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Summer of Green Tech Design Challenge
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Summer of Green Tech Design Challenge
Forum Deceptive Smart Garden needs to be Smarter
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Forum Thread Details
  • State Not Answered
  • Replies 28 replies
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  • smart planter
  • click and grow
Related

Deceptive Smart Garden needs to be Smarter

cstanton
cstanton over 1 year ago

image

I was gifted this rather smart indoor planter.

Its advertising and marketing is somewhat deceptive, for example, the title claims:

"Click & Grow Indoor Herb Garden Kit with Grow Light | Easier than Hydroponics Growing System | Smart Garden for Home Kitchen Windowsill | Vegetable & Herb Garden Starter Kit with 9 plant pods, White"

There's nothing "smart" about this (it only has lights and a timer), nor would you keep it on your kitchen windowsill (it has LEDs, why use outdoor light!?) and I would argue there's nothing hydroponics about it (you sit the plants in a bath of water).

Further to extend its height, you have to buy (or 3D print) extensions to the arms, and there's no temperature control or pump for the water.

Since it has 9 slots for 'plants', but frankly, you wouldn't want to fill each one as you're then starving the neighbour of food, I'm thinking it gives an opportunity for electronics to fit into one, maybe create an enclosure, have some temperature control, add something else.

The last time I tried anything involving moisture though, it resulted in degraded and rusted electronics, it did not end well. Obviously, I'm not using the right components.

So this gives an opportunity for hacking and making. I'm open to suggestions, and what components to use.

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  • beacon_dave
    beacon_dave over 1 year ago +2
    cstanton said: nor would you keep it on your kitchen windowsill (it has LEDs, why use outdoor light!?) I would probably keep it on the windowsill anyway and then use the LEDs at night. If the LEDs were…
  • cstanton
    cstanton over 1 year ago in reply to beacon_dave +2
    beacon_dave said: I would probably keep it on the windowsill anyway and then use the LEDs at night By default, the 'timer' is 16 hours on and the remaining hours off, there's no control and would definitely…
  • dougw
    dougw over 1 year ago +2
    LEDs typically wouldn't provide as much light as the sun so it would be interesting to try one growth season with LEDs versus one with sunlight. It looks like the main thing you might need is a little…
  • charlieo21
    0 charlieo21 over 1 year ago in reply to cstanton

    We have these at work: 

    422B-340G - Mg Chemicals - Conformal Coating, Aerosol, Transparent (newark.com)

    419D-55ML - Mg Chemicals - Conformal Coating, Acrylic, Clear (newark.com)

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  • beacon_dave
    0 beacon_dave over 1 year ago in reply to cstanton
    cstanton said:
    but I'm definitely not sold into buying more of their soil pods

    At around £21 without seeds for a 9 pods, I'm not surprised... 

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  • ralphjy
    0 ralphjy over 1 year ago

    It does seem like a minimalist design and quite expensive, too.

    Are the pods independent or do they sit in a common water bath?  Is the color of the LEDs controllable?  Seems like there are quite a few opportunities to improve lighting and irrigation.  And as you mentioned, to make the size extensible.

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  • beacon_dave
    0 beacon_dave over 1 year ago in reply to ralphjy
    ralphjy said:
    It does seem like a minimalist design and quite expensive, too.

    It comes complete with nine biodomes though Slight smile

    image

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  • cstanton
    0 cstanton over 1 year ago in reply to ralphjy
    ralphjy said:
    Are the pods independent or do they sit in a common water bath?

    A common bath, it's a tray on top of a water reservoir.

    ralphjy said:
     Is the color of the LEDs controllable?

    Not at all by default.

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  • cstanton
    0 cstanton over 1 year ago in reply to charlieo21

    Thanks!

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  • cstanton
    0 cstanton over 1 year ago in reply to robogary
    robogary said:
    It needed to have growth detection switches and a beeper to remind someone to harvest

    I've been grazing on the leaves of the lettuces :D

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  • beacon_dave
    0 beacon_dave over 1 year ago in reply to cstanton

    If you aren't using daylight then you might want to uprate the lighting a bit and provide individual control.

    Ben/Karen's plant booster project showed that more light produced a shorter but stronger growth. Getting more light to the sides of the plant rather than just overhead might help as well.

    Plants tend to not use much green light so you may only want white light when inspecting/photographing the plant. 

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  • ntewinkel
    0 ntewinkel over 1 year ago

    I think the title is using keywords so that it shows up when searching for hydroponic gardens or windowsill gardens.

    Sounds like yours is a cheaper version of the AeroGarden that is truly hydroponic (and has adjustable light height). We have one but it’s also not smart in terms of IoT connectivity. And the pods are stupidly expensive too for what they are: sponge in a plastic cage.

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  • Jan Cumps
    0 Jan Cumps over 1 year ago
    cstanton said:
    The last time I tried anything involving moisture though, it resulted in degraded and rusted electronics, it did not end well. Obviously, I'm not using the right components.

    You missed this one Slight smile :   Experimenting with Waterproof Connectors 

    The kit had (amongst other things):

    1554VA2GYCL Watertight Plastic Enclosure Buy Now
    MRU-AF41-2020 USB Type A Sealed Connector Buy Now
    MRU-AM21-4000 USB Type A Sealed Connector
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