PlantPal/soilReporterNode/README.md

PlantPal

Because knowing when to water your plants is hard

Reporter node's features

Captive Portal Configuration:

• Uses WiFiManager to allow a user to configure the Wi‑Fi credentials, API server URL, and scanning delay via a captive portal.
• A configuration mode is triggered automatically if no valid configuration is available or by user intervention via a dedicated button.

BLE Scanning:

• Scans for BLE devices advertising a specific service UUID.
• Collects all sensor BLE addresses over a fixed scan period.

Sequential Sensor Processing:

• Processes each discovered sensor one-by-one.
• For each sensor, the node:

1. Connects to the sensor via its BLE address.
2. Reads the sensor value from a characteristic.
3. Disconnects from the sensor.

API Reporting:

• Constructs a JSON payload with the sensor’s BLE address as the device identifier, along with the measured moisture value.
• The payload is formatted according to a flattened model (including fields such as "deviceId", "moistureLevel", and a nested "device" object with "deviceId" and "nickname").
• Sends the payload via an HTTP POST request to your configured API endpoint.

Configurable Scan Delay:

• Uses a user-configurable delay (default 30 seconds) between scan cycles so that after processing sensors, the node waits before scanning again.

Robust Error Handling & State Management:

• Employs a simple state machine to manage scanning, connecting, and waiting phases.
• Includes duplicate filtering so the same sensor isn’t processed multiple times in one cycle.
• Provides conditional debug logging to aid in troubleshooting and can be disabled for production builds.

Watchdog Integration:

• Uses built-in ESP32 Wachdog methods to ensure continued device operation.