[HN Gopher] Show HN: Oasis - an open-source, 3D-printed smart te...
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Show HN: Oasis - an open-source, 3D-printed smart terrarium
See the website for a demo video: https://oasis-terrarium.com This
project is an enclosure for growing plants. Features include:
- high-power LED lighting - a built-in water tank and mister
- fans for airflow - temperature and humidity sensing -
wi-fi connectivity and a web-based interface for control and
monitoring (see https://oasis-terrarium.com/docs/usage_guide/#web-
interface) The entire project is open-source:
- electronics: designed in KiCad - 3D models: designed in
CadQuery - software: written in Rust I initially
started this project during COVID and built a working prototype
using a Raspberry Pi and off-the-shelf parts. The first prototype
worked, but was pretty rough. Several months ago, I picked up the
project again and began a complete re-design. After two rounds of
circuit board design and countless iterations of the 3D-printed
parts, I'm finally happy with the results. Along the way I learned
a lot about electronics design and fabrication, 3D modeling, and
Rust. Happy to answer any questions - thanks for checking it out!
Here are some direct links to parts of the project you may find
interesting: - demo video: https://oasis-
terrarium.com - detailed build guide with pictures:
https://oasis-terrarium.com/docs/build_guide/ - interactive
3D model: https://oasis-terrarium.com/docs/3dmodel/ -
detailed info on electronics design: https://oasis-
terrarium.com/docs/electronics/ - 3D-printable models:
https://www.printables.com/model/1315117-oasis-smart-terrarium
Author : jbuch
Score : 93 points
Date : 2025-06-24 14:03 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| ravdar wrote:
| what's the total cost of building this? and how long would it
| take?
| jbuch wrote:
| Total cost is roughly $110 USD, but there are a couple caveats
| to that price: - some parts are sold in
| multiples, so you'll have to buy several even if you only need
| one for the build - I ordered the electronics from JLCPCB
| where the minimum order quantity is 5 (minimum assembled is 2).
| At a quantity of 5 assembled, the LED board is ~$12/board and
| the mainboard is ~$41/board. If you're comfortable with SMD
| soldering, you can order bare PCBs and parts and do it for much
| cheaper by assembling only one of each board. You can find some
| more details here: https://oasis-
| terrarium.com/docs/electronics/#how-to-get-them. And a history
| of my JLCPCB orders including costs here: https://oasis-
| terrarium.com/docs/electronics/#pcb-order-history
|
| With those caveats in mind, the rough breakdown is:
| - custom electronics: $53 - 3D-printed parts (~600g of
| PETG): $12 - other parts: $46
|
| As for build time: - acquiring/assembling
| electronics: this can vary a lot depending on whether you buy
| assembled or do it yourself - 3D-printing: depending on
| your printer, maybe 2 solid days of printing -
| waterproofing 3D-printed parts: takes ~15 minutes to do and
| 24hrs for the epoxy to cure - final assembly: 30-60
| minutes
| craghack wrote:
| Well built and a great write up!
|
| Addressing some of the comments/concerns in your documentation:
|
| * To protect the ultrasonic mister from bad firmware frying it,
| you could probably replace R6 with a sufficiently sized capacitor
| to make an effective DC block
|
| * I've also had issues with a thermal sensor just reading board
| temp, best solution is to make the sensor a separate board. Short
| of that, one can mill slots around it and reduce copper pour to
| reduce thermal conductivety from the PCB.
| jbuch wrote:
| Thanks!
|
| > To protect the ultrasonic mister from bad firmware frying it,
| you could probably replace R6 with a sufficiently sized
| capacitor to make an effective DC block
|
| That is an excellent idea - I'll definitely keep that in mind
| for a future version.
|
| > I've also had issues with a thermal sensor just reading board
| temp, best solution is to make the sensor a separate board.
| Short of that, one can mill slots around it and reduce copper
| pour to reduce thermal conductivety from the PCB.
|
| I ended up just moving the sensor offboard and as far away from
| the heat source as I reasonably could. I did consider the
| milled slots + reduced pour option, but given the amount of
| heat generated by the LEDs, it seemed best to move the sensor
| further away.
| craghack wrote:
| Most of my time designing hardware is spent trying to find
| ways to prevent the doofus writing the firmware from
| releasing the magic smoke. I am that doofus
| iancmceachern wrote:
| This is awesome! So much better than that MiT openAg thing.
| dwroberts wrote:
| This is a really cool project thank you for sharing.
|
| I'm prototyping my own similar kind of thing right now - an
| enclosure for growing culinary mushrooms - so seeing how you've
| used and attached the humidifier discs is really useful
| inspiration.
|
| On humidification - have you considered decontamination for the
| water? I think bacteria and scum build up is an issue, and I've
| seen heavy duty equipment incorporate e.g. a submerged UVC light
| for trying to keep it clean. I wonder whether it's possible to do
| similar on a small scale by using a UVC LED (obviously need to be
| careful with safety though)
| jbuch wrote:
| Thanks!
|
| Sounds like a fun project, best of luck! Would love to see what
| you come up with. One word of warning with the misting: using
| them in an "upside down" configuration as I'm doing can be a
| bit finicky. I've encountered some that slowly drip due to the
| pressure of the water above them. Look for misting discs with
| small hole sizes (<=4uM) and expect that some percent of them
| won't work well. However, the ones that do drip at the start
| typically stop after a day or two of use and are fine from
| there on out.
|
| I have not really considered decontamination and I don't think
| it's much of an issue for terrariums because the plants and
| soil in the enclosure already contain a lot of bacteria, etc. I
| could see it being much more important for your use case with
| mushrooms where a small number of mold spores can ruin an
| entire mushroom grow.
| bethekidyouwant wrote:
| I like it, but it is not mostly 3-D printed.
| yreg wrote:
| It would be nice to see the default dimensions of this thing on
| the landing page.
| jbuch wrote:
| Thanks, just added that.
| deadbabe wrote:
| I don't think LEDs work. Don't you need full spectrum lighting
| for a terrarium?
| jbuch wrote:
| Full spectrum would be more optimal, but the 5700k "daylight"
| LEDs I'm using still work very well. They're probably lacking a
| bit on the red end of the spectrum compared to a full-spectrum
| light, but otherwise they cover the photosynthetic range pretty
| well. See page 19 of the datasheet for the LED spectrum:
| https://downloads.cree-led.com/files/ds/x/XLamp-XTE.pdf. And
| here for some decent general info:
| https://www.neherpetoculture.com/vivariumlighting101.
|
| Anecdotally, I've successfully grown a range of plants in these
| including mosses, ferns, and orchids.
| ge96 wrote:
| I use these ultra bright led lights from LOWES the daylight
| ones have been able to grow random stuff like
| Apples/Mangoes/Pomegranates/Bell Peppers/etc... not as good as
| being outside but it does work 12 hrs on/off
| Aurornis wrote:
| This is very cool. You've done a great job with the instructions.
| I understand why you didn't write much about the best plants, but
| for those of us who are new to terrariums could you share a link
| about where I could learn about terrarium-appropriate plants and
| where to acquire them?
| jbuch wrote:
| Thanks!
|
| I'd recommend @SerpaDesign on YouTube as a great source of info
| on terrariums - he's got quite a few videos that cover this,
| but here's one to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lg4tz
| kHgVo&t=1s&ab_channel=....
|
| The main thing to keep in mind is that terrariums are high-
| humidity environments, so plants like mosses, ferns, and
| orchids will do well. Plants that prefer a dryer climate like
| succulents and cacti will not do well.
|
| Another consideration is lighting - some plants want more, some
| want less. This terrarium is capable of fairly high light
| output, but can also be set to any level you want. However,
| you'll want to select plants that want a similar amount of
| light so they can co-exist with the same light settings.
| mandsgoo wrote:
| Ive always wanted to do something like this. Nice!
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(page generated 2025-06-24 23:01 UTC)