Upgrading IKEA Vaxer Hydroponic with Cayenne

About This Project

Today I'm showing you how I added Cayenne to an IKEA Hydroponic system named Vaxer.

The project itself is very simple in terms of electronics. I also used a 3D Printer to print an enclosure for the electronic components and an adapter for my sensor. Feel free to ask about the designs!

Many of you might think this a very simple project. However this is what makes me love Cayenne. I managed to deploy a solution for a problem that I have in an afternoon!

About the IKEA Vaxer

So regarding the project... This IKEA Vaxer system uses a 12V Led to provide light to your plants and has a float so that you know when you should water your plants. The thing is... this system is almost noob proof. I still need to turn the LED on/off everyday at a specific time and watch if my plants need water or not. So I decided to add some electronics and Cayenne to it.

What's Connected

• Arduino Nano

• 2 Channel Module Relay

• Liquid Level Sensor

• Raspberry Pi (This is just used because I don't have a shield for my Arduino so I used the PI for Serial connection)

My Arduino Nano has two purposes in this project. Read the sensor values through an analog pin, and control the relay for the LED using a digital pin. More simple impossible! I will not post here schematics and technical information since this is the most easy project you can find... Just google how to wire a relay to an Arduino and how to hook an analog sensor. After that is just adding widgets in Cayenne.

Triggers & Alerts

I used a trigger to check if my Liquid Sensor was below a threshold value. This will notify me so I know when to refill the water reservoir.

Scheduling

I used two schedules. One to turn my lights on and another to turn them off. The schedules also notify me.

Dashboard Screenshots

My dashboard is very simple. I only have a button for my relay, a graph for my data and my sensor value.

Photos of the Project

Here are some photos of my purple basil and lettuce!

Video

Just a proof of work (The red nails are from my girlfriend!)