STEM Logs 

01/27 - 01/28 

I was unable to work on our project on Saturday due to a robotics competition Kate, Kimmy, and I had at Cal Poly SLO. Then due to some family stuff on Sunday, I was unable to work on our project as well.  

01/29/24 

I was unable to attend class today but it appears that Marisol and Kimmy are off to a great start with our business letter. Tomorrow we will talk more about it and discuss the amount of money that would be ideal to ask for. 

01/30/24 

I was all alone in our engineering class today so I created a small sketch in my notebook of a simplified version of a possible solution. I included a capacitive moisture sensor, but I wasn’t exactly sure if we were still making the sensor ourselves. I believe that it might not be worth our time, but I’ll ask tomorrow. I started estimating the total cost of our solution and I learned that it is going to be much more expensive than I would have originally thought, especially what we want to accomplish.

01/31/24

We discussed with our group and we agreed that creating a capacitive moisture sensor from scratch wouldn’t be ideal because we weren’t looking to improve the sensor at all anyway, we were only thinking of doing it to lower the price, but it already is pretty cheap. I also learned about Aaron Stillmaker’s great help. We had previously created a block diagram and Mr. Stillamaker helped us in creating a new one. To add on, he also recommended a Raspberry Pi microcontroller and I did some research and found a small $4 microcontroller. The “Raspberry Pi Pico” seems like a very good option, there is even one with wifi which might be useful. 

02/01/24 

In engineering we practiced using Solidworks but at home, I continued to learn more about the Raspberry Pi Pico. I learned that it is possible to use Arduino (C++) to code the Pico Board which is very useful because I am already slightly familiar with it. It is widely available and cheap which is perfect for us. I watched a few videos on YouTube that explained this microcontroller but a lot of it was words that I did not understand, but so far it seems like a very good option. 

02/02 - 02/04 

I was not home the entire weekend and I had zero time to work on our project. I will try to be more productive this week.

02/07/24

Okay, now I am confused. I watched a video that walked me through the steps of connecting the Raspberry Pico W to Arduino IDE and I was able to, but then I came across this video that explained more about the Pico W. And in that video it compared the Pico W to an ESP32 microcontroller and it seems to overall be better. The Pico W does not have Bluetooth even while the ESP32 does. To add on, the ESP32 can also be faster. Some ESP32 are capable of 5 GHz wifi, and more things I do not understand yet. Now the question is which one should we use? I also learned that there are already projects that use the Pico W that reads moisture sensor data which is very promising because that is what we want to do. 

02/12/24

 started on concept sketches to notify the user regarding the plant's status. I knew that the best options would be visual and audio cues because they make the most sense in this situation. While researching I found something called a Piezzo buzzer that has been used with Arduino in the past to make noise. It can be changed to different frequencies and programmed to play different notes, which gave me the idea to make a jingle for when the plant needs water. I have been trying to avoid complicating things because of the limited amount of time we have to create a prototype but a mobile app seems like a very good idea. With the Raspberry Pi Pico W, you can communicate with a mobile app over Wi-Fi but that brings a whole new world of complications. I believe that it is the most ideal solution but when putting a price on our solution it does raise the price. I hope to cover this issue with my group once we get to a decision matrix, hopefully by next week. Also did learned that you can send an email over Wi-Fi, which is very interesting because it can also be used as a reminder for those that use email constantly. There are problems with this though because the user would have to trust us with their email username and password. 

02/13/24 

Another visual cue that people can pick up on would be a physical change to the device, like a little flag that rises from the side of the device. As the soil moisture drops, a tiny servo motor will raise a little "flag" from the side of the device, and this "flag" could depend on what the system looks like. But I do have a problem with this because it will make it harder wot waterproof. There will need to be gaps to allow the servo to turn the flag, and these gaps could put the electronics in danger. We could isolate the electronics part to a different part of the shell so that it is closed off from the servo, but I would need to do more research about this. We changed one of our components from "data collection" to "setting water value" because decided that we would not be collecting data, we would only be displaying the current data. With this change, I created a concept for setting the water value. It's a simple button that the user presses to determine ideal soil moisture, but I am still not sure how we will get the information to the user, whether the user looks it up on the internet or we provide a list. I want to talk to my group about this problem as well. 

02/14/24 

Today I looked into powering the Raspberry Pi Pico W wirelessly (with a battery). I learned to be careful when powering the microcontroller because it might be damaged when connected through USB. Pin 39 "VSYS" is the best pin to externally power the Pico. I also haven't given too much thought to powering the Pico so I am a little worried about it now because it seems that we will need multiple AA batteries. I am worried about making the device too big, unless we use rechargeable batteries, they can be thinner. I would need to discuss this with my group. 

02/16/24 

Our business letter was checked by our Engineering teacher, who helped us polish a few things and also clarified a few things. We should deliver our letter in person and should send an email beforehand introducing ourselves and our project. Marisol sent a few emails out and now we have to decide when to go as a team or as partners. Today I also looked into a rotary potentiometer and rediscovered a rotary encoder. With this information, I had a new idea of how to set the water value of a plant. 

02/19/24 

Today I continued with drawing concept sketches and I designed a system that sets the moisture value itself, which is something I feel like I should've thought before. I also found this 1" OLED Display that is about $4 that could be used for setting the water value so I also sketched that. Then I ran into a slide potentiometer that acts like a rotary potentiometer but I am not very sure if it can be used like a rotary encoder, even after I researched. Once I was done with that I ran into a problem with the shell designs because we still have not decided which system we will be using for PlantAlert. This made it difficult to design something because the dimensions will depend on what we end up using and at this moment there is no telling whether we will be using a rotary potentiometer, buttons, etc. Tomorrow I will explain this to my team and I will push for creating a decision matrix. 

02/21/24 

Yesterday I did not get a chance to work on our project but today we started our Decision matrix. We also decided to wait on the shell design because it cannot be determined before we know what the circuit will be. I learned once again how difficult it can be to define the criteria. For example, I want to put "effectiveness" for the alert system because we want the alert to be effective and get the user to water their plants but how would I define that? For now, I wrote in something which can be changed tomorrow. I hope to have decided our circuit by the end of tomorrow. 

02/26/24 

we planned to finish the decision matrix last week but we then saw we needed more sketches than we thought, I have no idea how we missed that, so our plan changed to finish it over the weekend, but that did not happen. I hope to finish by the end of this week but we still have some sketches missing. We currently need 5 for the alert system and 4 for the water value setting. Unfortunately, I was not able to make more sketches today, but I did manage to grade my sketches using the criteria from the decision matrix, tomorrow I will ask my partners to review them. But either way, I was not able to think of any more ideas for the components. I am not sure what else to add or change, I could combine different sketches and make a new concept sketch, but I feel that is too lazy. Nonetheless, I will continue to think about more concepts. 

3/10/24 

We finally completed the decision matrix and found that an Ultra-bright LED would be the best option to use for our alert system. Mostly because of the low cost and low complexity. For our alert system, we opted to combine the two winners, where someone can manually put in the water moisture using buttons or have the system automatically do it for them. I feel like we took way too long to get through this stage but I hope we can pick up the pace. Then today Marisol and I went to Green Hill Nursery to receive a donation of $120! The money was used to buy plants for our project so that we have something to test our prototype with and to show off at Shark Tank. I found it incredibly surprising that professional businesses were willing to donate money and I am honestly really grateful. Tomorrow Marisol said that we are going to meet with Mazzei's Nursery to talk about our project and a sponsorship. 

03/11/24 

We went to Mazzei's Nursery and received the full $300 we asked for which is incredible. He explained how his company grows millions of vegetables every year and how they ship them out once they have grown to a sapling. I found it very impressive and he also mentioned that he has always supported students in the local area and that he was happy to donate. I was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect, and I felt like I talked too fast and stuttered too much. It showed me that I should slow down and think more about what I am going to say. Now Kate is going to deposit the money and we will buy all our components soon, very exciting!

03/18/24 

Last week we finally started the Standard Test Method. We specifically did "Standard Test Method for Accurately Alerting a Using Soil Moisture Data of an Indoor Houseplant." However I was a little confused about the apparatus, I still am not 100% confident that it is right but I am going to trust my team. We are almost done and we plan on finishing it tomorrow. I also completely forgot to make sketches for the shell design, so I am going to need to set reminders and do more research. We are also going to be able to make prototypes soon because the things we ordered will come soon. 

04/05/24 

Yesterday we finally had a chance to start our prototype. I was able to wire the RGB LED to the Raspberry Pi Pico, which was easy and Kate was easily able to turn it on. Then today we had a bit of a problem. We were not able to connect the Pico to the laptop. Kate and I tried multiple times, to even switching computers and trying to connect the Pico to mine. Then at the end of the period, we figured it out. It was a stupid problem and the solution was right in front of us. It pushed us back again but at least we now know how to connect it. I also am beginning to worry about my sketches. I keep running out of time at home because I get home late. I want to do the sketches and I am going to try to work on them on Sunday because tomorrow is Prom. 

04/09/24

Yesterday we connected the capacitive soil moisture sensor and were able to see the values that it read which was amazing to see. It really feels like we are making progress. Kate then programmed the values to percentages so that we could measure soil moisture. We then tried it with the plant Marisol brought in last week and it seemed to work. The only problem was that we might need to repot the plant because the roots were preventing us from inserting the sensor to the required depth. Today Kate made the RGB LED change colors depending on the moisture value read. 

04/28/24

After school I took some time to solder all the components to the microcontroller. It wasn't ver difficult, it only took one hour, but i didn't get the chance to use it. I needed to upload the code that Kate had, so I simply left it there. We also have a week till the presentation and I am really scared because I am occupied with an extracurricular at the moment. I'm going to be missing class tomorrow and Friday and so I hope that we can do it. 

04/30/24 

Tomorrow we have our presentation at Fresno State and I am a little nervous. I am not exactly sure what to expect but I am scared that people, professors, and students will grill us. But part of me is kind of excited to do this because we have been working on this for this entire school year. I also wonder if we are going to look like children playing with blocks at the event because I have no idea what their projects could be. I feel prepared but at the same time I don't, I just hope everything goes well. 

1/16/24

I am researching which soil moisture sensor types would be most accurate, cost-efficient, and water resistant to measure the water content in the soil. I compared the resistive and capacitive soil moisture sensors and found that resistance sensors are less accurate and degrade over time.

1/18/24

We decided that the capacitive sensor would best fit our project, as it is an inexpensive sensor that can take continuous measurements. I then further researched what goes into creating capacitive sensors which I discussed with Jonathan in which we decided that it would be a better idea to buy capacitive sensors instead of making them ourselves because it would be more difficult to buy all of the resources and solder it together than to simply order it online.

2/13/24

I have begun coming up with concepts for our device. I have decided to focus on the component which sets the water value for the microcontroller to use for when it needs to alert the user. I am coming up with concepts that primarily aim to be user friendly and straight forward to follow while also being accurate enough to be able to accomodate different types of houseplants.

3/8/24

I am finishing up my concept sketches, which include 3 concepts for the water value and 3 for the alert system. I recently finished a concept for an alert system through phone push notifications which I researched how to implement on the internet and found a useful Youtube video to help develop my concept.

3/10/24

We have decided on concepts to continue pursuing through the decision matrix. We found that the LED would work best overall for alerting the user, and the three button system for setting up the water value seemed to be the most simple, inexpensive, and user-friendly to implement.

3/11/24

We went to Mazzei's Nursery after school to talk about sponsoring our project. The meeting went well and we were able to get a donation of $300 which would cover all of the resources we would need to buy including electrical components and sensors. We plan on compiling an itemized list to determine exactly what we're spending our money on.

3/12/24

I researched what components we need and where to get them. I primarily looked at artificial sun lighting for growing a monstera plant in the classroom because there are no windows. I found a decently priced light on Amazon and added it to our list for components needed. The light is going to be used for testing, not a part of the actual prototype.

3/13/24

We are finishing creating the item list and plan on ordering the parts by the end of the week. Additionally, I have added to the Standard Test Method document, clarifying the terminology being used in our test method.

4/2/24

We brought in the monstera plant to grow in class along with the grow light. We also watered it today, so we won't have to worry about giving it water for around another week.

4/4/24

We have recently acquired all of the materials for creating the prototype and connected the sensor, wires, and rgb leds to the raspberry pi pico so we can begin programming. I was able to connect the pico to my computer and light up the led.

4/8/24

I programmed the capacitive soil sensor to detect moisture values and display them through the serial monitor on my computer. I also set up a temporary calibration using a cup of water to convert the sensor values to percentages. The monstera looked okay from not being watered or checked on over the weekend and seems to be getting enough light.

4/9/24

I set up the code to have the led light up red when the sensor values dropped below a certain value, which would indicate that the plant needs to be watered. I used an arbitrary value just to test if the code would work, and I will change it to a more accurate value when we get a bigger pot for the monstera, as there is not a good spot for us to put the sensor in that would give us an accurate enough moisture value.

4/10/24

I programmed a button to have the led light up when it's being pressed and also set it up to be able to toggle the light on and off.

January: 

• 14th: I started researching how we should build our different components and what types of parts we would need for each component. More specifically for data collection, during my research, I found a few videos showing what people have done before to store data in plant watering systems. 

• 16th: I started looking into different internet/Bluetooth-controlled microcontrollers since we wanted to try to notify people via app or text message. I found the ESP8266 (WiFi microcontroller) and ESP32 (Bluetooth microcontroller) but we still have to figure out which one is best suited for our project. This is something I am struggling to understand as I do not understand what parts we will need to go along with these microcontrollers. 

• 18th: I am struggling to find a way for us to collect and use present data on an app in a way where the capacitive moisture sensor we're looking to use can wirelessly send over data. 

• 23rd: I started to draft the business letter that we would be sending out to seek sponsorships, resources and mentors as well as helping Marisol to write some emails to send to some of the Fresno State professors we wanted to seek out as mentors. We thought of this idea and wanted to contact people who are more experienced in building circuits as we were struggling. 

• 29th: A block diagram of our system's functions was sent out to Professor Moore at Fresno State so that he could get a better idea of our project and how he could help us. 

• 31st: We got an email back from Professor Moore and Professor Stillmaker at Fresno State who had some suggestions for what types of microcontrollers and hardware to use to build our circuit in reference to our skill level. I started looking into the Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi Pico, and STM32 microcontroller and making a potential item list to find out a rough estimate of the cost of all the items we would need to buy. 

February: 

• 5th: After getting help from Professor Moore, I reformatted/revised our block diagrams so that they expressed the general idea of what we wanted for our prototype. 

• 8th: I worked on writing the business letter that we would be sending to various companies that we would like to contact for mentorship, materials, and sponsorship for obtaining materials as we are reaching the point in which we want to start prototyping. 

• 16th: Marisol and I had our business letter reviewed in preparation to be able to send it our to our potential sponsors. 

• 27th: We scheduled a meeting with Gary Colburn at Mazzei's Nursery to further discuss our project. 

March: 

• 6th: We scheduled a meeting with Green Hills Nursery to receive plant donations from them so that we could use them to test our future prototype. 

• 11th: Kate, Jonathan and I went to Mazzei's Nursery where we received a cash donation of $300 for the materials of our project:

• 12th: I started working on the Standard Testing Method document and writing the introduction and the scope so that we would be able to start testing soon. 

• 13th: We started creating a shopping list for the things we needed to buy for the prototype that we wanted to create such as the Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensor,  the Raspberry Pi Pico W microcontroller and other required materials. 

• 19th: We completed the draft of our Standard Test Method in preparation for the testing phase that we will begin soon. We have determined that we want to focus our solution on effectively alerting the user by using the data that we collect. 

April:

• 4th: As Kate and Jonathan are working on the circuit part of the system, I have been working on making concept sketches for the shell of the product. I am working on various ideas where either all of the electronic components are stored with the sensor and placed in the same environment as the plant or placed in a separate box that will be used outside of the box. 

• 8th: Marisol and I began working on designing a brochure that our group will use for the upcoming showcase/convention held at Fresno State. We plan on using Canva and focusing on providing information on our problem and solution. 

• 23rd: In preparation for our Fresno State showcase Marisol and I began our poster board which including our problem, research, solution and conclusion. 

1/16/23: 

            I shared my 6 concept sketches with my group regarding how we can design the outer shell component for the soil moisture sensor. I need to make some modifications to my sketches to include where the electrical wires will be. I now plan to make an enclosed case to keep the wires from touching any water and the soil moisture sensor can easily be slid in.

1/17/24:

            I researched which microchips we should use either a ESP32 or ESP8266 chip for our project. I understand the purpose of the chip but don’t know how to integrate it with a circuit. I have to research how to make a capacitive soil sensor and how they work as well to have an idea as to how to use the wi-fi microchip in the circuit assembly.  

1/22/24:

            Today I research more possible mentors, specifically those who are experts in circuits such as electrical engineers since we need more guidance. I sent out emails to electrical engineer professors at Fresno State to possibly guide us in our circuit assembly. I also looked up the schematic of a capacitive soil moisture sensor to try to understand the circuit better. I also found coding we may possibly use for our project.

1/24/24:

            Today my group and I began working on the business letter. I also had responded to Fresno State professors who replied to my email. Unfortunately, one had declined due to his busy schedule, but he allowed us to ask any questions we had. I had asked him is he could recommend someone who would be able to mentor us.

1/29/24:

            Today I had emailed a professor who agreed to be a mentor if we had made the block diagram, he had recommended us to make correctly. He gave us feedback on our block diagram which was to make a hardware one and a flow chart for the program sequence. 

1/31/24:

            I edited the business letter and added some details to it depending on who it is we send the letter to. One Fresno State professor had emailed us back and had recommended us to use raspberry pi since it is an easier microcontroller to work with instead of the ESP32 chip which is something we initially had planned to use. 

2/7/24:

Today I continued to work on the buisness letter and replied to the proffessors emails. I contacted our mentors: our two proffessors and the manager from Willow Gardens Nursery, and asked them if we can include a photo of them on our website. Two agreed and got back to us but one hasn't responded. I also updated our mentors page and added the feedback they gave us and 2 of their photos.

2/16/24:

Today, I worked on editing the buisness letter before sending it to our potential sponsors. We narrowed down our sponsors list to Murdoc Technology LLC that is located in Fresno. I also wrote out an email to send to them and gave them an idea as to what our project aims to do and if we could possibly meet them in person to discuss our project more and if they would be willing to support us. I am also planning what conceot sketches I will work on, on the weekend. 

3/8/24:

I finished grading all of my sketches so my group and we can decide on a final sketch so we can start prototyping. I also arranged a meeting with the owner of Mazzei's Nursery on 3/11 so we can collect a cash donation. We also plan on going to Green Hills Nursery on 3/10 to collect a plant donation.

3/10/24:

Me and Jonathan went to Green Hills Nursery to collect a plant donation. We selected a Peace Lily, Monstera, Hawaiian Pothos, Snake Plant, and Spider Plant. We plan to distribute the plants between us and take care of them at home so they don't die. The 5th plant we will keep at school, especially one that doesn't need consistent watering.

3/18/24:

Today my group and I were working on the Standard Test Method document and I updated the sponsors page on our website. I found a reference document my group and I could refrence off of which is a calibration of the capacative soil moisture sensor to give accurate soil moisture readings. 

4/25/24:

Kimmy and I were working on the poster board for our presentation at Fresno State on May 1st. We planned out how we were going to format our poster board and began cutting paper and taping it. I also emailed our mentors and sponsors to invite them to the project showcase.