I decided a few weeks ago to bring some life into my office with a plant.  Since I was getting a few things at the local 24-hour megalowmart, I decided what the heck.  One plant, bag of dirt, and pot (that was on sale), I had this…

It’s called a “Little Herman Ivy”

I decided I wanted something to help me keep this thing alive.  I didn’t want to go the route of a twitter reminder, as I’m in here nearly every day.  A nice, visual indicator should do well.

Since I’m a traffic engineer, I thought something with a traffic signal would be appropriate.  A green for “you’re good”, a yellow for “getting dry”, and a red for “too dry”.  I also like the idea of using a PIC since I haven’t used those very much and I wanted to expand my horizons.

After some breadboard experiments on a breadboard, I even designed my first PC board.

This is the PC Board from OSHPark.

The circuit uses two coin cells, a PIC 16, and a few other components (click for schematic).  There is one issue with the boards – there is silkscreen covering the copper that is supposed to sense the moisture in the soil.  I’ll have to fix that with a razor.

Stay tuned to see how it does, once I solder components and build.  I’ll post the source then.

-73-