Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#1

Post by johnz » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 5:30 PM UTC

Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome
johnzanussi.com

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#2

Post by LeafItAlone » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:17 PM UTC

I love this. Great work!

I’ve thought about doing the same thing for years. But in my experience, those cheap capacitive sensors fail quickly. Might be worse when the water gets all sappy or filled with needles.

What sort of fail safe do you have for when the sensor becomes inaccurate?

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#3

Post by wferrell » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:25 PM UTC

What a great post. Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#4

Post by buildsjets » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:41 PM UTC

I bought one of these off Amazon a few years ago, called the HoHoHoH20.

https://www.amazon.com/HoHoHoH2o-Automatic-Christmas-Waterin...

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#5

Post by johnz » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:41 PM UTC

LeafItAlone wrote: post #2

I love this. Great work! I’ve thought about doing the same thing for years. But in my experience, those cheap capacitive sensors fail quickly. Might be worse when the water gets all sappy or filled with needles. What sort of fail safe do you have for when the sensor becomes inaccurate?

Thanks!

No fail-safe besides the limit of only running the pump for 10 seconds at a time. I will continue to keep an eye on the data being pumped to Home Assistant and look to add a condition if/when the sensor fails.

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#6

Post by johnz » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:43 PM UTC

buildsjets wrote: post #4

I bought one of these off Amazon a few years ago, called the HoHoHoH20. https://www.amazon.com/HoHoHoH2o-Automatic-Christmas-Waterin...

That is what inspired me to try building something myself. How do you like it? Does it have any reliability issues?

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#7

Post by johnz » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 8:43 PM UTC

wferrell wrote: post #3

What a great post. Thank you!

Cheers!

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#8

Post by 33a » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 9:06 PM UTC

I built something like this but found that the electric arduino water sensor quickly became corroded after a week and a half and ended up replacing it with a float switch.

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#9

Post by sircastor » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 9:25 PM UTC

A number of years ago I set up a siphon tube running into our Christmas tree stand from a nearby bucket. The bucket had a false—gift wrapped box over it to hide it. Through some empirical testing I found the right water height for the stand and marked it with tape.

I wanted to make an electronic solution, but I think this fared better than whatever code I could write.

Re: Show HN: Watering my Christmas tree with ESPHome

#10

Post by johnz » Sun, Dec 10, 2023, 9:27 PM UTC

33a wrote: post #8

I built something like this but found that the electric arduino water sensor quickly became corroded after a week and a half and ended up replacing it with a float switch.

Good to know. I thought about using both a float switch and an ultrasonic distance sensor.