MyDot Vase Kit

Complete setup and operating guide for the examples/MyDotVase sketch included with the MyDot Arduino library.

The example turns a MyDot carrier into a connected plant-care controller. It reads an analog soil-moisture sensor, controls a pump through the carrier relay, drives the NeoPixels, accepts commands from the Microeden cloud, and stores the light and pump settings in non-volatile memory.

1. Hardware and safety

Required hardware

• Microeden MyDot V1.0 carrier;
• a supported Arduino board (the example is tested with Arduino Nano ESP32);
• AZ-Delivery analog soil-moisture sensor;
• a low-voltage pump and a suitable external pump power supply;
• tubing and a water reservoir;
• a 3D printer for the physical Vase Kit components;
• a Microeden cloud device and Wi-Fi network.

3D-printed components

A 3D printer is required to produce the physical Vase Kit parts, such as the plant container, brackets, sensor supports, and pump/tube holders. The Arduino library contains the firmware example; the mechanical parts must be printed and assembled separately according to the selected Vase Kit design.

STL files to print

Download and print the following files for the Vase Kit assembly:

The column.stl is a standard-length column section. Print the required number of identical pieces according to the height of the plant and assemble them together. Do not scale the file or alter the height of an individual section.

Suggested external materials

The following are the external materials used as references for the Vase Kit prototype:

• Transparent flexible tube – ANOMM
• Self-priming electric pump – RUNCCI-YUN
• Capacitive soil-moisture sensor – AZ-Delivery
• Male-to-male jumper wires

These links are reference products, not library dependencies or guaranteed compatibility statements. Before assembly, verify the tube inner diameter, the pump voltage/current, the pump flow rate, and the relay/driver ratings for your specific hardware.

Power requirements

Power the carrier through its external DC jack when using the relay, pump, NeoPixels, or fan driver. USB power alone is not sufficient for the carrier output stages. Use the voltage range specified for the carrier and the pump driver, and verify the polarity before connecting power.

The pump must be powered through the carrier relay or an appropriate external driver. Never connect a pump or motor directly to an Arduino GPIO.

Soil sensor warning

Power the AZ-Delivery soil sensor from 3.3 V, not 5 V. A 5 V analog output can exceed the input range of the selected board and may damage it.

Nano ESP32 pin mapping

The MyDot library uses the carrier pin aliases below when an Arduino Nano ESP32 is selected:

The library supports both Arduino pin numbering and By GPIO number (legacy) mode. The recommended setting is the normal Arduino pin numbering mode; use the legacy option only when the rest of the project requires it.

2. Installing the example

1. Install MyDot from the Arduino IDE Library Manager, or copy the library into the Arduino libraries directory.
2. Install the dependencies declared in library.properties if the IDE does not install them automatically.
3. Select Arduino Nano ESP32 and the correct serial port.
4. Open File > Examples > MyDot > MyDotVase.
5. Open the microeden_secrets.h tab and replace the placeholders locally:

   #define SECRET_WIFI_SSID "YOUR_WIFI_SSID"
   #define SECRET_WIFI_PASSWORD "YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"
   #define SECRET_DEVICE_ID "YOUR_DEVICE_ID"
   #define SECRET_DEVICE_TOKEN "YOUR_DEVICE_TOKEN"

   Never commit real Wi-Fi credentials or cloud tokens.

6. Connect the external carrier power supply, connect the board by USB, and upload the sketch.
7. Open the Serial Monitor at 115200 baud.

The ESP32 cloud connection uses the bundled ISRG Root X1 certificate. No insecure TLS switch is required.

3. What the sketch does

The source is:

• examples/MyDotVase/MyDotVase.ino
• examples/MyDotVase/MyDotVaseState.h

The sketch performs these operations:

1. Initializes the MyDot peripherals and the persistent-state backend.
2. Restores the saved light mode, light state, brightness, and pump duration.
3. Starts Wi-Fi and the MQTT cloud connection.
4. Reads and averages eight soil ADC samples.
5. Publishes soil, pump, light, and event telemetry.
6. Handles cloud commands, slider events, and local buttons.
7. Runs the pump timer and Wi-Fi/MQTT reconnection logic continuously.

The main loop must keep calling dot.run(). Do not replace it with long blocking delays.

4. Local controls

• Button A toggles the lights on and off.
• Button B cycles through the five light modes: coolWhite, warmWhite, growVegetative, growBloom, and growFull.

The button actions save their state immediately.

5. Cloud controls

The cloud command field is normally named content.

Commands

The old continuous on and off pump commands are intentionally not handled. The pump is activated only by pump and stops automatically.

Slider widgets

Slider messages use the compact format key_value in the cloud content field.

The slider value is consumed once as an event. A telemetry/state echo from the cloud cannot be mistaken for a new command and cannot reset the value to zero.

Telemetry fields

The sketch publishes these fields:

Typical event values include periodic, pump, pumpStop, pumpBusy, pumpCooldown, brightness, pumpDuration, lightsOn, and lightsOff.

6. Pump timing and safety

The duration slider is limited in code to 1–60 seconds. The default is two seconds. When pump is received:

1. the relay is enabled;
2. pumpOn becomes true;
3. pumpActivations is incremented;
4. a pump telemetry message is sent;
5. the relay is disabled automatically after the configured duration;
6. a pumpStop telemetry message is sent.

There is also a one-minute cooldown measured from the start of the previous activation. A second command received while the cycle is active produces pumpBusy; a command received during the cooldown produces pumpCooldown. This prevents a faulty widget, repeated MQTT messages, or an automation loop from continuously restarting the pump.

The cooldown is runtime protection. It is reset when the board reboots; the configured duration itself remains persistent.

Water management

Before starting an irrigation cycle, check that there is water available in the tray/reservoir. Check the tray after watering and empty it periodically, so water does not remain stagnant or overflow. The tray should be inspected and emptied regularly as part of normal maintenance.

For the 3D-printable Vase Kit, start with a pump duration of one second at most. The printed kit has a small water capacity, so longer cycles can quickly overfill the tray. If the pump is used with a different system or a larger pot, adjust the irrigation duration to the pot size, tubing, pump flow rate, and drainage. Test the selected duration with supervision before enabling automatic operation.

7. Soil calibration

The example defines:

const int SOIL_RAW_DRY = 3000;
const int SOIL_RAW_WET = 1300;

The default conversion assumes the sensor ADC value decreases as the soil gets wetter. soilPercentFromRaw() maps the dry value to 0% and the wet value to 100%, then clamps the result to 0–100.

To calibrate your sensor:

1. Read soilRaw with the probe in dry soil and record the value.
2. Read it in well-watered soil and record the value.
3. Replace SOIL_RAW_DRY and SOIL_RAW_WET in the sketch.
4. Recompile and upload.

Do not power the sensor from 5 V while calibrating.

8. Persistent state

The state record contains:

• lightsOn;
• mode;
• brightness;
• pumpDurationSeconds.

Storage is selected automatically by board architecture:

• Nano ESP32: ESP32 Preferences / NVS;
• Nano RP2040 Connect with the Mbed core: Mbed KVStore;
• RP2040 or Nano 33 IoT cores with EEPROM support: EEPROM.

The record includes a magic value, version, and checksum. The current record version is 4. Records from version 3 are migrated for the light fields and use the default two-second pump duration until a new value is saved.

Changing the light state, brightness, or pump-duration slider saves immediately. Telemetry is delayed briefly only to avoid flooding the cloud while a slider is being dragged.

9. Serial diagnostics

Use the Serial Monitor at 115200 baud. Useful messages include:

• Restored light state...;
• Restored pump duration...;
• Pump duration from cloud...;
• Pump request ignored: a timed cycle is already active;
• Pump request ignored: cooldown active...;
• Telemetry - ...;
• MyDot: MQTT connected. and reconnection messages.

The Display example is intended for OLED diagnostics. MyDotVase uses the Serial Monitor so all soil, cloud, pump, and persistence messages remain visible while the plant controller is running.

10. Troubleshooting

The sketch compiles but the pump does not run

• Verify the carrier external power supply is connected.
• Check that the pump has its own suitable supply.
• Check the relay/driver wiring and common ground.
• Confirm that the Serial Monitor reports pump and then pumpStop.
• Check whether the one-minute cooldown is active.

The pump cannot be started again

This is expected during the active cycle and for up to 60 seconds after its start. Wait for the cooldown or inspect the pumpCooldown telemetry event.

The slider appears not to change

• Confirm the dashboard key is exactly brightness or pumpDuration.
• Confirm the incoming content is brightness_<value> or pumpDuration_<seconds>.
• Confirm the value is within the documented range.
• Watch the Serial Monitor for the corresponding from cloud message.

The lights are off after a reboot

• Check the restored lightsOn, brightness, and lightMode messages.
• Ensure the carrier is powered through the external jack.
• Verify the NeoPixel data pin is the carrier D3 alias on Nano ESP32.
• Make sure the installed library is the same version as the uploaded sketch.

Soil values are unsafe or inverted

• Verify the sensor is powered at 3.3 V.
• Confirm AO is connected to A0.
• Calibrate SOIL_RAW_DRY and SOIL_RAW_WET for the actual soil and probe.

11. Recommended test sequence

1. Run the sketch with the pump disconnected and verify soilRaw telemetry.
2. Toggle the lights with Button A.
3. Cycle modes with Button B.
4. Change brightness and verify the value is saved after a reset.
5. Set pumpDuration to a short test value such as 1–2 seconds.
6. Send pump once and verify automatic stop telemetry.
7. Send another pump immediately and verify it is rejected by the cooldown.
8. Connect the pump only after the relay and timing behavior are correct.