Remote watering of indoor plants

Built a system to water my many indoor plants while I am away. Linear actuator operates a water valve in a gravity fed drip system. A plant is positioned under each drip spot. Drip rate at each downspout can be adjusted prior to leaving. Blynk interface opens and closes the water valve and polls moisture sensor to verify watering is working. Later plan to integrate notifications with moisture sensor to tell me when pots are dry. Water reservoir only 3 gallons so not much risk of major flood if somethings goes wrong. See video. Plants removed from video to show plumbing better. Used NodeMCU ESP8266 and bidirectional motor controller.

Blynk IOT or legacy ?

Linear actuator looks like an overkill. You could have used an water solenoid valve. That is way cheaper.

And you need not have a dedicated driver like you have to in your case. Just a relay would drive the valve. And 12v2A power supply will do the job.

Nonetheless you have done great. Plumbing looks good.

If you can post the code, it would be helpful.
Thanks

Blynk IoT

Linear actuator and ball valve was already on hand so did not have to buy anything but some copper plumbing bits. In general I try to avoid solenoids as they tend to draw lots of amps when actuated , they get hot, sometimes they get stuck and you need heavier power supplies to run them as compared to motors. If actuation speed is a priority then a solenoid wins but in this case not a concern

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