FEDORA or Flower Environment Decorating Organic Result Analyzer is an intelligent flower pot for indoor gardening. FEDORA is not just a flower pot, it can act as an alarm clock, wireless music player and a tiny robot friend. The main feature included in this device is the voice notification system embedded in it. (Dear designers and inventors , I apologize for not being word-perfect in English)

Features

Automatically watering the plant, when soil moisture become dry
An inbuilt tank of 1L capacity and the micro submersible pump installed in the pot helps to watering the plant at right time
Water level indicator is added with FEDORA for sense the tank level, If the tank level becomes empty, user can identify it by through the indicator LEDs
Soil status LED is also added in the pot for sense the soil moisture (If there is any error in the pumping mechanism, the soil moisture level becomes dry)
A Temperature & Humidity sensor is added with this pot to sense the current temperature and humidity of the surroundings
A growth light is added with this pot to provide sufficient artificial lights for the plant
A bluetooth audio receiver installed inside, will helps to stream music from smartphones via bluetooth
RBG LEDs assembled at the top portion of the pot helps to express the feelings of our plant/pot
An alarm clock is added with FEDORA, This alarm clock will not reset if the power supply is switched off (Alarm details will stores at EEPROM)
24 Hrs auto screen refreshing clock is added with the pot
An over flow sensor is added with the pot to prevent over flowing of the tank, while we filling it
A (pre-recorded/saved) voice notification or interaction facility is added with this pot to make it so attractive
A photosensitive sensor is added with it to, avoid playing voice notification at sleeping time (Night after we turned off the lights)
A stepper motor driving tray is added with the pot,to take out the Arduino and upload the codes(updates) , with out removing the plant we planted at the top of it
RBG LED backlighting for make the pot more attractive
A program controlled exhaust/cooler fan is added for exhaust the heat generated in the circuit layer due to the 7805 regulator IC

Features skipped due to my exams and assignments

Automatic wishing system,which can wish the user (Good Morning,Good After Noon etc) when he come in front of the pot (A particular wishes (eg:good morning) will deliver only once in a day)
Communication of FEDORAs about their current working status (Which can help the user to identify errors or empty tank conditions of another pot kept in his house ) , then they say it to their user, when he present at in front of the pot
Touch sensitive plant , If anyone touch the plant , the background LEDs become red and warn them through voice
Shaking or sensing of inclination, which helps to prevent leakage of water to the circuit layer (By using gyro sensors)

If anyone make this pot please try to implement these 4 features, it can make the pot more attractive

Step 1: What You Will Need ?

The overall budget of this project is around 200$ (max) per piece . All components listed below can be easily find in sparkfun,digikey,ebay or some Chinese online stores like banggoods.com or aliexpress.com . In the majority of the components name , i attached link to the product in different stores.Some components like resistors,capacitors,Zero PCB,Transistors etc are available at online stores as pack of 100 pieces or above, so you can simply purchase them from your local hardware shops or electronics components selling shops.

Components

Arduino Uno
Arduino Mega
2.4" Inch TFT Touchscreen Module
2 Channel 5v Relay Module
Soil Moisture Sensor
RTC Module (DS1302) with battery
Photosensitive Module
DHT11 Humidity and Temperature Sensor Module
RBG LEDs - 5 pieces (Common Cathode)
Tiny Reflectors for 5mm LED - 3x
Old CPU Cooler Fan
Micro Motor Pump
12V/2A AC - DC Adaptor
Socket for AC - DC Adaptor (Barrel Jack)
Flexible LED Lamp
USB Socket (For the Flexible LED Lamp)
Speakers (5cm diameter) - 2x
Audio Amplifier(or purchase a high quality laptop speaker, we can dismantle and take the speakers and amplifier for our project)
Bluetooth Audio Receiver
DFPlayer Mini MP3 Player Module
Micro SD Memory Card (Any size (max 32 GB))
Old CD/DVD Drive
Transistor = BC548 - 3x
Resistors = 220k - 3x ,22k - 1x ,470 ohms - 3x , 1k -1x
L293D Motor Driver IC - 2x
7805 Regulator IC
Heat Sink for 7805
Capacitor = 1uf/63v , 10uf/63v (1 each)
LED = Blue (5mm / 2mm)
2 Channel Screw Terminal -2x
Jumper cables = Male to Male , Female to Male , Female to Female ( 40x package (each) )
Hookup Wires - 3 Meters
Zero PCB (small) - 2x
Flower Pot (with Height at least 30cm (Square/Rectangular or circular type))
Plates or sheet with two different size (Check the image in the "drawings" step (step 3) for get an idea about this part or view the assembling video)
Tray (Check the image in the "drawings" step (Step 3)for get an idea about this part or view the assembling video)
Push to ON Self Locking Switch
3/4" PVC elbow - 1x
3/4" PVC Male Adaptor and End Cap
3/4" PVC Pipe - 20cm
Aquarium Air Pipe - 2 Meters
T joints for aquarium air pipe - 4x
Regulators (Look at the figure) - 3x
A good looking plant
Header Pins (Red,Black,Yellow,Blue,White)

Tools

Soldering Iron
Soldering Lead
Soldering Flux
Desoldering Pump (Not compulsory)
Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Hacksaw
Twiser
Screw drivers
Heat Sink Paste
Marker Pens

Step 2: Example Drawings for Get an Idea About the Pot's Structure

The figures shown above gives a detailed explanation about the design of FEDORA . We want to purchase an ordinary flower pot (made with ABS) and split then into 3 layers by placing sheets/plates made with ABS or any other strong material.In figure 2 you can see the front portion of the pot, we want to make a rectangular hole for place a tray for kept our components in the pot. We are going to open and close this pot by using the lens guide stepper motor inside a CD/DVD drive ; its for simplify the diagnosing process ( that is , if there is any error in the working process of FEDORA , the user must want to take out the circuits and check it by replacing the plant and soil placed at the planting layer. The Two cyan color dots at the control panel are SR505 Sensor and Power Switch of the flower pot. And holes for placing speakers are added in the two sides of this pot. TFT display for showing status and notifications are added at the front of FEDORA as shown in the figure.

Now lets look at back side of FEDORA , here you can see that a hole with cap is made in between the Circuit layer and water tank layer , this hole is for filling water to the inbuilt tank of the pot. Tank full alerts are added with this system for avoid overflow of the tank.An additional cooler fan is added in the circuit layer for exhaust the heat generated at there.

The design shown in the above figures are my thoughts and ideas, you can follow your own ideas and thoughts for designing the pot , If you have a 3D printer you can draw and make more efficient and good looking pot. Anyway I am going to make this project by following my design, by collecting and assembling things collected from stationary stores (Sorry friends, I don't have a 3D printer in my locality for print my design more neatly) like Flower pots, Circulars shaped plates,box etc.

Note:

The design shown in the figures are drawn from my thoughts and ideas, you don't want to follow my steps for make it, you can follow your own ideas and things that available at your locality (You can also change that motor driving circuit tray in to an ordinary pull and push tray) for fabricate the design.

Step 3: Power Distribution and Motor Driver Board

In this project we are going to coordinate more than 10 sensors and modules together. Each of them needs different voltage ranges.The sensors and modules added in this design (FEDORA 1.0) needs only 5V supply and the micro pump and exhaust cooler fan needs 12V supply. To provide power supply to each and every components , we need a power distribution board which can provide both 5V and 12V. So we fabricated a circuit as shown in the figure above for this application.In addition to that we attached two L293D ICs in this circuit for drive the Stepper motor,cooler fan and micro pump.

For make this power distribution and motor driver circuit, we want

7805 Regulator IC
2x L293D Motor Driver IC
Header pins (Black for GND ,Yellow for 5V, Blue for stepper motor input,White for Arduino input)
1x 10uf/63V Capacitor
1x 1uf/63V capacitor
1x 1k resistor
2x 2 channel screw terminals (For cooler and pump)
Barrel jack / Socket matching for your AC-DC adaptor
A zero PCB
And a piece of heat sink for 7805

(Solder two header pins instead of LED , we can add this LED to our pot later )

Note:

Don't forget to add 'heat sink paste' before fixing 7805 IC on the heat sink piece.

Choose a right socket which can match with the output pin of your AC-DC 12V/2A adapter

If you want to add any modules (like audio amplifier) , which are working at 12v , you just needs to add some header pins (I added some red header pins for this in my circuit , but not used in this project)

Step 4: Water Level Indicator Sensor

The circuit diagram showed above needs

3x BC548 transistors
3x 220 ohms resistors
3x 470 ohms resistors
1x 22K resistor
And a piece of PCB

Solder the circuit in the PCB and attach header pins to

1. 5V supply (Connect them together)

2.GND (Connect all grounds together)

3.Water level HIGH

4.Water level Medium

5.Water level Low

If you have any doubt in making this water sensor circuit, just view this instructables by sathishk12

Step 5: Water Flow Sensor

We can make a water flow sensor from an ordinary soil moisture sensor. Here i am going to change a soil moisture sensor into a water flow sensor. For this we just want to remove the soil sensing plates from the sensor first. Then take the comparator circuit of the soil moisture , and connect two M-M jumper cables at the place of the sensor plates. Then now we are going to use a simple logic to sense the water tank overflow condition, ie. when tank level digital input of water flow sensor becomes HIGH simultaneously , it is the state of overflow condition. Then we can use suitable response to this case via coding.

Step 6: Assembling Whole Components

Connection diagrams and components needed for it are listed above! Just go through the video for get an idea about the connection task!

A document file with connection pins is added with this !

Connection pins.docx
Download

Step 7: Voice Notification , Audio File Making

Extract the audio sample file and copy the contents into a memory card . and put the memory card into the MP3 module. If you want to create your own audio sample just visit sites like http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/

. If you change the order of the mp3 files (Arranged in name wise) , just do a sample run and mark note down the order of the MP3 and change them in the code we uploaded to our arduino Mega.

Connection diagram for test running MP3 module is given in the previous step

Sample code for checking audio file order is added in this step. You just needs to upload the code and open the serial monitor, net note down the audio from the top. Then change it in the code for mega

There are around 38 audio samples inside that rar file. All of them are not using in this project. If you have any idea to add any extensions to the design , just add new audio file for this purpose

Step 8: Libraries and Codes

Sketches we want to upload to Arduino Mega and Arduino UNO is added with this step.And in addition to that all libraries needed for this project are also added here. So you need not want to search for the libraries.

If you notice any bug or errors in my code please say in the comment box

Libraries not listed above are , libraries that are already exists in the Arduino IDE !

If not, go to sketch>include library > manage library > and search the name of the header files listed at the top of the sketches

For add the zip file libraries , go to sketch>include library > then click option to add the zip formated library