ANAVI Gardening uHAT is a low-cost, open source Raspberry Pi add-on board that helps you develop smart solutions for monitoring and growing plants.

ANAVI Gardening uHAT supports multiple sensors for soil moisture, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and light. Getting started is easy: just plug it into a Raspberry Pi with your bare hands and follow the instructions in the user manual. No soldering is necessary, and no tools are required.

Features & Specifications

• Slots for up to two capacitive soil moisture sensors
• Slot for a waterproof temperature sensor
• Slots for up to two plug-and-play I²C sensors
• UART pins for serial communication
• GPIO pins for controlling irrigation systems and peripherals
• Green and red indication LEDs
• Microchip MCP3002 analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
• Follows uHAT mechanical specification with a valid ID EEPROM
• Excellent software support, documentation, and open source examples

Extensive Compatibility

ANAVI Gardening uHAT works with any Raspberry Pi single board computer (SBC) with a 40-pin header, including Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi Zero W.

In addition, ANAVI Gardening uHAT officially supports the following sensor modules with capacitive soil-moisture sensors:

• DS18B20 waterproof temperature sensor
• HTU21D sensor for temperature and humidity
• BH1750 sensor for light
• BMP180 sensor for barometric pressure

You can attach any other I²C device or sensor, but you will have to take care of their software integration.

What’s New?

ANAVI Gardening uHAT combines open hardware with free and open source software. The printed circuit board was designed with the free and open source tool KiCad. The first prototype was created in 2017, but it relied on resistive soil-moisture sensors, which were vulnerable to corrosion. After that, the project was put on hold for several years.

In 2021 we revived the project using Microchip’s MCP3002 analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and low-cost capacitive soil-moisture sensors made of corrosion-resistant materials.

Kit Configurations

ANAVI Gardening uHAT is available in three do-it-yourself kits.

Starter Kit

Advanced Kit

Developer Kit

Proudly Open Source

As with all ANAVI projects, ANAVI Gardening uHAT combines open source hardware with free and open source software:

• KiCad board schematics
• Documentation
• Software

Simple, Affordable, and Easy to Use

There are literally hundreds of automated-gardening solutions on the market. Unlike the rest, ANAVI Gardening uHAT is simple, affordable, easy to use, and extremely powerful in the hands of a skilled maker. And if you’re new to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem, don’t worry. Not only is this project entirely open source, it is designed to help newcomers to the Raspberry Pi ecosystem get started easily, thanks to its thorough documentation and helpful sample code.

Stretch Goals

Our crowdfunding campaign has a very modest goal of just $1, but if we raise:

• $1,000, we will add some awesome KiCad and Anavi Technology stickers
• $2,000, we will make video tutorials for all supported sensors

Manufacturing Plan

Over the years, we have delivered many open source hardware products. In the process, we have established a reliable supply chain that ensures consistently high quality. We work with trusted local factories in the EU. The printed circuit board of ANAVI Gardening uHAT has a green solder mask and a gold surface finish. Following the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) specifications, the EEPROM on each board will be carefully flashed. All features will be manually tested, and each kit will be packaged in a recyclable cardboard box.

Fulfillment & Logistics

All ANAVI Gardening uHAT kits will be shipped to our backers using Crowd Supply’s fulfillment services. Once manufacturing is complete, we’ll make a bulk shipment to Crowd Supply, and, from there, the packages will be shipped out to our individual backers. For more details, please have a look at this guide to ordering, paying, and shipping.

Risks & Challenges

After several hardware revisions, ANAVI Gardening uHAT is a stable open source product. We have already manufactured the first batch to ensure that everything works correctly, and we are now ready to make more!

Our previous crowdfunding campaigns have given us lots of experience delivering projects on time, and even ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, due to the global chip shortage and the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, we are facing some new challenges this time. To reduce the associated risks, we have already sourced some critical components and manufactured the first batch of boards. As we learn more, we will notify backers promptly through our regular campaign updates. In the unlikely event that we are entirely unable to deliver, we will of course offer backers a full refund.