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A comment on Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot. Parent comment

Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by mtlynch on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @08:41AM (#14644819)
Yeah, it drains into a little tray underneath. I'm trying to figure out a better solution for that because we can't see how much water is in the tray, so if too much has drained out, it starts overflowing onto the table with no warning.

Also I get the sense that I shouldn't just be leaving standing water in the tray forever, but it's also pretty difficult to remove the tray and empty it.

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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by hammock on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @09:47AM (#14645315)
Put some pebbles on top of the tray to raise the pot off of it, so it's not sitting in the standing water.
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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by mtlynch on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @10:07AM (#14645476)
Oh that's a good idea. Thanks!
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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by and0 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @10:51AM (#14645899)
I usually throw a base of pebbles / marbles into the bottom of any pot before I put the dirt in, which also aids in draining.
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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by Ham5ter on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @11:11AM (#14646096)
Why not connect your tray, back into the Watter reservoir?

This way, it cannot get to Wet, and you could just Pump that Pot full with watter, any excess watter, will just drain through the Soil back into the reservoir :)

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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by ZirconCode on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @12:11PM (#14646696)
Dirty water in the pump is bad.
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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by andegre on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @10:11AM (#14645517)
Put another sensor in your tray wired up to your UI, so as soon as the sensor goes from 0% to 100% for moisture, you know to empty your tray.
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Re:Show HN: GreenPiThumb – A Raspberry Pi Gardening Bot by mholmes680 on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @10:39AM (#14645771)
what if the tray was the way to detect moisture level? or, you could drip it back into the supply water?
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