Deprecation note: I used this project actively for 3-4 months but I wanted to add new features that were too time consuming to implement so I migrated my system to Home Assistant.

auto-garden

A self-learning project to get familiar with Python, electronics and gardening.

Features

• Automatic irrigation
• Saves historical moisture readings and irrigation events to a database
• Web UI for monitoring the system

As you can see, the web UI is very much a work in progress...

The app relies on a database for the configuration of the plant pots you want to irrigate and the devices these pots are connected to. You can define all the settings for each pot (see table below) to determine when to irrigate and for how long. Every time the moisture reading changes it's automatically saved to the database.

Tested on

• Rasperry Pi 4 Model B (server and/or client)
• Raspberry Pico W (client only)

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Getting started

Raspberry Pi 4

Pi 4: Setup Server

1. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/fmaclen/auto-garden.git
2. Download and setup PocketBase (see Development section)
3. Open port 8090 and 8888 on the device that's running the server and check the rule was added:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8888 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8090 -j ACCEPT
iptables -L INPUT

4. Create the admin account, device and pots:

Pot Key	Explanation
id	Identifier or ID associated with the pot
device	ID of the device which will control the pot
name	Name of the pot
moisture_low	The lower threshold % of moisture value below which the pot needs irrigation
moisture_high	The upper threshold % of moisture value above which the pot doesn't require irrigation
moisture_sensor_dry	The raw value the moisture sensor is reporting when it's exposed to the air
moisture_sensor_wet	The raw value the moisture sensor is reporting when it's exposed to water
moisture_sensor_pin	The GPIO pin number where the moisture sensor is connected. Note: for Pi 4 the pin number refers to the ADC channel
pump_max_attempts	The maximum number of pump attempts allowed per irrigation event
pump_duration_in_s	The duration in seconds for which the pump remains on during irrigation
pump_frequency_in_s	The duration in seconds to wait between pumps during an irrigation event
pump_relay_pin	The GPIO pin number number connected to the pump relay

5. Run the Web UI server in another window:

python web/web.py

6. On another computer in the same network visit:

• http://<your-local-ip-address>:8888 (Web UI)
• http://<your-local-ip-address>:8090 (PocketBase)

7. In the Web UI configure the IP address of the PocketBase server, as well as the admin username and password. These values are saved locally on your browser.

Pi 4: Setup Client

1. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/fmaclen/auto-garden.git and cd auto-garden

2. Build the app with: ./script/build/pi_4. This will generate /dist/pi_4 folder with all the files.

3. Create a copy of env.sample.py and rename it to dist/pi_4/env.py. Update the file with the correct values.

4. Install the Python libraries pip install -r dist/pi_4/requirements.txt.

5. Start the app in another window:

python dist/pi_4/main.py

Pi 4: Client + Server in the same device

If you are running the server + client in a Pi 4, after following the setup steps above, you can start all 3 processes (in the background) with:

./scripts/start

Stop the server and app:

./scripts/stop

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Raspberry Pico W

Pico W: Setup Client

1. Clone the repo: git clone https://github.com/fmaclen/auto-garden.git and cd auto-garden
2. Build the app with: ./script/build/pico_w. This will generate /dist/pico_w folder with all the files.
3. Create a copy of env.sample.py and rename it to dist/pico_w/env.py. Update the file with the correct values.
4. Copy the contents of the dist/pico_w folder to the Pico W's filesystem. If you are using VSCode I'd recommend using the MicroPico extension, otherwise use Thonny.
5. Unplug from your computer and connect it to a power source. It should connect to the WiFi network set in env.py and start running the app. You can check if it's running by looking at the logged events in PocketBase or seeing the moisture readings in the Web UI.

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Development

1. Clone repo and install dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Download and unzip Pocketbase (update the URL to match your OS architecture):

wget -O pocketbase.zip https://github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase/releases/download/v0.16.10/pocketbase_0.16.10_darwin_amd64.zip
unzip pocketbase.zip -d pocketbase

3. Start the database server in one window:

./pocketbase/pocketbase serve

4. Visit http://127.0.0.1:8090:

• Create an admin account
• Create a Device in the devices table
• Create a Pot in the pots table

5. Create a copy of env.sample.py and rename it to env.py. You can leave the default values for testing.

6. Run the tests. If you are using VSCode launch the debugger with the Test: auto-garden configuration (recommended). Alternatively, run the following command from the root of the project:

python -m pytest -s -v test/

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Hardware used

• Raspberry Pico W — Amazon
• Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GB — Amazon
• WayinTop Automatic Irrigation DIY Kit — Amazon
• CQRobot Ocean: ADS1115 16-Bit ADC - 4-Channel — Amazon