This project aimed to create a controllable artificial lighting system for house plants using RBG LEDs.

I decided on making this because I have a succulent plant in my dorm that doesn't get much sunlight due to the orientation of my room. I decided to give the artificial lighting a try, as part of a mini-experiment to see if the lights will have an impact on plant growth.

The idea was to get 3 different sets of LEDs (blue, red, green) that can be controlled by 3 potentiometers, and connected to one 9V battery.

Breadboard Test

To test the practicality of this set up, it was initially tested on a breadboard. For viewing simplicity, I used three different breadboards to separate the LEDs. Each LED was connected to a 300 Ohm resistor.

KiCAD Schematics

After confirming that it works as expected, I designed what the PCB layout should be on KiCAD. I wanted to intersperse the colours together, and the result ended up making it a bit messier than expected, but still compact enough to be lightweight and easily mountable.

PCB Final Product

Below is the final result of the LED lighting system (after PCB printing and soldering processes):

Acknowledgements

This project was developed as part of the Summer 2025 RPI-HVCC Semiconductor Scholars Internship.