Alright, so let’s talk about this flowerpot vp2 thing. It wasn’t just any old pot for a plant, you know? This was supposed to be the flowerpot. Version 1, vp1, was a total disaster, smoked a bit, nearly set the basil on fire. So vp2, that was my redemption song. Or so I thought.
The Grand Plan, or So I Thought
The idea for flowerpot vp2 was simple on paper. Self-watering, sure. But also with soil moisture sensors, a little temperature and humidity display, maybe even some gentle LED grow lights that changed color with the mood of the… plant? Yeah, I was getting ambitious. I figured, how hard could it be? I’d seen folks online do crazier stuff.
Getting My Hands Dirty (Literally and Figuratively)
So I got started. Ordered all the bits and bobs: the microcontroller, the sensors, tiny little water pump, tubes, wires. My desk looked like a bomb went off for weeks. Soldering those tiny sensor pins? Let me tell you, my eyes aren’t what they used to be, and I swear I burned my fingers more times than I got a good connection. Coffee and sheer stubbornness were my fuel.
Then came the coding. Oh, the coding. It’s always the coding, isn’t it? You think it’s a straightforward “if this, then that,” but no. The moisture sensor would give me readings from “desert dry” to “fully submerged” when the soil was just, well, soil. The little display screen? Half the time it showed Chinese characters I didn’t program in. I spent nights, actual nights, staring at lines of code, changing one tiny thing, uploading, testing, failing. Repeat. My partner started calling it “the infernal machine.”
- Sourcing the right kind of waterproof sealant for the electronics compartment – that was a whole sub-project.
- Figuring out how to calibrate three different moisture sensors to give vaguely consistent readings.
- Making the tiny pump actually pump water without either creating a flood or just dribbling pathetically.
Why All The Fuss, Really?
Now, you might be thinking, “It’s a flowerpot, man, chill.” And you’d be right. But here’s the thing. This whole vp2 project started right after I got laid off from that job I’d been at for nearly a decade. Just like that, “restructuring,” they called it. One day you’re essential, next day you’re clearing your desk. Hit me harder than I expected. So, flowerpot vp2, it became more than a project. It was something I could control, something I could build and make work, when everything else felt like it was falling apart. It was my little defiance against the universe, I guess.
I remember one evening, after another email rejection for a job, I went straight to the garage. Didn’t even take my coat off. Just sat there, re-soldering a connection on vp2 for the third time, muttering to myself. My kid came in, asked what I was doing. I told him I was building the smartest flowerpot in the world. He just nodded, like it was the most normal thing ever. Kids, eh?
So, What Happened to Flowerpot VP2?
Well, after weeks of tinkering, cursing, and small, incremental victories, I actually got it working. Mostly. The water pump was a bit temperamental, and the “mood lighting” for the plant never quite made it past the idea stage. But it watered the plant! The display showed (mostly) correct data! I put a spider plant in it, and the darn thing thrived. For a while, anyway.
The funny thing is, by the time vp2 was chugging along, I’d landed a new gig. Something completely different, actually. And suddenly, the urgent need for the world’s smartest flowerpot kind of faded. It’s still on the windowsill, though. Sometimes the pump groans a bit, and the display flickers if you knock it. It’s not perfect. But it’s there. A dusty, slightly over-engineered reminder that sometimes, you just gotta build something, even if it’s just a flowerpot, to get through the rough patches. It’s not about the pot, really. Never was.
