Wireless plant watering

Share your Projects!
1

Here is a very dirt n simple portable watering system.
Based on Nodemcu with Tasmota firmware:
The 5V USB power is splitted with a TP4056 charging module to NodeMCU, and a submerged 5V mini water pump switched thru a relay.

Future integration will permit to set up the water quantity and trigger it based on the outside weather conditions or the soil humidity level

20191109_201700
20191109_2017002016Ă—1512 890 KB
20191109_201722
20191109_2017224032Ă—3024 2.38 MB

Here is the list of the parts I used:

About the relay, I used a single channel module, but using all the GPIO of the NodeMCU it’s possible to drive up to 8 separated channels with a single board.
The digital out of the ESP8266 can drive only 3.3V, therefore choose relay capable of a triggering current of 3.3V (aka. “low level” input relays).

This pump is rated with a maximum lift of 110mm and the water flow is quite stable.
It has tested up to 150mm lift for short amounts of water (about 100ml).

  • Other parts:
    .dupont cables
    .microusb cable
    .plastic tube
    .duct tape (for better insulation and durability, especially for external installation I recommend a proper plastic or 3d printed box and silicon insulation of all the open parts).

Notes:
I choose the smallest pump available having just a small plant to feed and looking for the smallest size possible for this project.
The power source is rated 1A, and the pump I’m using draws 0.2A.
Changing the power source and pump size you can increase the amount of water delivered. The relay module can drive pretty high loads being 250VAC 10A.

Wiring diagram (not very talented:) hope it’s easy to understand)

wiring
wiring1181Ă—737 74.3 KB

6 Likes
2

can u make a video with this automation with it in real garden backyard or something
and a video on how u make this 5V solution with parts and prices?

3

Instruction included in the first post :slight_smile:

1 Like
4

can u make a video from wiring things together till it works?

5

I made the pics after completion, but it’s a very easy assembly.
You have the part list, the wiring diagram and a video of the system in operation, that’s all you need.
I assume you know HA, ESP8266 and how to install Tasmota on it. Just two soldering point from the power supply to the boards, the rest is all Dupont cabling. Once tasmota is installed it’s easy to make the entity in home assistant, plenty of wiki and posts about that.
To simplify your life organize the work in this way:

  1. prepare all the parts you need and the tools
  2. flash Tasmota on the esp8266, and setup it as generic module with the correct relay pin.
  3. configure it with your mqtt broker
  4. on the console use “Setoption19 1” to make the entity visible on HA
  5. on HA under Development tool you should see the name of the new entity
  6. assemble the unit, enclose it and connect to the usb cable.
  7. find a plant, put some water and try it!
6

I’m trying to use your method here to add to a yaml with a nodemcu and soil moisture sensor. My wish list includes getting your yaml code so I can change it from mqtt to esphome and automate when moisture is low to activate your pump. Any guidance would be a great help.

7

Honestly I never used esphome, therefore I can’t tell how to integrate it.
From my understanding you want something like this:
if moisture is low then give water for xx seconds

Being the pump basically a relay I would use a simple automation following such logic.