Every 10 s
Live soil moisture
A big percentage from the probe, and a plant that droops when it is thirsty.
- ESP32
- MQTT
- Installable web app
- Auto works offline
Water your balcony from anywhere
An ESP32 reads the soil and decides. You give the go-ahead from your phone, wherever you are. No account needed.
Installable web app · Auto works offline · No account
Press Water now on the middle phone
9:41
Shikor
OnlineDry
32%
Soil moisture
Last watered 3 h ago
Features
What it does, in short
Just enough for a garden to look after itself.
Water now
Pick 5, 10 or 20 seconds, or your own. Stop any time.
Auto watering
Off: it asks you first. On: it just waters, handy when you travel.
Safety limits
A max run time, a 6 h quiet period and a hard stop for manual mode.
Works offline
If the router goes down, auto mode keeps watering by itself.
Status lights
Green is fine, red is dry, blinking red is a sensor fault. On the device.
How it works
Read, decide, ask, water
Four steps, every 5 seconds.
- 1
Read
The ESP32 reads the soil every 5 seconds.
- 2
Decide
Five checks: sensor sane, soil dry, 6 hours passed, allowed.
- 3
Ask
It sends “Water now?” to your phone. In auto mode it just goes.
- 4
Water
The pump runs until 60 % or 20 s, then rests for 6 hours.
Privacy & honesty
No accounts, one thing to know
Your data stays on your phone. Commands travel through a public MQTT broker, and that broker has no password.
Your phone
web app
Public broker
broker.hivemq.com
ESP32
on your balcony
Accounts, ads, analyticsnone
No accounts, no analytics
Nothing to sign up for and nothing tracking you.
History stays on your phone
The moisture trend and watering log live in the browser. Clear site data to erase them.
The public broker has no password
Anyone who guesses your topic could run the pump. Make it long and random.
Source on GitHub
Read the app and the ESP32 firmware to see exactly what it does.
Open
Get Shikor
It is a web app: open it, then add it to your home screen.
Web app
Any phone or browser. Add it to your home screen.
Open the appAndroid
A Capacitor Android build is planned.
Coming soonBuilding the device yourself? See the build guide.
FAQ
Questions, answered
Do my phone and the ESP32 need the same Wi-Fi?
No. Both connect to the same online broker, so your phone can be anywhere.
What if my router goes down?
Auto mode keeps watering on its own. The ESP32 retries Wi-Fi every 30 s and the broker every 5 s, never while the pump is on.
Can someone else control my pump?
Only if they know your topic base. The public broker has no password, so make the topic long and random.
Does it work on iPhone?
Yes, as a web app: Share → Add to Home Screen. A Capacitor Android APK is planned.
Which Wi-Fi does the ESP32 need?
2.4 GHz only. It can’t join 5 GHz networks.
What can’t it do yet?
Push notifications when the app is closed, history kept on the device, and an empty-tank sensor. The anatomy page lists every limit.