A USB-C powered smart hydroponic pod for one plant. The pot itself is a clean square reservoir — no electronics bolted to it, no wires snaking up the side — and a separate desk-side enclosure on a single tethered cable carries the brain, sensors, and pump. The result reads as a finished product instead of a maker rig.
The change
Earlier hydroponic revisions stuck the controller and pump on the side of the pot, which always looked tacked-on. The 2026 build pulls every piece of electronics off the pot:
- Square body and lid (no curved-surface rendering issues, easier to print, sits flat against a wall).
- 3 L reservoir with a PETG sight strip on the front face and printed measurement marks.
- Smart lid: 3-inch net cup hole, pH + EC probe wells, JSN-SR04T waterproof ultrasonic transducer mount, dose-in tubing port, square WS2812 grow frame with skirt.
- Remote enclosure (sits on the desk next to the pot) houses an ESP32-C6 Feather, LM2596 buck, BH1750 ambient-light sensor at the front lens window, and a 5 V peristaltic dosing pump. USB-C in.
- Single sleeved tether between pot and enclosure carries all sensor lines plus the dose tubing, grommeted at both ends.
What's in the pack
Print-ready STL for every printed part (reservoir body, lid, LED frame, remote enclosure, pump module, net cup, cable-bundle template), editable STEP, six angle renders + interactive WebGL viewer, a wired BOM with verified vendor pricing, and assembly instructions.