An IoT-based Smart Garden with Weather Station

System
1Norakmar binti Arbain @ Sulaiman, 2Muhamad Dan Darrawi bin Sadli
Faculty of Electrical Engineering (Computer Engineering)
Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM)
40450 Shah Alam, Selangor
1niezmar@gmail.com
2dandarrawi@gmail.com

Abstract— Internet of Things (IoT) consists of devices

that connect to the internet and communicate with each II. RELATED WORK
other. It enables these devices to collect and exchange data
with a consumer. This paper presents an IoT-based Smart A. Smart Garden
Garden with Weather Station system, which can be used to An innovative devices namely as IoT based Smart
monitor the growth of plant every day and predict the Garden is useful for the gardener, and mainly used for
probability for raining. Why this IoT-based device is been monitoring and providing a necessary useful resources that
created? Many people are interested in growing the plants
can make the growth of the plant faster. Basically, the
are always forget on watering the plants. Hence, in this
devices of the smart garden need to have an automatic
study, the device is equipped with a water pump, where it
can be monitored and controlled by using a smartphone. In
function and being installed with several sensors for
addition, the devices also consist of four main sensors, which monitoring process. Table 1 shows comparison of related
are Barometric Pressure, DHT11 Temperature, and Smart Garden project, which are Smart Watering System
Humidity Sensor, Soil Moisture Sensor and Light intensity for Gardens using Wireless Sensor Networks [1],
module sensor. The Soil and Light Intensity sensor used to Automated Plant Watering System [2] and IoT-based
measure the value by percentages. Besides, two actuators, Green House System with Splunk Data Analysis [3].
which are the water pump and LED light can be used TABLE1: Comparison of Smart Garden Project.
remotely or by using a button on the devices. The LED is
purposely to replicate the sunlight and make the plant grow
faster. This IoT-based Smart Garden with Weather Station
System can record the data and send the result to user
through the smartphone application named as Blynk apps.
This research is beneficial, and the system can be easily
managed by all users such as researcher or farmer, and
children.

Keywords— Smart Garden; Weather Station; Arduino

Uno; Blynk Apps; NodeMCU

I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, people tend to stay connected with internet
while doing everyday jobs such as laundry, watching
television and others. There are plenty of beneficial
technologies have been evolve in agriculture industries
where, some of IoT devices can automatically spray the
plant, pick a good vegetable based on its colour and daily
monitoring on the plants growth. Hence, this research
project will focus on producing an IoT based device that
can monitor and give online feedback to the user about
their plant’s growing progress. The devices are capable to
monitor the plants and retain some data for future research.
The proposed IoT device also will be implemented
with a weather station sensor, where it can monitor and
predict the pouring rain every day. Hence, the user can
switch off the automatic watering for reducing the water
usage. The weather station sensor can determine the dew
point, humidity of the air, air pressure and light index. It
will beneficial the user, who are interested in researching
about their plant growth. The collected data can also be
shared through online mobile applications.
B. Weather Station
Weather Station is a device that can help the gardener
to determine the humidity and temperature of the air. It
also helpful in predicting the probability of the rain that
might occur by using the humidity and temperature sensor
and measure the current air values. The weather station can
be supportive in determining the current weather and
predict the future weather. A good weather prediction
analysis may help in reducing the water usage by turning
off the automatic water pump. Table II shows three
projects that are related to the project of Smart Garden
with Weather Station, which are Efficient Design of a Low
Cost Portable Weather Station [4], Development of a Low
Cost Weather Station using Free Hardware and Software
[5] and Design of a Remote Weather Factors Monitoring
System [6].

978-1-5386-8546-4/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE 38

 TABLE II: Comparison between Weather Station Projects.
C. Sensor
Many types of sensors for air humidity and
temperature monitoring can be exploited in IoT based
devices. In this project, a specific model named DHT 11
will be applied to measure the humidity and temperature
on air surrounding at the research devices. By referring
this project [7], it used DHT22 for the automatic plant
monitoring and controlling system over GSM. The
DHT22 main function of this project is to keep tracking
the temperature and it states that the rate of plant growth
is depended upon the temperature of the plant. On this
project, it used to keep track the temperature and humidity
of the plant.
Besides, a BMP280 namely as Sensor Barometric
Pressure is used to measure the barometric pressure which
means measuring the weight in the air and temperature.
By referring [8], this project applied BMP280 for
researching the hardware and software architecture of
multi mems sensor inertial module by creating the
devices. The function of BMP280 in this project is to
measure the atmospheric pressure.
TABLE III: Comparison between the project and the sensor it uses.
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In addition, light intensity sensor or light sensor is a
device that can measure the intensity of the brightness of
the light. LDR is connecting with the PIR Sensor to make
smart lighting system, which is turn on the lighting system
when there is a dark place and then with the movement
from human, it will turn on [9]. Next, the soil Moisture
sensor is a sensor that can measure the volumetric of the
water inside of the soil. In project [10], it installed the soil
moisture sensor to get the information about the volume
of the water inside of the soil and compare the value with
threshold values. Then, if the comparison has less than the
threshold value, the motor will be turned on and alert the
farmer about the volume of water are low and need to
replenish the water Table III shows the comparison of
different sensors used in related project previously.
III. METHODOLOGY
At this section, all components of an IoT based Smart
Garden with Weather Station are shown on Fig. 1.
Fig.1. Image of block diagram for IoT Smart Garden
with Weather Station.
A. Microcontroller
1) NodeMCU will be used to collect data from the sensors
and send the data through the apps called as Blynk. 2)
Arduino UNO will be used to display the information
through the LCD Screen.
B. Actuator
1) LED Light used for artificial light energy where the
plant can do photosynthesis process. 2) water pump used to
make sure that the plant is not critically dry.
C. Sensor
Most important components of this project are the sensors.
1) Soil Moisturizing Sensor that used for detecting the
moisture of the soil. 2) Light Intensity Sensor for detecting
the brightness. 3) Barometric Pressure Sensor (BMP280)
to detect the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure
and altitude. 4) DHT11 for temperature and humidity.
D. Blynk Apps
Blynk Apps is a platform for creating an app for the
Internet of Things (IoT). This application can be used to
control Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and the components
through the internet. It has its own graphical interface and
easy to use. The concept of this application is by drop and
drags the widgets.
 IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
This section has been divided into three phases. Phase
1 is a functional testing on all components in the hardware
design. Phase 2 is an integration testing for all hardware
components of the device. At Phase 3, system testing is
carried out and collected data from the devices can be
access through the mobile apps.
A. Phase 1: Sensor check with Data Analysis
Phase 1 is where the all hardware components will be
tested and some analysis is done based on the result from
the components. There are four tests applied to the
hardware design.
1) DHT11 Sensor module test
DHT11 is the sensor that can be used to measure the
temperature and humidity around the sensor. User can
measure and collects data of the plant and choose the
suitable action to make sure the plant can survive in a
certain temperature value. Although some plants can
tolerate the low temperature that can go beyond 0 degree
Celsius. For humidity, all plants have similar humidity and
the most suitable humidity for a plant in percentages is
around 40 to 70 percent. If the humidity is lower than 40,
the plant will be dry and required to increase the amount of
water on the soil. However, if the humidity is more than 80
percent, the plant cannot hold anymore the water inside of
the plant and begin to condense or form a dew on the plant
surfaces. Table IV shows the result of data collection from
a different environment and the data has been compared
with the online forecast. Thid data has been collected at
Kebun Baharu, Kuala Langat as the main site for this
project. The table shows the temperature for Indoor and
Outdoor of data collected by using the sensor module.
TABLE IV: Data collection from a different environment.
This table purposely used to compare the data
collections from the sensor module with the online
forecast. The online forecast will be a reference point as
the data that been collected from it is almost perfect. If the
sensor can collect the data that are almost similar with an
online forecast, then it can be assumed that the sensor of
the device is working correctly, and these projects can
proceed to the next phase. Based on this testing, it can be
conclude that the sensor data will fluctuate on direct
sunlight. It is not logical to think that the temperature is
raising constantly and going above 38 degree Celsius as
that kind of temperature can make the human suffering
from dehydration. That is why, to avoid from getting this
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kind of result, the housing with airflows is necessary.
Fig. 2 shows the sample test data during sunny at Noon.
Fig. 2. Sample of a test during Sunny at Noon.
2) Light Module Sensor and Light sources test
The light module sensor (LDR) is a sensor that can
measure the intensity of light. The greater the intensity of
light, the resistance value will be lower for LDR. The
sensor has potentiometer which can be adjusted depends
on the creator on the value that is suitable for detecting the
minimum intensity of the light, so it can trigger the
artificial light sources. Speaking about artificial light
sources, the author from website Instructables.com [11]
states that, "Plants look green, therefore they reflect green
light, so it probably isn't used in photosynthesis or any of
the other interesting things plants do. So hopefully by
using red and blue lights (the colors either side of the
spectrum from green), we should be able to keep plants
happy and use less energy because we're not producing
green light which would just get reflected." The website
provides an open forum where anyone can discuss
anything that related to the topic.
From the same website [11], another person gave its
opinion about it and he stated that every LED needs to be
at least 1watt. Anything below than 1 watt will be useless
for the plant. The minimum requirement for a plant to get
a benefit from artificial light is by using 10mm LED with
1 watt per LED to supply enough light to the plant. The
good combination for a plant is by using the 1-watt LED
with red high brightness around 75% of the total LED, 1-
watt LED with blue brightness around 20% of the total
LED and lastly, 5% of total LED of the amber high
brightness LED.
For this project, the artificial light that will be using is
an amber color LED with 9 Watt of energy. It enough to
cover nine LED with 1 Watt each. However, for this
project, it will be using the amber light that mimics the
sun ray color, which uses 9 watts of energy with 12V
power sources. By referring to the Table V, it shows the
data collected from various type environment and its light
intensity.
TABLE V: Data collection from various type of environment.
 This data can help to find the suitable value of light
intensity that can trigger the lamp to automatically open 4) Barometric Pressure Module Sensor
when the presence of light disappears. Fig. 3 shows the Barometric Pressure Module Sensor is an important
sample of data collection during the testing period. component for creating a weather station system. The
main function of the barometric pressure module sensor is
to calculate the atmospheric pressure. The unit for
atmospheric pressure is in hPa. This sensor can detect the
altitude from the sea level. For the distances, the unit for
measurement is in the meter.
Lastly, this barometric pressure can detect the
Fig. 3. Sample of data during the test. Light Intensity = 22.
temperature surrounding. For this project, BMP280 will
3) Soil Moisturize Module Sensor and Water Pump be used as it is the most stable version. To test the
temperature, it needs to be compared with DHT11 as the
Soil moisturize module sensor is one of the sensors testing will be conducted at the room temperature. Table
that will be used on these devices as tools to measure VI shows the barometric pressure value with the types of
moisture in the soil. The basic unit of this sensor is in environment. Fig. 6 shows the sample of barometric
percentages. Some sensor needs to do the reverse reading pressure result during testing. Fig. 7 shows the image of
value as the value become higher as the soil become a sample of barometric pressure on an online forecast.
moisture. During this testing, the minimum dryness of the
soil is 30%. That mean, when the moisture on the soil has TABLE VI: Barometric Pressure and Environment.
gone down to the 30%, then it will activate the trigger,
Environment Value (MB) Online Database
which will make the actuator to turn on. The actuator in (MB)
this test is a water pump. When the water pump is turned Cloudy Day 1011 1009
on, it needs to be a delay for 10 seconds, before the Light Rain 1010 1009
program to loop back. This step is necessary as the sensor Rainy 1010 1008
required some time before it can adjust to the new Night 1014 1012
moisture in the soil. By referring to the Fig.4, it shows
how fast the moisture will decrease over time.

Fig. 6. Barometric Pressure sample during a cloudy day.

Fig. 4. Moisture, Humidity and Temperature vs Time.

However, from the same graph, the data of

temperature and humidity surrounding also will be placed
inside of graph as to show how this data related to the
decreasing of moisture. Based on this test, even though
the value is smaller, but the humidity will be decreased
when the moisture decreases. But, during the Noon, the Fig. 7. Online Forecast, Barometric Pressure value during a night.
humidity has been increased slightly. Fig. 5 shows the
sample of the test for soil moisture.
B. Phase 2: Integration testing of Smart Garden with
Weather Station without Online Apps.
For phase 2, all the equipment will be integrated but
not yet connected to the internet. Figure 8 shows the
prototype of the IoT based Smart Garden with Weather
Fig. 5. Sample of the test for Soil Moisture in percentage. Station devices.

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 from the battery, which is the main power supply for
Arduino.
Next process is to predict the weather, when the
barometric pressure has been the drop, that is mean the
probability for raining is high. If barometric pressure
recorded the value more than suitable environment data, it
means that the weather will be hot. The normal
atmospheric pressure at the test area is around 1013.
Therefore, to predict if there will be rain or not, the value
of barometric pressure needs to be equal to 1010 and
below and stay the same about 1 hour. Then, it can
assume the probability for rain is higher. To declare if the
weather will be cloudy, the proper value is around
1011mb to 1012mb. More than 1013mb it will be sunny.

Fig. 8. Smart Garden and Weather Station Prototype.

For testing the plant growth with the LED light, those
12 hours period has been used to place the LED higher
than plant growth. The LED light distance with the plant
is around 15cm and it can cover the whole vase. Table VII
shows the result of this trial period.

TABLE VII: Result after devices turn on for 12 Hours

Condition Initial Value After 12 Hours
Voltage 6.64V 4.5V
(Measurement at
Power Supply)
Environment 29 C 31 C
Temperature
LED Temperature 30 C 40 C Fig. 9: The devices with LED Lights turn on.
Soil Moisture 100% 35%
Light Intensity 73% 73% C. Phase 3: IoT based Smart Garden with Weather
(LED Light) Station.
Barometric 1013mb 1011mb
Pressure At this phase, the connection between devices and
mobile apps is implemented using NodeMCU. It similar
From the experiment, it shows that the leaf of the plant with the Arduino microcontroller, however, NodeMCU
become wither. The reason for this is that the LED is too has ESP8266 on its board, which is a Wi-Fi Module. This
near with the plant, so the raising temperature around microprocessor will be used as a device to connect
LED make the plant cannot absorb heat very well. between the mobile apps and the sensor. Hence, all
Therefore, to make sure the plant can absorb well the heat collected data from the sensor can be sent to the mobile
from the LED, the distance with the plant need to be apps namely as Blynk Apps. This application can be
increase as well. downloaded and used in both Android and IOS
smartphones.
In [12], it stated the color of LED has a big impact on
plant growth that the amber light color has redder In this project, an android smartphone will be used.
spectrum than the blue spectrum. Red spectrum will The collected data of Soil Moisture Sensor, Temperature
provide heat, while the blue spectrum will provide a light Sensor, Humidity Sensor, and Light Intensity Sensor
that needed for the plant growth. For amber light color, it produce the same result as the devices. However, the
has too much red spectrum, and it will not make the plant problem came on the barometric pressure. The value on
growth. the devices is far different from an Internet of Things
Data. Although the differences are more than three, in
Figure 9 shows the devices with LED light sources for barometric pressure it has a very high impact on the
a plant. The voltage value is been collect by using a weather. The data on pressure sensor at IoT devices still
multimeter. When the voltage drops to the 4V and below, stick with 1015 MB, which means that the weather will be
the probability for the Arduino to operate is very low as always Hot Weather. It cannot predict the weather. The
the minimum voltage to operate the Arduino is 5V. only reason that can be made from this testing phase is
Although this device still can operate when the voltage that the NodeMCU cannot handle the pin SDA and SCL
has been dropping below 5V. The voltage value records pin, which is the core for a barometric pressure sensor.
NodeMCU datasheet for pin SDA and SCL never had on

42
the board, that is why, to create the SDA and SCL pin, the
NodeMCU need to use Wire.Begin() to create a virtual pin
for SDA and SCL pin for NodeMCU.
Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 shows the result from
Barometric Pressure on Blynk apps. The actuator on the
devices can be controlled by using the apps, if the devices
and the phone has been connecting to the internet.
Fig. 10. Barometric Pressure Reading with a graph in Blynk Apps
Fig. 11. All the sensor data reading in Blynk Apps.
V. CONCLUSION
In the nutshell, this paper presented an Internet of
Things (IoT) based Smart Garden with Weather Station
system. The main objective of this research project is to
invent an IoT-based system that can record data and send
the real time result to user through the smartphone
application named as Blynk apps. This research is
43
beneficial, and the system can be easily managed by all
users such as researcher or farmer, and children. These
devices contain many sensors such as barometric pressure,
temperature sensor, light sensor, and soil moisturizer
sensor. Other than that, these devices contain water pump
for adjusting the soil moisture, fans for controlling the
temperature and LED light for controlling the
photosynthesis process during the night. There are two
types of main processing unit on these devices, which is
Arduino UNO and NodeMCU. The Arduino UNO will be
used as the controller of the devices, while NodeMCU
will be the controller of the phone devices so that it can
control the devices from far away by using Wi-Fi. All the
result shows in this paper provide enough data for creating
an actual IoT Devices.
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