Plant Watering System

In this project, I created a plant watering system with a companion app to control the system. The app and Raspberry Pi communicate using a firebase realtime database by "pinging" each other through certain nodes and listening to response nodes. Using firebase enables this system to be controlled securely from anywhere in the world. A Raspberry Pi was used to control a solenoid water valve which lets water flow through pneumatic tubing to a series of plants. If you wish to replicate this project yourself, I have provided a list of equipment, setup images and the app and Pi source code.

This is system is being used my family to water a series of plants when we're abroad.

User Features:

• Manually turn valve on/off from app
• Run an automatic watering schedule to water on certain days
• Take a photo of the water bucket from the app to view live water levels
• View CPU temperature, system status and shutdown the system from the app's settings menu

Technical Features:

• React Native
• Firebase Realtime Database
• Raspberry Pi + general electronics work

View on GitHub

Demonstration Videos

Sorry for the bad video quality!

Electronics Setup

The Raspberry Pi was connected to a relay board (since the water valve needs 12V which is too high for the Pi to supply by itself). The relay and valve are connected to a 12V power supply via a screw terminal. A camera module was also connected to the Pi to take photos of the water bucket.

App Screenshots

Equipment Links:

• Raspberry Pi 5
• Relay Board
• 12V Solenoid Water Valve
• Camera Module
• 12V Power Supply with Screw Terminal
• Bucket with Tap
• Pneumatic Tubing
• Active Cooler

Other Equipment:

• Jumper cables (female-to-male and male-to-male)
• Micro SD card
• USB C power supply (you probably have one lying around)
• Raspberry Pi 5 Case (optional)
• Teflon tape