A

Minor Project Report

on

Moisture-Sensing Watering System

Submitted for the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Department of Electrical Engineering

M.B.M. University, Jodhpur
2022 - 23

Guided By: SUBMITTED BY:

Ms. Santosh Kumari Meena SARANSH SHARMA

(Assistant Professor) SHIVAM SINGH
VIPIN BARJATYA
VISHAL MALAV
YASH MEEL
 M.B.M. University
Department of Electrical Engineering

CERTIFICATE
This is to declare project report, entitled “Moisture-Sensing Watering System”, being
submitted for the partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of B.E. (Electrical
Engineering) from the Department of Electrical Engineering M.B.M. University, Jodhpur, is a
record of the project work carried out by us under the supervision of Ms. Santosh Kumari Meena
(Assistant Professor). To the best of our knowledge, this project report has not been submitted
earlier for the award of any degree / diploma by us or any other students.
Saransh Sharma 21UELE6027
Shivam Singh 21UELE6028
Vipin Barjatya 21UELE6029
Vishal Malav 21UELE6030
Yash Meel 21UELE6032

This is to clarify that these students have put in the necessary effort to understand and learn the
topic under my supervision.

Counter signed by
Ms. Santosh Kumari Meena
Dr. Akhil Ranjan Garg (Assistant Professor &
Guide)
(Professor & Head)
Department of Electrical Engineering
MBM University, Jodhpur
 II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We wish to express our deep sense of gratitude to our guide Ms. Santosh Kumari Meena
(Assistant Professor), whose critical analysis from time to time have led us to develop this
project report and able guidance gave the direction of study and was eager enough to quench our
thirst of answering to the smallest of the queries.

We are highly obliged towards all the lectures of department of Electrical Engineering for their
invaluable guidance, consistent helps & support throughout our project period.

We are also grateful to Dr. Akhil Ranjan Garg, Professor & Head, Department of Electrical
Engineering, M.B.M. University, Jodhpur for his kind cooperation and encouragement which
helped in completion of project.

Last but not the least: we would like to thank all those who helped us in completing the work.
 III
ABSTRACT

The prominent target of this project is to propose an intelligent and smart irrigation system that
would be used to control the watering and irrigation of plants. Human intervention reduction is
the main purpose of this project. Water wastage would be reduced which is one of the major
concerns in today’s world. Other aspects like cost, time conservation, effectiveness and low
maintenance are also aided.

With the advancement of automation technology, life is getting simpler and easier in all aspects.
In today’s world Automatic systems are being preferred over manual system. Automatic system
is a growing system of everyday object from industrial machine to consumer goods that can
complete tasks while person is busy with other activities.

Today, the farmers are suffering from the lack of rains and scarcity of water. The main objective
is to provide an automatic irrigation system thereby saving time, money & power of the farmer.
The traditional farmland irrigation techniques require manual intervention. With the automated
technology of irrigation the human intervention can be minimized. Whenever there is a change in
temperature and humidity of the surroundings these sensors sense the change in temperature and
humidity and gives an interrupt signal to the micro-controller. The project is designed to develop
an automatic irrigation system which switches the pump motor ON/OFF on sensing the moisture
content of the soil. In the field of agriculture, use of proper method of irrigation is important.
The advantage of using this method is to reduce human intervention and still ensure proper
irrigation. The project uses Arduino UNO controller which is programmed to receive the input
signal of varying moisture condition of the soil through the sensing arrangement. This is
achieved by using an op-amp as comparator which acts as interface between the sensing
arrangement and the controller. Once the controller receives this signal, it generates an output
that drives a relay for operating the water pump.
 IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Page No. 01

CHAPTER 2: COMPONENTS USED Page No. 03

CHAPTER 3: WORKING OF THE PROJECT Page No. 16

CHAPTER 4: CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF THE PROJECT Page No. 17

CHAPTER 5: PROJECT CODE Page No. 18

CHAPTER 5: SERIAL MONITOR READINGS Page No. 19

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION Page No. 20

CHAPTER 7: REFERENCES Page No. 21

LIST OF FIGURES

S. No. Title Page No.

1. Arduino Board 4

2. Components of Arduino 4

3. Pins’ Configuration of Arduino 6

4. Moisture Sensor 7

5. Comparator 9

6. Moisture Sensor with Comparator 10

7. Relay Module 11

8. Pin configuration of the Relay 12

9. Water Pump 13

10. Male to male wires 15

11. Female to female wires 15

12. Male to female wires 15

13. Circuit diagram of MOISTURE- 17

SENSING WATERING PROJECT

14. Soil moisture of a plant on 12/1/2319

before adding water

15.
16.
 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

India being the largest freshwater user in the world, and the country’s total water use being
greater than any other continent, the agricultural sector is the biggest user of water, followed by
the domestic sector and the industrial sector. This project presents smart irrigation system for an
agricultural farm with the use of devices like. Focus area will be parameters such as temperature
and soil moisture. The system may prove to be a substitute to traditional farming method and
adapting to an optimized irrigation is necessary nowadays due to the lack of world water
resource. The system has a distributed wireless network of temperature and soil moisture sensor.
The objectives of this project were to control the water supply to each plant automatically
depending on values of temperature and soil moisture sensors.
The commands from the user are processed at raspberry pi using python programming language.
Internet or wifi module is interfaced with the system to provide data inspection. Agriculture is
the spine of world’s economy as well as the economy of a developing country like India. In this
very moment of twenty-first century, the technology and its advancement has become so fluent
in every sector of life that it is our duty to take it forward through the infrastructure for
development of agriculture as well. Agriculture also contributes a significant role to gross
domestic product (GDP). And as it is known; irrigation becomes the paramount part in
agriculture. In existing system a farmer has to work physically to control the irrigation system
and traditional instrumentation based on discrete and wired solutions presents difficulties in large
geographical areas such as our country. As well as it goes against the development of long-term
agricultural production and sustainable utilization of water resources. Conventional irrigation
system leads to wastage of time and wastage of water. Whereas, automation helps reducing
consumption of electricity, decreases the wastage of water, uses less manpower, and helps in
energy saving. The increase in urbanization and rapid industrialization causes a large cavity in
agricultural activities.
 01
Agriculture is the spine of world’s economy as well as the economy of a developing country like
India. In this very moment of twenty-first century, the technology has become so fluent in every
sector of life that it is duty to take it forward through the infrastructure for development of x
agriculture as well.
Agriculture also contributes a significant role to gross domestic product (GDP). And as it is
known, irrigation becomes the paramount part in agriculture. In existing system, a farmer has to
work physically to control the irrigation system and traditional instrumentation based on discrete
and wired solutions presents difficulties in large geographical areas such as our country. As well
as it goes against the development of long-term agricultural production and sustainable
utilization of water resources. Conventional irrigation system leads to wastage of time and
wastage of water. Whereas, automation helps reducing consumption of electricity, decreases the
wastage of water, uses less manpower, and helps in energy saving.
The increase in urbanization and rapid industrialization causes a large cavity in agricultural
activities. So it can be concluded that, a matter of serious concern and to overcome this major
problem, there have been a lot of works to automate the agricultural sector or to make irrigation
smart, like uses of wireless networks, uses of RF module and using Arduino to process the
conventional irrigation into an automated smart one. India is the largest freshwater user in the
world, and the country’s total water use is greater than any other continent.
The agricultural sector is the biggest user of water, followed by the domestic sector and the
industrial sector. The system may prove to be a substitute to traditional farming method. And
adopting an optimized irrigation is a necessity nowadays due to the lack of world water resource.
The system has a distributed wireless network of temperature and soil moisture sensor. The
objectives of this paper were to control the water supply to each plant automatically depending
on values of temperature and soil moisture sensors.
 02

CHAPTER-2

COMPONENTS USED

For the completion of this project, we need these following components-

1. Arduino UNO
2. Moisture Sensor with Comparator
3. 5-volt Relay Module
4. Jumper Wires
5. Power Source

2.1 Arduino UNO

The Arduino UNO is a standard board of Arduino. Here UNO means 'one' in Italian. It was
named as UNO to label the first release of Arduino Software. It was also the first USB board
released by Arduino. It is considered as the powerful board used in various projects. Arduino.cc
developed the Arduino UNO board.
Arduino UNO is based on an ATmega328P microcontroller. It is easy to use compared to other
boards, such as the Arduino Mega board, etc. The board consists of digital and analog
Input/Output pins (I/O), shields, and other circuits.
The Arduino UNO includes 6 analog pin inputs, 14 digital pins, a USB connector, a power jack,
and an ICSP (In-Circuit Serial Programming) header. It is programmed based on IDE, which
stands for Integrated Development Environment. It can run on both online and offline platforms.
 03
The Arduino board is shown below:

Fig. 1 – Arduino Board

The components of Arduino UNO board are shown below:

Fig. 2- Components of Arduino

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2.1.1 Components of Arduino Board-

Let's discuss each component in detail.

o ATmega328 Microcontroller- It is a single chip Microcontroller of the ATmel family.

The processor code inside it is of 8-bit. It combines Memory (SRAM, EEPROM, and
Flash), Analog to Digital Converter, SPI serial ports, I/O lines, registers, timer, external
and internal interrupts, and oscillator.
o ICSP pin - The In-Circuit Serial Programming pin allows the user to program using the
firmware of the Arduino board.
o Power LED Indicator- The ON status of LED shows the power is activated. When the
power is OFF, the LED will not light up.
o Digital I/O pins- The digital pins have the value HIGH or LOW. The pins numbered
from D0 to D13 are digital pins.
o TX and RX LED's- The successful flow of data is represented by the lighting of these
LED's.
o AREF- The Analog Reference (AREF) pin is used to feed a reference voltage to the
Arduino UNO board from the external power supply.
o Reset button- It is used to add a Reset button to the connection.
o USB- It allows the board to connect to the computer. It is essential for the programming
of the Arduino UNO board.
o Crystal Oscillator- The Crystal oscillator has a frequency of 16MHz, which makes the
Arduino UNO a powerful board.
o Voltage Regulator- The voltage regulator converts the input voltage to 5V.
o GND- Ground pins. The ground pin acts as a pin with zero voltage.
o Vin- It is the input voltage.
o Analog Pins- The pins numbered from A0 to A5 are analog pins. The function of Analog
pins is to read the analog sensor used in the connection. It can also act as GPIO (General
Purpose Input Output) pins.
 05

Fig. 3- Pins’ Configuration of Arduino

2.1.2 Technical Specifications :

The technical specifications of the Arduino UNO are listed below:

o There are 20 Input/Output pins present on the Arduino UNO board. These 20 pis include
6 PWM pins, 6 analog pins, and 8 digital I/O pins.

o The PWM pins are Pulse Width Modulation capable pins.

o The crystal oscillator present in Arduino UNO comes with a frequency of 16MHz.

o It also has a Arduino integrated Wi-Fi module. Such Arduino UNO board is based on the
Integrated Wi-Fi ESP8266 Module and ATmega328P microcontroller.

o The input voltage of the UNO board varies from 7V to 20V.

o Arduino UNO automatically draws power from the external power supply. It can also
draw power from the USB.
 06

2.2 Soil Moisture Detection Sensor with Comparator

Soil water content has important effects on many fundamental biophysical processes. It
influences seed germination, plant growth and nutrition, microbial degradation of soil organic
matter, conversion of nutrients in the root zone, and water transfer at the land-air interface.
Quantification of soil water content is necessary for a variety of applications ranging from large-
scale calibration of global climate models to field monitoring in agricultural and horticultural
systems. When we need to measure water content in the soil, the soil moisture sensor comes to
mind.
A soil moisture sensor is a type of sensor used to measure the volumetric water content of the
soil. Because, a direct gravimetric amount of soil moisture must be removed, dried and weighed.
These sensors do not directly measure volumetric water content using other soil laws such as
permittivity, electrical resistivity, interaction with neutrons, and water content displacement

Fig. 4- Moisture Sensor

 07
The relationship between calculated properties and soil moisture needs to be adjusted and can
change with ecological factors such as temperature, soil type and other conductivity. Reflected
microwave radiation can be affected by soil moisture and is mainly used in remote sensing in
agriculture and hydrology.
The main advantage of using soil moisture sensors to plan irrigation is more efficient water
usage, thus reducing water consumption while allowing plant roots to grow deeper and avoiding
over-watering or over-watering. Nutrient leaching is avoided. Avoiding overwatering also
eliminates favorable conditions for some pests and fungal diseases. These statements are
especially true for trees affected by citrus blight. This is because reduced root size and function
can exacerbate the effects of drought.

2.2.1 Working Principle and Specifications

This sensor primarily uses capacitance to measure soil moisture content (permittivity). The
functionality of this sensor can be performed by inserting this sensor into the soil and reporting
the moisture content status of the soil in percentage. This sensor is ideal for conducting
experiments in science courses such as environmental science, agriculture, biology, soil science,
botany and horticulture.

This soil moisture sensor is integrated with the LM393 comparator chip, this is an integrated
circuit (IC), a dual differential comparator, consisting of two integrated operational amplifiers.
They are commonly used in devices that measure analog signals and act as Analog-to-digital
converters (ADC) also each comparator accepts two inputs for comparison. A comparator
compares these two input voltages, measures which input voltage is greater, and provides an
output.
 08

Fig. 5- Comparator

This module has a built-in potentiometer to set the sensitivity of the digital output (DO). You can
set the threshold with a potentiometer. So when the moisture level exceeds the threshold, the
module will output LOW, otherwise, it will output HIGH. This setting is very useful for
triggering actions when certain thresholds are reached. For example, when the soil moisture level
exceeds a threshold, a relay can be activated to start pumping water.

Features:

· It is integrated with the LM393 comparator module chip.

· Dual output module, analog and digital
· The soil moisture sensor has to fix bolt holes for easy mounting.
· There are two LED indicators, red (power indicator) and green (output indicator).
· Soil moisture sensors are the most sensitive to the environment and typically use soil
moisture content
 09
Specification:

Sensor Type Soil Moisture sensor

Operating voltage 3.3 V - 5V

Current flow < 20 Am

Type of Interface Analog Type

Working temperature of the sensor 10 – 30degree Celcius

PCB Dimension of comparator 3 cm x 1.5 cm

Soil Probe Dimension 6 cm x 3 cm

Cable length 20 cm

Weight 50 gm

Fig. 6- Moisture sensor connected with Comparator

 10

Pin Configuration :

Sensor Probe

+ Voltage Supply

- -ve pin

LM393 Comparator

VCC Power supply

Gnd Common GND

A0 Analog pin

D0 Digital pin

2.3 5V 1 Channel Relay Module:

Relay is an electromechanical device that uses an electric current to open or close the contacts of
a switch. The single-channel relay module is much more than just a plain relay, it comprises of
components that make switching and connection easier and act as indicators to show if the
module is powered and if the relay is active or not.

Fig. 7- Relay Module

 11
The Single Channel Relay Module is a convenient board which can be used to control high
voltage, high current load such as motor, solenoid valves, lamps and AC load. It is designed to
interface with microcontroller such as Arduino, PIC and etc. The relays terminal (COM, NO and
NC) is being brought out with screw terminal. It also comes with a LED to indicate the status of
relay.

Fig. 8- Pin configuration of the Relay

Single-Channel Relay Module Pin Description:

Pin Number Pin Name Description

1 Relay Trigger Input to activate the relay

2 Ground 0V reference

3 VCC Supply input for powering the relay coil

4 Normally Open Normally open terminal of the relay

5 Common Common terminal of the relay

6 Normally Closed Normally closed contact of the relay

 12

Single-Channel Relay Module Specifications:

· Supply voltage – 3.75V to 6V

· Quiescent current: 2mA
· Current when the relay is active: ~70mA
· Relay maximum contact voltage – 250VAC or 30VDC
· Relay maximum current – 10A

2.4 9 V DC Water Pump:

This is a low cost, small size Submersible Pump Motor which can be operated from a 3 ~ 9V
power supply. It can take up to 120 litres per hour with very low current consumption of 220mA.
Just connect tube pipe to the motor outlet, submerge it in water and power it. Make sure that the
water level is always higher than the motor. Dry run may damage the motor due to heating and it
will also produce noise.

Fig. 9- Water Pump

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Specifications :

Operating Voltage 3 ~ 9V

Operating Current 130 ~ 220mA

Flow Rate 80 ~ 120 L/H

Maximum Lift 40 ~ 110 mm

Continuous Working Life 500 hours

Driving Mode : DC

Magnetic Driving Material Engineering Plastic Outlet

Outside Diameter 7.5 mm Outlet

Inside Diameter : 5 mm

Features:
1. When diving the water pump into the water, the water level is higher than the pump. The low
level of the water will cause the temperature too high, so the noise of the pump will be large.
2. Land use need to allow water to flow into the pump (non self-priming pump), the installation
of water level higher than the pump.
3. To keep the water clean, so as not to block the pump rotor. the pump should be cleaned
regularly to keep the pump clean.
 14

2.5 Jumper Wires:

The difference between each is in the endpoint of the wire. Male ends have a pin protruding and
can plug into things, while female ends do not but are also used for plugging.
Moreover, a male connector is referred to as a plug and has a solid pin for center conduction.
Meanwhile, a female connector is referred to as a jack and has a center conductor with a hole in
it to accept the male pin.
Male-to-male jumper wires are the most common and what you will likely use most often. For
instance, when connecting two ports on a breadboard, a male-to-male wire is what you will need.

1. Male to Male-

Fig. 10- Male to male wires

2. Female to Female-

Fig. 11- Female to female wires

3. Male to Female-

Fig. 12- Male to female wires

15
 CHAPTER-3

PROJECT WORK

3.1 Circuit Diagram

Fig. 13 - Circuit Diagram of

MOISTURE-SENSING WATERING PROJECT
 16

3.2 Project Implementation

The idea of the project is to implement an automatic irrigation system by sensing the moisture of
the soil. The working of the circuit is as follows.
The soil moisture sensor is inserted in the soil. Depending on the quality of the sensor, it must be
inserted near the roots of the plant. The soil moisture sensor measures the conductivity of the
soil.
Wet soil will be more conductive than dry soil. The soil moisture sensor module has a
comparator in it.
The voltage from the prongs and the predefined voltage are compared and the output of the
comparator is high only when the soil condition is dry.
This output from the soil moisture sensor is given to the analogue input pin of the Arduino UNO
controller. The controller continuously monitors the analogue input pin.
When the moisture in the soil is above the threshold, the controller displays a message
mentioning the same and the motor is off.
When the output from the soil moisture sensor is high i.e., the moisture of the soil is less. This
will trigger the controller and the output of the microcontroller, which is connected to the base of
the transistor, is high.
When the transistor is turned on, the relay coil gets energized and turns on the motor.
When the moisture of the soil reaches the threshold value, the output of the soil moisture sensor
is low and the motor is turned off.
The system is also designed to warn when the moisture is very high than the threshold and the
soil is too wet, which is dangerous for the plant.
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3.3 PROJECT CODE

int sensor pin = A0;
int output value;

void setup ()
{
pinMode(4, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("Reading from the Sensor ...");
delay (2000);
}

void loop ()
{
output_value= analogRead(sensor_pin);
output_value = map(output_value,550,10,0,100);
Serial.print("Moisture: ");
Serial.print(output_value);
Serial.println("%");

if(output_value>70)
{
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
}
else
{
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
}
delay (1000);
}
 18
CHAPTER-5

SERIAL MONITOR READINGS

Fig. 14- Soil moisture of a plant on 12/1/23 before

adding water
 19

CHAPTER-5

CONCLUSION

The Project ‘Smart Irrigation System’ is used for the optimization use of water in
agricultural field without the intervention of farmer by using soil moisture Sensor that senses the
moisture content of the Soil using Microcontroller that turn ON/OFF the pump
automatically according t the need of water for irrigation and hence helpful in saving water. This
system is quite affordable and feasible. This system of irrigation is also helpful in the region
where there is scarcity of water and improves their sustainability. And can also be
adjusted according to the need of varieties of crop to be irrigated.

FUTURE SCOPE

Using this system as framework, the system can be expanded to include various other options
which could include mobile application control of motor and wifi controlled monitoring. These
will expand the working capability and efficiency of this prototype.
It can be implemented not in agriculture but in gardens in any places using the sprinkler concept.
The concept in future can also be enhanced by adopting DTMF technology. This project is
basically dependent on the output of the sensing arrangement. Whenever there is need of excess
water in the desired field then it will not be possible by using sensing arrangement technology.
 20

REFERENCES
 Improved Water Supply Forecasts Using Soil Moisture Data / Bellingham, B. K.,
Lea, J. / Fourth International Symposium on Soil Water Measurements Using
Capacitance, Impedance and Time Domain, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

 Measurement of Soil Water Content with a 50-MHz Soil Dielectric

Sensor / Siegfried, M. S. and M. D. Murdock. 2004 / Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J.

 Review of research progress on soil moisture sensor technology, Limin Yu, Wanlin Gao,
Redmond R. Shamshir, Sha Tao, Yinzhou Ren, Yanjun Zhang, Guillain Su

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino_Uno

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_moisture_sensor

 D. Gupta, “Capacitive v/s resistive soil moisture sensor,” 2018. [Online]. Available:
https://www.hackster.io/devashish-gupta/ capacitive-v-s-resistive-soil-moisture-sensor-
e241f2

 SoilScout, “Soil moisture sensor.” [Online]. Available: https://soilscout.com/

solution/wireless-soil-moisture-sensor

 https://youtu.be/lp2S_7ygabo

 https://youtu.be/Ta4eHHiX4-s

 https://dronebotworkshop.com/soil-moisture/

 https://youtu.be/pgGpuws7f9o?t=3141

 Soil Moisture Sensor working principle and applications

 https://www.nandantechnicals.com/2021/03/soil-moisture-sensor-working-principle.html
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