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🌿 Smart Grow Room Automation System

A fully autonomous indoor plant monitoring and control system built from scratch — spanning embedded firmware, cloud backend, and a native Android application. Designed and developed as a solo end-to-end project.

📸 Screenshots

Dashboard Controls Settings
Dashboard Controls Settings
Live sensor readings & per-plant soil moisture System kill switches & pump overrides Configurable thresholds for all automation logic

✅ Project Status

  • ESP32 firmware (Arduino C++)
  • Backend REST + SQLite server (Node.js, Express)
  • Android app (Java, OkHttp + Gson)
  • Real-time states + historical data
  • Security with API key header
  • Local dev tests passed

🏗️ System Architecture

┌─────────────────────────┐
│      Android App        │  ← Java, Android Studio
│  Dashboard / Controls   │
│       / Settings        │
└────────────┬────────────┘
             │ HTTPS REST + API Key
             ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│   Node.js / Express     │  ← Ubuntu server, PM2
│   SQLite Database       │
│   Cloudflare Tunnel     │  ← api.example.org
└────────────┬────────────┘
             │ HTTP POST / GET
             ▼
┌─────────────────────────┐
│      ESP32-S3           │  ← C++ / Arduino framework
│  Sensors · Relays · NTP │
└─────────────────────────┘

✨ Features

Firmware (ESP32-S3)

  • Soil moisture monitoring via ADS1115 ADC (3 capacitive sensors)
  • Temperature & humidity via DHT11
  • Automated watering with hysteresis (35%-45% threshold per plant)
  • NTP-synced lighting (22h on / 2h off, timezone-aware)
  • Ventilation control (hysteresis via temperature + humidity)
  • WiFi with auto-reconnect

Backend (Node.js / Express)

  • REST API (sensor data + configuration)
  • SQLite persistence (readings + settings)
  • PM2 managed process
  • Cloudflare Tunnel support
  • API key authentication

Android App (Java)

  • Dashboard: Real-time sensors, pump status, color-coded soil levels
  • Controls: Kill switches + pump overrides with live indicators
  • Settings: Full remote configuration of automation thresholds

🔧 Hardware

Component Role
ESP32-S3 Main microcontroller
ADS1115 16-bit ADC for soil sensors
Capacitive Soil Sensors (×3) Per-plant moisture
DHT11 Temperature & humidity
Relay Module (×5) Pump + light + fan control
Water Pumps (×3) Automated irrigation
Grow Light NTP-scheduled
Ventilation Fan Hysteresis-controlled

Estimated cost: ~40€

🚀 Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

  • Node.js ≥ 18 (for local dev)
  • Docker & Docker Compose (for containerized deployment)
  • Android Studio (for app)
  • Arduino IDE (for firmware)

Backend Setup (Local)

git clone https://github.com/orfeastops/auto-grow-system.git
cd auto-grow-system
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env: API_KEY=your-secret, PORT=3000
npm start

Backend Setup (Docker - Recommended)

One-liner:

docker-compose up -d

This automatically:

  • Builds the Node.js backend
  • Creates SQLite database
  • Exposes API on http://localhost:3000
  • Includes health checks

View logs:

docker-compose logs -f greenhouse-api

Stop:

docker-compose down

Production (with PM2):

pm2 start server --name greenhouse-api
pm2 save
pm2 startup

Cloudflare Tunnel (public access):

cloudflared tunnel create greenhouse
cloudflared tunnel route dns greenhouse api.yourdomain.org
cloudflared tunnel run greenhouse

Android App

# Open in Android Studio, update ApiClient.BASE_URL
# Build and install
./gradlew assembleDebug

ESP32 Firmware

Upload arduino main code.cc via Arduino IDE to ESP32-S3.

📡 API Endpoints

Method Path Auth Description
POST /api/data API Key ESP32 sensor upload
GET /api/data/latest API Key Latest snapshot
GET /api/data/history?hours=N API Key Historical data
GET /api/settings API Key Read settings
POST /api/settings API Key Update setting
GET /api/health Open Health check

Example:

curl -H 'x-api-key: secret' http://localhost:3000/api/settings
curl -X POST -H 'x-api-key: secret' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"key":"light_enabled","value":"0"}' http://localhost:3000/api/settings

🔐 Security

  • Store API_KEY in .env (never commit)
  • Use .env.example template with placeholders
  • greenhouse.db excluded via .gitignore
  • HTTPS via Cloudflare Tunnel for production
  • Rotate keys periodically

📁 Repository Structure

.gitignore                 # Excludes .env, node_modules, *.db
.env.example               # Environment template
README.md                  # This file
package.json               # Dependencies
server                     # Express backend
arduino main code.cc       # ESP32 firmware
app/                       # Android application
html/                      # Web UI (React)
Dashboard.jpg              # Screenshots
Controls.jpg
settings.jpg

🧪 Testing

Local verification passed with all endpoints tested via curl.

Smoke test:

PORT=3001 API_KEY=test npm start &
curl -H 'x-api-key: test' http://localhost:3001/api/health
curl -H 'x-api-key: test' http://localhost:3001/api/settings

🔮 Roadmap

  • Push notifications (moisture alerts)
  • Historical charts in app
  • OTA firmware updates
  • Multi-room support
  • OAuth2 authentication
  • Docker support
  • Firebase Cloud Messaging

🛠️ Tech Stack

Layer Technology
Microcontroller ESP32-S3, C++ (Arduino)
Sensors ADS1115, DHT11
Backend Node.js, Express, SQLite
Process Mgmt PM2
Tunneling Cloudflare Tunnel
Mobile Android (Java)

👤 Author

Orfeas — Solo end-to-end design, build, testing.

📄 License

Open source. Adapt freely for your projects.

  1. cd /home/linux/Desktop/greenhouseapp/auto-grow-system
  2. npm install
  3. cp .env.example .env
  4. Edit .env:
    • API_KEY=your-secret-key
    • PORT=3000
  5. node server

Start with PM2 (production)

pm i -g pm2
pm2 start server --name greenhouse-api --update-env
pm2 save

Cloudflare tunnel (optional for public access)

Configure cloudflared as tunnel:
cloudflared tunnel create greenhouse
cloudflared tunnel route dns greenhouse api.example.org
cloudflared tunnel run greenhouse

APP URL: https://api.example.org

🔐 API key

the backend expects x-api-key header on /api/data,/api/settings,/api/data/* endpoints.

📘 Node API

Method Path Auth Description
POST /api/data API Key ESP32 sends sensor state
GET /api/data/latest API Key Latest sensor snapshot
GET /api/data/history?hours=N API Key History (default 24h)
GET /api/settings API Key Read settings
POST /api/settings API Key Write setting
GET /api/health open Health check

📲 Android setup

  1. Open app/ in Android Studio.
  2. Set ApiClient.BASE_URL to your backend host (e.g. https://api.example.org).
  3. Make sure API_KEY is the same as in server .env.
  4. Build & run.

💬 Support

For questions or issues, please open an issue on GitHub.

About

Full-stack IoT grow room automation built from scratch. ESP32-S3 firmware (C++/Arduino) → Node.js REST API → Android app (Java). Features automated irrigation, NTP-scheduled lighting, and remote threshold configuration. ~40€ hardware cost.

Topics

arduino automation smarthome esp32 temperature-monitoring growing-plants iot-application humidity-monitoring smartplant embeded-systems opensource-projects ventilation-system

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Readme

License

MIT license
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Releases 1

🌿 Auto Grow System v1.0.0 - Production Release Latest
Mar 30, 2026

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