The garden station is a common location to hook up sensors and protect all the wiring. This one module is essentially a junction box for several different sensors as well as being a good location to mount the light sensor (or other things).

The garden station would be a great location for a solar panel and a Wi-Fi module. There is currently no support for this, but if anyone is interested in exploring these directions, see note on the About page on advanced options.


(see the parts page)

• a wood stake
• plastic soda bottle
• bolts and nuts
• junction box or other wire connectors

To start, you need to find a location in your garden for the garden station. This will be where you will setup the sensors, and run the communication link back to the brain. So you will want a location that is both convenient for you to be able to get to it, and has sort of average environmental conditions -- soil, light.

At this location, you will be sinking the wood stake into the ground and attaching stuff to it to make the station. The wood stake is just a good sturdy location for you to bolt / tie / otherwise secure the wires, circuits, and sensors that will let you and your GardenBot know what is going on in your garden.

You will also need to run wire from this garden station back to the brain module -- see the note on "Running wires to remote modules" on the how-to page.



To make the finished garden station you will need the wood stake, the plastic water bottle, a junction box or some wire connectors (see parts), and a couple of bolts and nuts. In a similar fashion to the brain module, a garden station will be specific to the application. So we have a diagram rather than photos.

As you can see in the diagram on the left, the steps are as follows.

Start by attaching the electronics to the wood stake. You can use a wire to tie it to the stake, or preferably you can use a bolt and nut to create a more permanant connection. The wires that hang down should be secured to the stake with twist-ties or similar. This will keep all the wiring clean and out of the way when you are working in the garden with shovels and other big unfriendly tools.

Next you will create the cover. To do this, cut the top off the plastic water bottle. The remaining bottom of the bottle will be inverted (turned upside down) and used as the cover for the station. To attach the cover to the wood stake, drill a hole and use a bolt and wing-nut assembly to make it easy to remove the cover for service.