Hacked solar garden light with moisture sensor

posted by sacah on project, hack,

I had 4 garden solar lights laying around as every time I mow I pull them out and never bother sticking them back in the ground.
I wanted something that would notify me when my plants needed watering, when making the moisture sensors I thought I could just hook them up to the LDR on the solar lights and everything would be sweet, but when I cracked open the lights the clever Chinese hadn’t used an LDR, they had just directly used the solar panel, if power was coming in turn lights off, power stops, turn lights on.
This was just as easy to tap into though, and in no time I had my moisture sensor rigged up and working, now I just need to see if it works in RL.