Last year, I featured John Zanussi’s WLED Christmas lights project and this year, he’s back with a way to automate the watering of your Christmas tree:
I’m notoriously bad at watering the Christmas tree we bring into our house every year. I diligently water it for the first few days. Then I forget or get busy; a day or two goes by where I don’t water it, and the tree eventually dries out. By the time Christmas comes around, the tree is hanging on for dear life. Plus, even when I remember, getting under the tree is awkward, and I always spill water everywhere. A couple of years ago, I bought a long funnel, thinking that would make things easier, but it ended up being just as annoying and messy as not using one.
Amazon sells both cheap siphoning and expensive pumping tree watering systems. The one I like the most is $100. It’s not necessarily a bad price if it lasts multiple years. However, thinking about how it works, I decided to try building something myself.
The project included an Adafruit QT Py ESP32-C3 board, a capacitive moisture sensor, a fountain pump, and a relay to so it could self-water itself via his Home Assistant setup. And the cost: about $20 (excluding parts he needed that he already owned). It’s amazing what you can do with the know-how and the means.