));

 while (!ssid_set && attempt < retries){
     ssid_set = wifi.wifiStaSetTargetApSsid(F("YourSSID")); //type the access point name here
     delay(150);
 } if (!ssid_set){
   debug.println(F("failed to set ssid"));
   return 0;
 }

 attempt = 0;
 debug.println(F("setting password"));
 while (!psswd_set && attempt < retries){
   psswd_set = wifi.wifiStaSetTargetApPswd(F("YourPassWord")); // type the access point password here
   delay(150);
 } if (!psswd_set){
   debug.println(F("failed to set password"));
   return 0;
 }

 attempt = 0;
 while (!joined && attempt < retries){
     joined = wifi.sendAT(F("AT+WJOIN")); //join network
     delay(1500);
 } if (!joined){
     debug.println(F("failed to join network"));
     return 0;
 }

 debug.println(F("connected to AP"));
 return 1;
}


int create_socket(int retries){
 int socket = -1;
 for (int attempt = 0; attempt < retries; attempt ++){
   debug.print(F("Creating socket to remote server, attempt:"));debug.println(attempt+1);
   socket = wifi.wifiCreateSocketSTA(TCP,Client,TARGET_IP,TARGET_PORT,LOCAL_PORT);
   if (socket >= 0) {
     debug.print(F("connected to remote server. Socket="));debug.println(socket);
     delay(400);
     return socket;
   }
   delay(1000);
 }
 debug.println(F("failed to connect to remote server"));
 return socket;
}


void configure_wifi(int retries){
 for (int attempt = 0; attempt < retries; attempt ++) {
   debug.print(F("Configuring wifi, attempt:")); debug.println(attempt + 1);
   wifi.sendAT(F("AT+Z")); //wifi_reset
   delay(1500);
   if (wifi.wifiSetMode(STA)){
     debug.println(F("wifi configured"));
     delay(100);
     return;
   }
 }
 debug.println(F("wifi configuration failed"));
}


void setup()
{
   debug.begin(115200);
   wifi.begin(WifiSerial,9600); 
   configure_wifi(5);
   connect_to_AP(5);
   socket = create_socket(5);
   
   lcd.begin(16, 2); // set up the LCD's number of columns and rows
   lcd.print("Starting..."); // Print welcome message to the LCD
   delay(2000);
   lcd.clear();
}


void loop(){

   float moist1 = analogRead(A0);
   Serial.println("Moisture, palmtree: ");
   Serial.println(moist1);

   if (moist1 > 300){
     Serial.println("Palmtree is OK.");
     lcd.setCursor(0, 0);  //set the cursor to column 0, line (note: line 1 is the 2nd row, counting begins with 0)
     lcd.println("Palm:   Alright.");
     char info1[] = ("MESSAGE The soil of the palmtree is OK.");  //MESSAGE is indicating the data type to be sent
     wifi.wifiSocketSend(socket, info1);
   }
   else if (300 >= moist1){
     Serial.println("Irrigation of the palmtree is required!");
     lcd.setCursor(0, 0);
     lcd.println("Palm:  Irrigate!");
     char info1[] = ("MESSAGE Irrigation of the palmtree is required!");
     wifi.wifiSocketSend(socket, info1);
   }

   float moist2 = analogRead(A1);
   Serial.println("Moisture, avokado: ");
   Serial.println(moist2);

   if (moist2 > 300){
     Serial.println("The soil of the avocado is OK.");
     lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
     lcd.println("Avok.:  Alright.");
     char info2[] = ("The soil of the palmtree is OK."); //2nd part of the message
     wifi.wifiSocketSend(socket, info2);
   }
   else if (300 >= moist2){
     Serial.println("Irrigation of the avocado is required!");
     lcd.setCursor(0, 1);
     lcd.println("Avok.: Irrigate!");
     char info2[] = ("Irrigation of the avocado is required!"); //2nd part of the message
     wifi.wifiSocketSend(socket, info2);
   }     
   debug.println("Message is sent.");
   delay(10000);
}

After upoding the code place the moisture sensors into the pots of the plants and connect the gadget to a 5V powerbank or adapter, and let it run!