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Botanicalls Twitter answers the question: What's up with your plant? It offers a connection to your leafy pal via online Twitter status updates that reach you anywhere in the world. When your plant needs water, it will post to let you know, and send its thanks when you show it love.

Twitter is social software that asks a simple question: What are you doing?

Botanicalls is a system that was developed to allow plants to place phone calls for human help. When a plant on the Botanicalls network needs water, it can call a person and ask for exactly what it needs. When people phone the plants, the plants orient callers to their habits and characteristics.

http://www.botanicalls.com/twitter


// Erik (binkey.nl)

Lot of hardware but nice!
Starts me thinking if we can do this more simple with for example a Visonic sensor and moisture (or something) sensor.
Anybody any ideas on that?

I know there is a visonic sensor to check for water. Cant this be 'tweaked' to do the other way around? No water, send out a alert.

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Use the A/D input of an RFXSensor and you have a wireless moisture sensor (or ambient light sensor) that reports every 1 or 5 minutes the measured value.

Two options: the rfxsensor or the visonic water sensor.
@Bert is this an additional input or do I need to offer 1 from the 3?
@Erik it's worth checking the visonic as well which can also be received by the Rfxcom

The Visonic is an on/off sensor and sends the alarm command on water detected. I guess it will not detect a low moisture level as in this situation.

The RFXSensor (40065/40066) will measure a real level of humidity/moisture/light. The RFXSensor can have a humidity or the moisture or the light level sensor connected to the A/D input. Wire up to 7 additional 60011 sensors to the RFXSensor and measure 8 values of any mix and 8 temperatures too.

But what to use for moisture sensor. Also i think getting an rfxsensor for each plant is also expensive. You could build something like http://alyer.frihost.net/thrsensor.htm for moisture then, and keep the print small too, so perhaps you can stick it away so you dont see it that fast in the plant?

@bert, if you could whip one up i'am always willing to try and see if it works. I only have 1 plant, one of the reasons is because the rest dies. Only 1 huge plant here which can go without water for weeks, and then suck up a complete bucket of water

// Erik (binkey.nl)

@bert now I get it, i was confused with the pulsecounter
http://www.rfxcom.com/sensors.htm#RFXSensor
that will definitely do, I will test this
@erik I have also only 1 big plant dying every half year, caused by lack of water

On Thinkgeek they have an DIY Plant twitter which is internet enabled.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electr ... 2/?cpg=80H
It connects to Twitter over the Internet to report its watering status.
example:http://twitter.com/startrkplant
Hennie

Nice project, need something like that to.
Btw: the Bwired doorbell is also connected to twitter
http://twitter.com/bwired

its a bit steep and only twitter to be fun... 99 dollars per plant?

// Erik (binkey.nl)