Bitponics

Bitponics: Hydroponics Automation System to Improve Urban Gardening

This personal gardening assistent brings cloud technology to hydroponic planting.

Bitponics is the first ever integrated cloud based hydroponic automation system. Designed to be an add-on to any existing hydroponics system, Bitponics’ developers claim that it simplifies and automates the urban home garden by managing the plants’ needs, incorporating a crowdsourced online database for best practices and sending the user friendly and convenient reminders.

“Bitponics is a path into the future of urban home gardening. Through the development of open-source technologies, we are making it possible for urban gardeners to care for their plants while they’re away”, said Michael Zick Doherty, co-founder and lead hardware engineer of Bitponics. “Growing hydroponically is more than just about providing free food to your home—it is also about the educational experience that allows us to reconnect with what we eat, empowering us to eat healthy and protect our environment. It is also a great way for students in the classroom to use hydroponics as an applied method of understanding sciences such as biology and chemistry. They can see in real time the changes in the plants environment and how this correlates to plant growth.”

Bitponics works in two ways: a Base Station that monitors the urban home garden and an online Dashboard that grants remote access to monitor and adjust the plant environment to meet existing needs. The Base Station will collect readings from its sensors and log them to the user’s Dashboard. Users can also manually log data and even upload photos to track progress. Whenever sensor data deviates too far from the Personalized Growing Plan, Bitponics sends a friendly alert and explains how to fix it.  Automation capabilities include:

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How many hours of light the plants need per day

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