Show HN: Oasis – an open-source, 3D-printed smart terrarium
63 jbuch 9 6/24/2025, 2:03:41 PM github.com ↗
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)
- electronics: designed in KiCad
- 3D models: designed in CadQuery
- software: written in 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
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.
> 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.
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)
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.