This is a very simple project, but it's gonna be very useful for me.
A while back, The Stock Pot made a great video about hiding smart home sensors in plant pots. I liked the concept, but didn't want to 3D print stuff, didn't want to use a real plant, and didn't want to put a mmWave sensor in.
The other week I was at IKEA, and came across the VÅRDTRÄD plant pot. It comes in two halves, a black top half, and a translucent bottom half. The idea is that you're supposed to put a strip of cloth in the top half that feeds down into the bottom half. You fill the bottom half with water, using a farly large channel on the back, and the strip soaks up the water where the plant can get to it.
Well the channel is just the right size to fit a GLEDOPTO controller, and the holes in the bottom let you thread an RGBCCT LED strip through instead of a cloth. Combine the two together along with something like an artificial plant like the FEJKA, and you've got a status light that is easy to put together and can be put anywhere that you can get power to.
In all, the cost of this project is $5 for the pot, $12 for the fake fern and about $40 for the LED strip + controller, for a total cost of $65 AUD. I already had a leftover strip, so I just needed the controller (~$20).
I'm going to double-sided tape the controller to the pot to keep things neat, and add an extension cable so I don't have to take up a USB port on my desk, but it looks quite nice and works quite well for something that is all off-the-shelf components
