Chapter 1

Introduction

The automatic irrigation system on sensing soil moisture project is intended for the development
of an irrigation system that switches submersible pumps on or off by using relays to perform this
action on sensing the moisture content of the soil. The main advantage of using this irrigation
system is to reduce human interference and ensure proper irrigation.

The Microcontroller acts as a major block of the entire project, and a power supply block is used
for supplying power of 5V to the whole circuit with the help of a transformer, a bridge rectifier
circuit and a voltage regulator. The 8051 microcontroller is programmed in such a way that it
receives the input signal from the sensing material which consists of a comparator to know the
varying conditions of the moisture in the soil. The OP-AMP which is used as comparator acts as
an interface between the sensing material and the microcontroller for transferring the moisture
conditions of the soil, viz. wetness, dryness, etc.

Once the microcontroller gets the data from the sensing material – it compares the data as
programmed in a way, which generates output signals and activates the relays for operating the
submersible pump. The sensing arrangement is done with the help of two stiff metallic rods that
are inserted into the agricultural field at some distance. The required connections from these
metallic rods are interfaced to the control unit for controlling the operations of the pump according
to the soil moisture content.

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 Chapter 2
Literature Review

“Microcontroller-based automatic Irrigation System with Moisture Sensor”

Abhinav Rajpal et.al, International Conference of Science and Engineering, 2011

 This paper proposed a microcontroller based automatic irrigation system which is a

combination of hardware and software that provides irrigation control.

 The system should be easy to trouble shoot in the event of fault and it is also user friendly
because it requires only eight keys for all the operation.

“Microcontroller based Controlled Irrigation System for Plantation”

S R Kumbhar et.al, IMECS Vol II, 2013

 Proposed a microcontroller based controlled remote irrigation system developed for the
agricultural plantation, which is placed at the remote location and required water provides
for plantation when the humidity of the soil goes below the set-point value.

 If the set-point value is high, then the motor is turned ON, otherwise the motor is turned
OFF.

 This provides right amount of water at right time. The plants get water at the proper time
then it helps to increase the production from 25% to 30%.

 This system can be used to irrigate very large areas as it only needs to divide the whole
land into number of sectors and the single micro-controller can control the whole process.

 It possible to correct the various parameters through the controller programming

developed in assembly level language and necessary

change in the action can be implemented in the software on the spot.

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“Water Supply with Monitoring the Performance System”
N.B. Bhawarkar, D.P. Pande, R.S. Sonone, Mohd. Aaquib, P.A. Pandit, and P. D. Patil
(Department of Electronics & Tele-comm, Amravati University, PLITMS Buldana, India)

Vol. 4, 5 Oct 2014

 To provide an overview of some previous research and studies done in the direction of
applying pattern recognition techniques in the agricultural domain.
 A unique and proper combination of pre-processing, feature extraction, feature selection
and classification process is required for each domain or problem in order to optimize
accuracy, speed and reduce cost by minimizing feature set used for training and
classification.
 The theories behind pattern recognition are presented at the beginning and a review of
different techniques applied in grading, remote sensing, diseases detection etc. is provided
as part of the evolution.

“Automatic Irrigation System Using Microcontroller”

Suraj S. Gore, Shubham M. Shinde, Sanket D. Kundurkar, Rupesh C. Sarvade, SVERIAN

Scientific, 2014-2015

 The Microcontroller based automized drip irrigation system using wireless technique
proves to be a real-time feedback control system which monitors and controls all the
activities of drip irrigation system efficiently.
 The present proposal is a model to modernize the agriculture industries at a mass scale with
optimum expenditure. Using this system, one can save manpower, water to improve
production and ultimately profit.
 The developed irrigation automation system can be proposed to be used in several
commercial agricultural productions since it is obtained in low cost and in reliable
operation.

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  This application of sensor-based site- Specific irrigation has some advantages such as
preventing moisture stress of trees, diminishing of excessive water usage, ensuring of rapid
growing weeds and derogating salification. If different kinds of sensors (that is,
temperature, humidity, and etc.) are involved in such irrigation in future works, it can be
said that an internet based remote control of irrigation automation will be possible.
 The developed system can also transfer fertilizer and the other agricultural chemicals
(calcium, sodium, ammonium, zinc) to the field with adding new sensors and valves.

“Smart Irrigation System”

S.G. Manoj Guru, P. Naveen, R. Vinodh Raja, V. Srirenga Nachiyar

Students of ECE; Assistant Professor/ Ramco Institute of Technology, Rajapalayam
March 2017
 A simple approach to Irrigation control problem using Artificial Neural Network
Controller.
 The proposed system is compared with ON/OFF controller and it is shown that ON/OFF
Controller based System fails miserably because of its limitations.
 On the other hand, ANN based approach has resulted in possible implementation of better
and more efficient control.
 These controllers do not require a prior knowledge of system and have inherent ability to
adapt to the changing conditions unlike conventional methods.
 It is noteworthy that ANN based systems can save lot of resources (energy and water) and
can provide optimized results to all type of agriculture areas.

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 Chapter 3
Methodology

Different books, websites are used for collecting the data. The blogger on application of 8051
microcontroller analysis & design to analyse the topic on design of moisture controlled irrigation
system. The topic like data sheets of components are referred from IEEE journals & Wikipedia.
The book referred is 'The 8051 Microcontroller' by 'Ayala'. The website referred is circuitstoday.in;
the other data was referred by the Wikipedia for the basic fundamentals of elements. For more info
on 'Moisture Control Irrigation System' websites like microcontroller
projects.in, controller’s world, the theory of 8051 is referred. For further analysis on many other
journals and interactions are available.

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 Chapter 4
Block diagram

A fundamental block diagram of e-Gardner helps understand basic structure of 8051 micro
controller based moisture control irrigation system.

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 BLOCK DIAGRAM DESCRIPTION

4.1. Power Supply Unit: Power supply unit provides a 5V regulated supply to the micro controller
AT 8051 microcontroller, LCD display, Relay and Comparator. It also provides a 12V regulated
supply to the relays for dc motor pump.

4.2 Microcontroller at 89V51RD2:

Microcontroller section senses the status of the comparator module and switches the irrigation
motor appropriately. It also displays the status of the pump on the LCD screen. The power supply
unit and the motor driver unit are incorporated in this section.
Output pin of the comparator module (D0) is connected to P3.5 pin of the 8051 microcontrollers.
The microcontroller monitors the moisture level by polling the status of the P3.5 pin which is the
output of the comparator.
It processes the calculated digital values by converting it to ASCII & sends it to the LCD display
in order to display the data. Also depending upon the setting at the input, it controls the output.

4.3 Liquid Crystal Display:

A liquid crystal display or LCD draws its definition from its name itself. It is combination of two
states of matter, the solid and the liquid. LCD uses a liquid crystal to produce a visible image.
As the name suggests, it is used for displaying purpose. It displays the current date, time.

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4.4 YL 69 Moisture Sensors:

YL 69 moisture sensing probe is used to sense the moisture here. It is simply a fork-shaped PCB
with tracks running on both sides of the legs. Just plug this probe into the soil where you want to
sense the moisture. Image of the YL 69 sensing probe is given below.

The hygrometer is usually used to detect the humidity of the soil. So, it is perfect to build an
automatic watering system or to monitor the soil moisture of your plants.

4.5 Comparator:

YL 38 comparator module is used in this project. It is a single channel opamp comparator based
on L393 IC. This module just compares the output voltage of the sensing probe with a reference
voltage and switches its voltage appropriately for the microcontroller to read. Circuit diagram of
the YL 38 comparator module is shown below.

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The output voltage of the sensing probe is connected to the inverting input of the opamp. When
the moisture level is high more current passes through the sensing probe and so the voltage at the
inverting pin will be higher than the reference. The reference can be set using the trim pot R2. At
this condition output of the opamp goes low and sinks the LED D1 to make it glow. When the
moisture is lower than the set point, the opposite happens. So, in simple words, a LOW output of
the opamp indicates a high moisture and a HIGH output of the opamp indicates a low moisture.
The output of the opamp is marked as pin D0 on the sensor YL 38 module. This pin is connected
to the microcontroller for further processing. LED D2 is just a power ON indicator. Capacitors
C1 and C2 are noise filters.

4.6 Relay: It is used to control the flow of water in the garden just like any simple valve and is
driven by a relay driver.

4.7 Motor Pump: Motor pump is an electromechanical device, which consist of rotating
conductors and magnetic field to transform electrical energy into mechanical torque. Whereas
pump considered as hydraulic machine which raise pressure of fluid.

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 Chapter 5
Circuit Diagram and Working

5.1 WORKING

The system simply senses the moisture level and switches on the irrigation pump when the
moisture is below the set limit. The system switches off the pump when the moisture rises above
the set point. The moisture level threshold can be set using a trim pot on the system. The status
of the pump (whether ON or OFF) is displayed on a 16×2 LCD display.

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5.2 ANALYSIS

The VWC of sand soil, red soil and black soils were calculated. The raw data collected from the
soil moisture sensor was recorded as shown in table. The soil was measured in equal amount of
250 grams. Water was added in the soils in steps and the sensor values recorded.

Sensor values

The data obtained from the sensor reading and recorded in table 3.1 was used to plot a graph of
Soil water content against sensor reading.

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The two SMS probes. The obtained graph is an exponential one. The value of the soil resistance
decreases with increase in water content to a certain point. To come up with the results the three
soils were dried using a frying pan until all the moisture content was lost. 250 grams was measured
for the red soil, black soil and the sand soil. Water was added in steps of 25cm3 and sensor value
recorded. The value of soil sensor at dry soil was almost equal for the three soils at 1021, 1022,
1020 for black soil, sand soil and red soil respectively. On adding 50cm3 the resistance value
reduced drastically to the range of 500. On adding more water, the resistance value kept reducing.
At around 100cm3 of water the reduction on the soil resistance stated reducing at a much lower
rate. This is because at this point the soil is now becoming saturated with water and thus adding
more water has a small effect on the soil resistance. The sensor was calibrated and three states
defined. The states are soggy, moist and dry. When the dry state was achieved the control unit
(micro controller) switched the water pump on via a relay circuit. The three states were indicated
using three different LEDs and an LCD. The LCD also indicated when the pump was running. The
control circuit and the sensor circuit were powered using a 9V alkaline battery which was
connected via a voltage regulator with an output of 5V.

5.3 YL 38 Comparator
This is one the circuit schematic diagram of application of Op-Amp IC for comparator section.
One of Op-Amp application is for comparing voltage input like using L393 IC.
In this time, we will give you global description about this YL 38 Comparator Module using
L393 IC circuit schematic beside we give you circuit schematic diagram and component parts
used in this circuit.

5.4 Component Parts

1. Capacitor
2. Resistor
3. Variable resistor
4. LM393 IC
5. LEDs

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5.4 Description

This is circuit schematic diagram of YL 38 Comparator Module using L393 IC that can help you
to build comparator using L393 IC for many applications. The main component in this circuit is
L393IC.

According Circuits today site that also published this circuit describe that Output voltage of the
sensing probe is connected to the inverting input of the opamp. When the moisture level is high
more current passes through the sensing probe and so the voltage at the inverting pin will be higher
than the reference. The reference can be set using the trim pot R2. At this condition output of the
opamp goes low and sinks the LED D1 to make it glow. When the moisture is lower than the set
point, the opposite happens. So, in simple words, a LOW output of the opamp indicates high
moisture and a HIGH output of the opamp indicates a low moisture. Output of the opamp is marked
as pin D0 on the sensor YL 38 module. This pin is connected to the microcontroller for further
processing. LED D2 is just a power ON indicator. Capacitors C1 and C2 are noise filters.

5.5 A Power Relay with Various Models

• High-sensitivity (250 mW) and High-capacity (16 A) versions.

• Designed for cooking and HVAC
controls: blower motor, damper,
active air purification, duct flow
boost fans, etc.
• Conforms to VDE (EN61810-1). UL recognized/ CSA certified
• Meets EN60335-1 requirements for household products.
• Clearance and creepage distance: 10 mm/10 mm.
• Tracking resistance: CTI>250
• Coil Insulation system: Class F.
• RoHS Compliant

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 Chapter 6
Conclusion & Future Scope

 A system to monitor moisture levels in the soil was designed. The system was used to
switch on/off the watering system/pump according to set soil moisture levels. The control
unit the prototype was implemented using an 8051 microcontroller while the sensing bit
was implemented using a YL-69. LEDs and an LCD were used to implement the display
of the three soil states i.e. soggy soil, moist soil and the dry soil states. To switch between
the control and the irrigation systems a relay switching circuit was used.
 During the implementation, number of conclusions has been considered based on the
practical results obtained from the implemented systems and the following are the most
important ones: The system designed is cost effective when compared with other
approaches to build such systems. The purpose of designing of Automatic Plant Irrigation
System is successfully achieved and fulfils the desired objectives.
 The hardware and software used performed their function properly to produce desired
result which is the required for the farmers in the irrigation field. Interfacing of run time
switches with microcontroller makes it flexible in respect of time settings for running a
water pipe line.
 Using this system, farmers will get the protection while doing the irrigation work in
extremely odd weather conditions, hard work of repeated assembly and will get rid of
poisonous reptiles. The system, which is designed, will help the farmers to do the irrigation
process in night also. The system designed do not requires the physical presence of the
farmers during irrigation in the fields. The system is automatically monitored and controls
the pump on and off.

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 The working of project is basically dependent on the output of the working of project is
basically dependent on the output of the humidity sensors.
 Whenever there is need of excess water the humidity sensors. Whenever there is need of
excess water in the desired field (RICE crops) then it will not be possible by in the desired
field (RICE crops) then it will not be possible by using sensor technology.
 The GSM module can have added in this project.
 This project can also use as real-time irrigation system using RTD.
 For this we will have to adopt the using sensor technology. For this we will have to adopt
the DTMF technology.
 By using this we will be able to irrigate the DTMF technology. By using this we will be
able to irrigate the desired field & in desired amount. Desired field & in desired amount.

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 Chapter 7
Recommendations
To improve on the effectiveness and efficiency of the system the following recommendations can
be put into considerations:
 Cost effective techniques to overcome the limitation of requiring a soil specific calibration
should be employed.

 Integrating GSM technology can be used, such that whenever the water pump switches
ON/OFF, an SMS is sent to the concerned person regarding the status of the pump.

 The pump should also be controlled via SMS.

 The system can be integrated with temperature and humidity sensors to monitor the weather
conditions in the farm.

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