2/25/2026 11 AM - Project Concept

So I have decided on how this thing should work.

It should be powered by an ESP32 because of its WI-FI Capabilities. Which would help later on. 2 Components will be connected to the ESP32
1. Soil Moisture Sensor= This would sit in the soil next to the plant monitoring the soil dryness level every few seconds. If that dryness value is High the ESP32 will trigger the watering mechanism.
2. Relay > Water pump= Because the ESP32 alone cant't control a water pump alone we need to use a relay to control the heavy lord

Logic

• Soil Moisture Sensor sends soil dryness level data every second to the ESP32 via an Analog Pin. If that value is higher than the a set threshold It will trigger the relay.
• When the relay is triggered it activates the water pump. Which would pump water for a set amount of time.
• ESP32 will host its own WI-FI network, where it has its own local website hosted. It will have options to control the water pump manually. Look at the live soil moisture data, Look at recent watering times (exportable as .CSV). This means the the website should be able to turn on the Relay as well.

I have researched everything above as this is my first IoT project and I don't want to have a failure. I took as much time to understand everything about IoT (Internet of Thing) so I don't ruin it. I learned a lot like the ESP32 cant control a water pump alone, ESP32 can have locally hosted websites and a a lot about relays.

2/25/2026 1 PM - Circuit Diagram | ESP32

Now I have a plan and image in my mind Its time to make an proper circuit diagram for it.

This is the pin diagram for the ESP32

2/26/2026 12 PM - Completed Circuit Diagram

I have made a cool circuit diagram on Canva (i dont have any other circuit making softwares). I did some research while making and realized the water pump needs an external power source. I also went through some others IoT projects to get a sense on how to write firmware for this

(v1)
(v2)
(v3)

2/26/2026 1 PM - Enclosure Designing Time

I made this small 120mm x 80 mm x 40mm enclosure to house the esp32 , relay , soil mositure driver and the battery packs.

(https://www.tinkercad.com/things/cU0y4Kzastv/edit?returnTo=%2Fdashboard&sharecode=uQwVeT8T5ssZHdjoWIAbadthQ9XXQjUeB4N5Dpn8rvA)

3/2/2026 - Creating a dashboard p1

So as planned there will be a web dashboard hosted via its local wifi. Where you can control the motors, etc. So Im going to be writing a basic non functional website for now. Im not going to be using Ai. Thats for boomers. I consider this a challenge for myself. Im going to be using basic html, js and css.

I have mostly made a bare html website as of now. I'll be working on the CSS soon.

3/9/2026 12:55 PM - Creating a dashboard p2

Continued to work on the dashboard now. It is now looks somewhat good. There is some backends I have to work on, in the website. Like maybe a weather integration using a free API>?

3/9/2026 12:57 PM - Creating a dashboard | Final

Fully completed the html files of the the dashboard. Next thing is to actually make it functional by adding it to the esp32 and make it actually do stuff. I have also made the weather integration and last watered. There's alot more I planned to add but the time is ticking. I'll update it as we go.

3/9/2026 1 PM - ESP32 Firmware | p1

Its time to start the actual firmware for the ESP32. Im going to writing the firmware from scratch. and using AI to help me debug. I started writing it now. I have initialized the pins. and made the wifi setup. I have also wrote the firmware for the moisture reader functions