Open Garden emerges as an innovative open-source alternative to commercial home automation systems, specifically designed for the remote management of your plants, whether they thrive indoors or flourish outdoors. This platform is thoughtfully packaged into three distinct kits, each tailored to different plant growing scenarios: indoor environments like homes and greenhouses, outdoor spaces such as gardens and fields, and hydroponic setups for plants nurtured in water.
At the heart of the Open Garden platform is the ability to meticulously monitor and manage your plants’ health. It achieves this by diligently sensing a range of crucial environmental parameters. These include:
- Soil Moisture: Essential for both Indoor and Outdoor kits, ensuring optimal hydration levels.
- Temperature, Humidity, and Light: Monitored across all kits, providing a comprehensive understanding of the plant’s surrounding climate.
- Water Sensors (pH, Conductivity, Temperature): Exclusive to the Hydroponics kit, these sensors are vital for maintaining the perfect aquatic environment for hydroponically grown plants.
To actively care for your plants, Open Garden employs various actuators, allowing you to modify environmental conditions as needed. These actuators facilitate irrigation, lighting adjustments, and oxygenation, and include:
- Water Pump & Droppers (Drip Irrigation): For precise watering in Indoor kits.
- Electro Valve & Sprinkler (Sprinkling): Ideal for broader coverage in Outdoor kits.
- Oxygen Pump & Growing Light: Crucial for optimizing growth in Hydroponics kits.
The system operates by having nodes that periodically transmit sensor data to a central Gateway. This Gateway then seamlessly uploads the collected data to a web server, utilizing readily available wireless interfaces such as WiFi, GPRS, or 3G, ensuring you’re always connected to your garden’s status, no matter where you are.
The General kit encompasses a comprehensive set of components to get you started:
- 1x General kit box
- 1x Gateway Shield for Arduino
- 1x Node
- 1x DHT22 (temperature + humidity sensor)
- 1x Soil Moisture sensor
- 2x LDR (Light Dependent Resistors, embedded in each board)
- 1x Electro-valve
- 1x 12V Power Supply
- 1x Big 433MHz internal antenna
- 1x Small 433MHz internal antenna
- 1x Big Enclosure for gateway
- 1x Small Enclosure for node
- 2x 16mm Cable Glands
- 3x 20mm Cable Gland
- 1x Vent Plug
- 6x Flange
- 7x M3 Metal Nuts
- 4x M3 x 10mm Metal Screws
- 3x M3 x 6mm Plastic Screws
- 3x Metal Spacer M3
- 1x Battery 3,7V 2300mAh
- 1x Solar Panel
- 1x Breadboard
- 1x Arduino jumper cables
- 1x Breakout Board for microUSB
- 1x microUSB cable
For those looking to expand their smart garden to monitor and manage multiple plants, Open Garden supports the addition of individual nodes, offering scalability and flexibility. Importantly, Open Garden is designed for global compatibility, working with both 220V (Europe) and 110V (US) power systems. For 110V setups utilizing the RF Power Strip, a simple 110-220V Power Converter is all that’s needed.
Open Garden provides an accessible and adaptable open-source platform for anyone looking to bring smart technology to their plant care routines.
