Maya Okafor

Maya Okafor has been wiring microcontrollers since her first electronics class at 17. After a decade writing firmware for industrial sensor systems, she wanted a project that grew something.

Her first IoT farming build — an ESP32 monitoring soil moisture in a DWC lettuce setup — took a weekend to wire and cost $22 in parts. It sent a notification when the reservoir ran low. She wrote about it on a personal blog, and the post got more traffic than anything she'd ever published. That's when Kai reached out.

Maya contributes the technical deep-dives: ESP32 and Arduino firmware guides, MQTT broker configuration, sensor calibration, and open-source platform integrations (FarmBot OS, ThingsBoard, OpenAgToolkit). She writes for developers who want to understand the why behind the wiring, not just copy-paste code.

Based in Portland, OR. Currently monitoring a tomato plant, two herb trays, and one extremely well-instrumented jalapeño with a custom pH probe.