Garden Station Project

Garden Station is a web application that uses micro-controllers with sensors to gather data in a garden and display that data in a web application. The web server uses a LAMP stack.

Garden Station is designed to track:

• Soil moisture levels
• Temperature
• Humidity
• Wind speed and direction
• Rainfall

Using multiple microcontrollers you are able to gather data in different sections of your garden and different types of data as required by your own needs.

flowchart TD
    id1["GardenStation"]
    id3["Sensor #1"]
    id4["Sensor #2"]
    id5["Sensor #3"]
    id6["Sensor #4"]
    id7["Weather Station"]
    id8[Users]

    id3 --> id1
    id4 --> id1
    id5 --> id1
    id6 --> id1
    id7 --> id1
    id1 <--> id8

Wiki Contents Page

Goals/Roadmap

Design

Hardware

Database API

Purpose

This aim of this project is to allow me to monitor the current weather conditions and state of my garden. Using soil moisture data I can more accurately respond in real time to plants in distress and adjust irrigation timings at a more granular level and make better use of the limited water resources we have.

This data will also allow me to get a better understanding of the day to day operation of my garden and I can see how and why the plants I have are acting the way that they do.

The ulterior motive for this project is to use it as an example of the skills I possess for future potential employment. This project will be used to demonstrate my skills and ability to use software and technology to solve a problem.

The competencies this project demonstrates cover a variety of areas including software development, computer networking, cyber security, project management, creative thinking, and communication skills.

Hard Skills Demonstrated

• Developing a web app using Flask (Python)
• Utilising a database management system to solve a problem
• Running an Apache web server on a local network
• Utilising HTTP methods to transfer information over local network
• Developing software running on Arduino
• Capability using Markdown, mermaid.js to describe ideas
• Using git version control software
• Using the GitHub platform to development a software solution
• Web security

Soft Skills Demonstrated

• Writing design documentation
• Communication skills used to describe technical concepts
• Project planning, management and completion
• Familiarity with Information Security concepts used to design and develop a computer system with security in mind