TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE ............................................................................................ 2

1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 3

1.1 Arduino Uno ................................................................................................................ 3

1.2 Automatic Plant Watering System .............................................................................. 4

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................. 5

3.0 OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................. 5

4.0 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................... 6

4.1 ELECTRICAL COMPONENT AND DESCRIPTION .............................................. 6

4.1.1 Water Sensor ........................................................................................................ 6

4.1.2 Moisture Sensor ................................................................................................... 6

4.1.3 Motor/Water Pump .............................................................................................. 7

4.1.4 Water Hose........................................................................................................... 7

4.1.5 Plastic Vase .......................................................................................................... 7

4.1.6 Arduino Uno ........................................................................................................ 8

4.1.7 Jumper Wires ....................................................................................................... 8

4.1.8 Light-Emitting Diode (LED) ............................................................................... 8

4.1.9 Resistor ................................................................................................................ 9

4.2 COMPONENT COST ............................................................................................... 10

5.0 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM .................................................................................................. 11

6.0 PROGRAMMING FLOWCHART .............................................................................. 12

7.0 CODING ....................................................................................................................... 14

8.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................................... 15

9.0 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 19

10.0 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 20

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLE

Figure 1: Arduino Uno with ATmega328P ............................................................................... 3

Figure 2: Soil Moisture Sensor .................................................................................................. 4
Figure 3: Water Sensor .............................................................................................................. 4
Figure 4: Water Sensor with details ........................................................................................... 6
Figure 5: Moisture Sensor with details ...................................................................................... 6
Figure 6: Motor/Water Pump with details ................................................................................. 7
Figure 7: Water hose .................................................................................................................. 7
Figure 8: Plastic vase ................................................................................................................. 7
Figure 9: Arduino Uno ............................................................................................................... 8
Figure 10: Jumper wires............................................................................................................. 8
Figure 11: Light-Emitting Diode (LED) .................................................................................... 8
Figure 12: Resistor ..................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 13: Circuit Diagram ...................................................................................................... 11

Table 1: Component cost and total price ................................................................................. 10

Table 2: Textural class and water holding capacity of soil ...................................................... 17

2
 1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Arduino Uno

Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328P. It has 14 digital

input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analogue inputs, a 16 MHz
quartz crystal, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header and a reset button. It
contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer
with a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started.

Figure 1: Arduino Uno with ATmega328P

It functioned to segmenting code into functions allows a programmer to create modular

pieces of code that perform a defined task and then return to the area of code from which
the function was "called". The typical case for creating a function is when one needs to
perform the same action multiple times in a program. Standardizing code fragments into
functions has several advantages:
 Functions help the programmer stay organized. Often this helps to conceptualize the
program.
 Functions codify one action in one place so that the function only has to be thought
out and debugged once.
 This also reduces chances for errors in modification, if the code needs to be changed.
 Functions make the whole sketch smaller and more compact because sections of code
are reused many times.

3
  They make it easier to reuse code in other programs by making it more modular, and
as a nice side effect, using functions also often makes the code more readable.
There are two required functions in an Arduino sketch, setup () and loop (). Other functions
must be created outside the brackets of those two functions. As an example, we will create
a simple function to multiply two numbers.

1.2 Automatic Plant Watering System

Nowadays, most people are too lazy to water the potted plants on their rooftop gardens
every day. Explained in this section is a simple and exciting automatic plant watering
system that you can be built in just a few hours by using a few electrical components. It is
an Arduino based automatic plant watering system that uses a soil moisture sensor and
water sensor.
Soil moisture sensor act to detect any water through the soil. If the sensor did not detect
any water and moisture in the soil, the water pump will function and flow the water to the
plant until the sensor detect the water to stop the pump. While the water sensor play the
role at the water tank or reservoir by determining whether the water tank is filled or empty.

Figure 2: Soil Moisture Sensor Figure 3: Water Sensor

4
2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

 Farmers do not have enough time to check the moisture level of the soil.
 Many cases occurred where water supply to the water to the plant exceeds the
moisture level needed.
 Plants wilt when farmer went away.
 Huge area of plantation.
 High cost of workers.

3.0 OBJECTIVES

 To acquire basic knowledge on Arduino.

 To connect the components and wires properly.
 To create a system that is well-functioned by involving Arduino controller.

5
4.0 METHODOLOGY

4.1 ELECTRICAL COMPONENT AND DESCRIPTION

4.1.1 Water Sensor

 A water sensor is a device used in the detection of the water level for various
applications. Water sensors are of several types that include ultrasonic sensors,
pressure transducers, bubblers, and float sensors.

Figure 4: Water Sensor with details

4.1.2 Moisture Sensor

 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.

Figure 5: Moisture Sensor with details

6
4.1.3 Motor/Water Pump
 The water pumps are commonly used to increase water pressure for residential or
commercial purposes. They are used to transport water and increase the pressure by
the energy used by them. They can be used for several purposes ranging from small
to large-scale.

Figure 6: Motor/Water Pump with details

4.1.4 Water Hose

 A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to
another. Hoses are also sometimes called pipes, or more generally tubing. The shape
of a hose is usually cylindrical.

Figure 7: Water hose

4.1.5 Plastic Vase

 Vases are often used to hold cut flowers. Vases come in different sizes to support
whatever flower is holding or keeping in place.

Figure 8: Plastic vase

7
4.1.6 Arduino Uno
 It is a set of microcontroller device that segmenting code into functions allows a
programmer to create modular pieces of code that perform a defined task and then
return to the area of code from which the function was "called". The typical case for
creating a function is when one needs to perform the same action multiple times in
a program.

Figure 9: Arduino Uno

4.1.7 Jumper Wires

 Jumper wires are simply wires that have connector pins at each end, allowing them
to be used to connect two points to each other without soldering. Jumper wires are
typically used with breadboards and other prototyping tools in order to make it easy
to change a circuit as needed.

Figure 10: Jumper wires

4.1.8 Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

 A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source that emits light when
current flows through it. In this project, we use LEDs to alert when the sensors are
functioned.

Figure 11: Light-Emitting Diode (LED)

8
4.1.9 Resistor
 The main function of resistors in a circuit is to control the flow of current to other
components.

Figure 12: Resistor

9
 4.2 COMPONENT COST

Component Price per unit Unit Total price

Arduino UNO set RM55.00 1 RM55.00
Photoresistor RM1.50 1 RM1.50
Water sensor RM11.00 1 RM11.00
Soil humidity sensor RM15.00 1 RM15.00
Water pump(6V) RM15.00 1 RM15.00
Relay Rm15.00 1 Rm15.00
Total RM112.50

Table 1: Component cost and total price

10
5.0 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Figure 13: Circuit Diagram

11
6.0 PROGRAMMING FLOWCHART

Start

Check soil
moisture level

If soil
No have Yes
sufficient
moisture
level

TURN OFF TURN ON

water pump water pump

Green Red LED

LED turns on
turns on

Check water
level in tank

12
 A

If water Yes
No
level in
tank is
‘zero’

LED LED
turns off turns on

End

13
7.0 CODING

14
8.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Figure 14: Front view of final product Figure 15: Side view of final product

Figure 16: Top view of final product

Studies have shown that a properly configured soil moisture sensor can reduce outdoor water
usage by up to 62% or more over traditional irrigation methods. By watering the plants when
needed, landscape health can be increased, deeper root growth is promoted, and make the plants
more disease-resistant.

Good soil moisture sensor should have these criteria:

1. Sensitivity is the sensor’s ability to monitor small changes in soil moisture content. It
is very important in light soil such as sand or engineered soils.
2. Repeatability refers to how well the sensor can report the same value when measuring
the same moisture content. Repeatability cannot be reached without sensitivity. This
number is often reported to be the same as sensitivity.

15
 3. Accuracy is sometimes used to describe sensitivity and repeatability. Not only that, it
can also describe the sensor’s ability to report true volumetric moisture content (VMC).
However, not all sensors report in VMC.
4. Durability or reliability is arguably the most important factor in a commercially used
soil moisture sensor.

Challenges for efficiency of soil moisture sensor:

In order to monitor water used, user need to understand how the level of soil moisture
content correlate with the availability of water in the soil. Having a familiarity with these levels
will help to understand how soil holds water. This information will also help to set the
thresholds for watering with a soil moisture sensor.
At the saturation level, nearly all of the spaces between soil particles are filled with
water. After soil has reached its saturation level, it does not become more saturated even
though, in some situations it can become flooded where water is trapped. However, at the
saturation level, gravity pulls water downward through the soil more rapidly. A professional
irrigator might saturate the surface layer of the soil in order to move water deeper into the soil
and soften the effects of poor distribution uniformity.
Soil is made up of mineral particles weathered out of rock. These particles are identified
by the relative proportion of their sizes which consists of sand, silt, and clay. The mineral
particles are held together by organic matter. In sandy soil, the individual sand particles are
larger than those in clay soil. The sand particles fit together in a way that creates large pores.
However, there are fewer of them in a specified volume of soil and the amount of total pore
space is low because the particles are large. For these reasons, water moves through the large
pores between the sand particles relatively quickly. Water adheres to the sand particles, but
because there are relatively few of them, the amount of water retained in the sandy soil is low.
For clay soil, the pores between the particles are smaller but there are a large number
of pores because the soil particles are also small. Due to the greater numbers, the pores in clay
soil can hold more water than the pores in sandy soil. As there are more soil particles present
in clay soil, the amount of water adhering to those particles is greater than in a sandy soil.
However, due to the small size of the pores and the large number of small soil particles, the
clay soil holds the water more tightly than sand, and consequently, the plant has to work harder
to extract the water from the clay soil.

16
 In order to irrigate properly, you need to understand the capacity of plant available
water in your soil.

Table 2: Textural class and water holding capacity of soil

Soil moisture sensors are used in engineered environments Engineered Environments

(Green Roofs, Green Walls, and Interior Plantings) because it is the only way to effectively
automate the control of these systems. The engineered environment presents many challenges
that cannot be managed by an open-looped system such as a weather-based system. The
primary challenge created is the extremely small amount of plant available water that can be
stored in the soil reservoir. This is often coupled with extreme environments.

17
The goals and challenges:
1. Often water conservation-oriented sites
2. Shallow soils or low water holding capacity, often not enough holding capacity to last
a full day during peak usage
3. Greatly increased evaporative effects over traditional on-grade plantings and subjected
to very high replacement cost of plant material
4. Environmental benefits from keeping plants healthy and thriving

Suggested features and practices:

1. Use lower threshold and set the turn-on point much closer to field capacity than would
be necessary with on-grade plantings.
2. Use multiple start times per day to ensure the plants always have available water.
3. Set fairly short run times by visually monitoring the site for the first couple weeks. Run
times need to be long enough to take the moisture from lower threshold to field
capacity, but short enough to prevent runoff.

18
9.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, our final product is fully functional but lack of effectiveness due to the
amount of water flow to the plant that cannot be adjusted. Thus, there will be excessive flow
of water to the plant that might damage the plant itself. In order to improve our design, a better
Arduino coding need to be set up so that the amount of water can be adjusted based on the
water level detected by the water sensor.

Besides that, our power supply will be the main problem in order to run the system
outdoor. Instead of connecting the power supply to the computer, it is more efficient if the
power supply is connected to the external power supply such as battery or solar system, suit
with our high technology world which made things easier by making this product portable and
easy to use. Another flaw that we found in this project is the water storage system.
Enhancement that can be made is by adding a buzzer to the system in order to alert the user
once the water level in the storage is empty which is detected by the water sensor.

During the assembly of the product, we manage to understand the function of each
components used such as water sensor, moisture sensor, etc. The most critical part in this
project is the coding which we need to be very specific on every components and connection
through the system. Arduino act as the brain of the system which receive input from the codes
and deliver to the output.

In a nutshell, the objectives of this project which are to acquire basic knowledge on
Arduino, to connect the components and wires properly and to create a system that is well-
functioned which includes Arduino controller have been achieved and the project can be
considered as a success.

19
10.0 REFERENCES

Arduino Uno R3. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pololu.com/product/2191

Arduino Uno Rev3. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://store.arduino.cc/usa/arduino-uno-rev3

Automatic Plant Watering System | Full Circuit With Source Code. (2019, January 30).
Retrieved from https://electronicsforu.com/electronics-projects/hardware-
diy/automatic-plant-watering-system

Hemmings, M. (n.d.). What is a Jumper Wire? Retrieved from

http://blog.sparkfuneducation.com/what-is-jumper-wire

Hose. (2004, September 16). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hose

Light-emitting diode. (2001, August 1). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-

emitting_diode

Soil moisture sensor. (2008, August 15). Retrieved from

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

Vase. (2004, April 6). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vase

What are the functions of a water pump, and why is it used? (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-functions-of-a-water-pump-and-why-is-it-used

What is a Water Sensor? (2017, July 27). Retrieved from

https://www.azosensors.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=225

20