Raspberry Pi Pico Water Monitor for Houseplants or Christmas Trees

树莓派开发者

Raspberry Pi Pico Water Monitor for Houseplants or Christmas Trees [Copy link]

Pater Practicus has designed a Raspberry Pi Pico-powered device that keeps your Christmas tree green and bright all season long by ensuring it gets the water it needs.

If you’re reading this in January, this project would work just as well for any houseplant.

Pater Practicus decided to take a slightly more high-tech approach to keeping the family Christmas tree nice and green. He used a Raspberry Pi Pico to monitor the water level and keep the needle drops to an absolute minimum.

He starts by sawing about an inch off the base of the Christmas tree trunk. He then mounts it securely on a stand that also acts as a reservoir, providing the tree with water.

How does it work?

Here the Pico already has MicroPython code installed from a previous project - it's running code that flashes a red LED. Pater Practicus added extra code to read data from a moisture sensor, and when the water in the reservoir runs out, the LED flashes. But he also wanted to get the green LED involved. He wrote some more MicroPython to get the Pico to display a green light when the program is running properly. If he sees the green light on, he can rest assured that the Christmas tree isn't thirsty.

The moisture sensor hangs from a couple of pins that are pushed into the trunk of the Christmas tree. It hangs from the water level inside the tree stand. If the water level is right, the red LED light won't come on, but if the water level is too low, the red LED light will start blinking, prompting you to add more water to your thirsty tree.