Building a Smart Flowerpot Base with an ESP32
Indoor plants are great, until you forget to water them, or you are standing there trying to guess if the soil is actually dry. I wanted something simple that answered that question without an app, notifications, or a smart home setup. This project is a small smart flowerpot base that monitors soil moisture and shows outdoor weather on a small display. I built it through a Colorado School of Mines Labriola Innovation Hub mini-grant , using campus spaces and materials. It came together slowly, moving back and forth between electronics, design, and fabrication. The electronics were the starting point. I knew I wanted something compact and WiFi-enabled, which pushed me toward an ESP32. Once that decision was made, the project naturally moved toward a custom PCB. Even though the circuit is simple, getting off a breadboard made everything feel more deliberate and less temporary. Early PCB versions were designed in EasyEDA and milled in Labriola using the Banta...