Introduction

Soil moisture sensors measure the volumetric water content in soil. Since the direct gravimetric
measurement of free soil moisture requires removing, drying, and weighting of a sample, soil
moisture sensors measure the volumetric water content indirectly by using some other
property of the soil, such as electrical resistance, dielectric constant, or interaction with
neutrons, as a proxy for the moisture content. The relation between the measured property
and soil moisture must be calibrated and may vary depending on environmental factors such as
soil type, temperature, or electric conductivity.

Components

 Soil moisture sensor

 IC LM358
 Resistor 10k, 1k.
 7805 voltage regulator
 LED
 buzzer

Circuit diagram

Working

You can see the connections in the circuit diagram. Voltage divider is connected in inverting
end of LM358 (PIN 2). And non-inverting end (PIN 3) is connected to the soil moisture
sensor.
 When we turn ON the circuit if there no moisture present in the soil then the Output of the
comparator is LOW. When moisture is detected it wills high (which is connected to the non-
inverting end of comparator) gets higher than the voltage at inverting end, then the output
becomes HIGH and LED turns ON. Voltage at inverting end, which is also called Threshold
Voltage, can be set by replacing resistors. Higher the voltage at inverting end (-), less
sensitive the sensor and Lower the voltage at inverting end (-), more sensitive the sensor.

LM358

LM358 is an operational amplifier (Op-Amp) and in this circuit we are using it as a voltage
comparator. The LM358 has two independent voltage comparators inside it, which can be
powered by single PIN, so we can use the single IC to build two IR sensor modules. We have
used only one comparator here, which have inputs at PIN 2 & 3 and output at PIN 1. Voltage
comparator has two inputs; one is inverting input and second is non-inverting input (PIN 2 and
3 in LM358). When voltage at non-inverting input (+) is higher than the voltage at inverting
input (-), then the output of comparator (PIN 1) is high. And if the voltage of inverting input (-)
is Higher than non-inverting end (+), then output is LOW.

 Application
It is used by farmers, gardeners etc.