Re-Designing the Interactive Plant Pot

Back to Designing:

To achieve a working model that is compact and aesthetically pleasing, a new form was designed, along with internals that can fit the Adafruit technology. The aim of the design is to act as an interactive pot plant but also be a decorative piece in your house to go with other decorations that could be an interesting conversation starter. The same design principles are still present where the eVe will notify you when your plant needs water.

What is next-gen eVe?
The next-gen eVe was redesigned to be more compact and utilise new technologies such as magnetic levelling (being able to make an object float from a platform. Going back to the original design inspiration Eva from Wall-E, helped contribute to the arms on the side and the bottom part.

Design Renders:
KeyShot 9 was heavily used alongside Solidworks to create a new form for the eve compared to the original. The aim was to have this form be easily suited to modern indoor environments in your home. Such environments include kitchens, benches, tables, and living rooms. The futuristic form allows for a streamlined curvature to seem cute/friendly to the user. KeyShot was used to be able to showcase how the design is displayed in its environment and its particular features.

Product context and individual renders were created in KeyShot 9.

New Design Features:
The next-gen eVe showcases various new features to the new design, in order to be more functional and aesthetically pleasing to the user. Such features include:

Product renders were created in KeyShot 9.

3D Printing and Painting the Design:

This design was the first to be used with this 3D printer, which required me to learn new techniques in spray paint to achieve a textured cement pattern on the 3D printed parts. While also programming the 3D printer to achieve high-quality finishes on the parts to be easily sanded.

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Model Circuit:

This design required a circuit to have the pot display its emotions when being watered, and to achieve this, parts were sourced from Adafruit.The parts sourced include: RGB Lights, Soil Moisture Sensor, Rugged RGB Pushbutton, Featherwing PCB, and Featherwing Propmaker. Another part that was imagined was a magnetic levitating platform so the pot can be able to levitate when being used, but this idea had to be postponed due to the weight and complexity to get this pot to raise when setting up.

Model Without Electronics:

After being sanded and painted, this model is one step closer to being complete. All that it needs now is the electronics to be installed and for a real life plant to be placed in. Maybe one day the magiteic levitation platform can be put in.

Model Adjustments:

From the first prototype, it was noticed that the electronics couldn't successfully fit within the model without being forced in. After ideating other areas to put the electronics, the best location would be in the box under the transparent stand. This can allow the design to incorporate an Arduino UNO R3 that can easily power all the parts over the Adafruit Featherwing.