microcontroller

Water Level Measurement

Last weekend I mounted an @adafruit VL6180X distance sensor underneath the grow platform. It uses a laser to measure how far away the surface of the water is, and then I subtract that from the height to determine how full the tank is.

I previously tried this with a RCWL-9620 ultrasonic distance sensor, however condensation would start to build up on the speaker grills and produce inaccurate readings. Hopefully the laser will be more accurate in this environment!

I’ve also started to use the built-in status LED to indicate when it’s time to add nutrients and when the water level is low.

#project #projects #gardening #AeroGarden #microcontroller #esp32 #ESPHome #HomeAssistant​

ESPHome Garden Monitor

Over the weekend, I converted my garden monitoring microcontroller from #MicroPython to #ESPHome.

The controller is a M5StickC-Plus with temperature, humidity, air pressure sensors, and IR thermometer attached via I²C. The button on the front records the timestamp when plant food is added. #HomeAssistant adjusts the LCD backlight automatically using a nearby Zigbee motion sensor.

Firmware is on Github: https://github.com/c99koder/m5stickc-aerogarden​

ESPHome makes it much easier to add additional sensors in the future, I’ve already got a few ideas already! I was hoping it could work as a Bluetooth proxy for #HomeAssistant too, however the device doesn’t have enough RAM to run the display, WiFi, and Bluetooth scanner at the same time.

#gardening #microcontroller #esp32​