I have several plants on my balcony and i wanted an automated system for watering them.
I don't have a water faucet available there and so i needed something that based on a water tank. I was inspired by https://hackaday.io/project/21455-waterpump-control-with-esp8266 to use esp8266 (some of my code is quite similar to his). I decided to use the NodeMcu board and a breadboard for the development as it enables easy USB access for programming and enough GPIOs.
I used the following components:
- DSL370 - This pump was useful as it does not require water immersion and could operate under 5V.
- I2C RTC device - The Wifi on my flat is not always on and i needed the controller to be able to track time so i added an RTC device connected by I2C for keeping time.
- HC-SR04 - For detecting the amount of water left and prevent pump from pumping when there is not enough.
- I2C LCD display for easy reading of vitals such as Wifi.