Soil moisture detector

Soil moisture sensors measure the volumetric water content in soil. Since the direct gravimetric measurement of free soil moisture requires removing, dying, and weighing of a sample, soil moisture sensor measure the volumetric water content indirectly by using some other property of the soil, such a

Project Title

Soil moisture detector

Project Area of Specialization

Wearables and Implantable

Project Summary

Soil moisture sensors measure the volumetric water content in soil. Since the direct gravimetric measurement of free soil moisture requires removing, dying, and weighing of a sample, soil moisture sensor 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 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. 
Reflected microwave radiation is affected by the soil moisture and is used for remote sensing in hydrology and agriculture. Portable probe instruments can be used by farmers or gardeners. 
Technologies commonly used to indirectly measure volumetric water content include: 
Frequency Domain Reflectometry (FDR) , Time domain Transmission (TDT), Neutron moisture gauges, Soil resistivity, Galvanic cell. 
Applications in Agriculture, Landscape irrigation, Simple sensors for gardeners 

Project Objectives

In  non-conventional energy era, solar energy is one of the most effective energy sources , so  solar cells  are used to power our circuit .The main objective of this  project  was  to design a greenhouse monitoring  system that is be highly reliable and is useful for harvesting crops. Our project mainly focuses on the control of parameters such as-temperature, methane quantity, soil moisture .

Project Implementation Method

The working of Soil Moisture sensor is very similar to a sensor built out of LM393 IC. The only difference can be in the type of outputs sensor offers or gives.
Probes which are half buried into the ground does the main job of sensing the moisture from the soil. Actually, those probes don’t check moisture, it checks the voltage levels which is also the analog value of the sensor which is given out to the microcontroller.
The one side of the probe is connected to ground and the other to the non-inverting input of the 1st comparator. With a pull-up resistor and a 0.1µF capacitor in parallel with the probes. The rest of the job is done by the comparator in deciding the output.
The values of the sensor can be altered due to presence of the fertilizers, insecticides or pesticides. So find a way to make values correct, either using PID or some algorithm.

Benefits of the Project

First and most is it easily available at a very cheap price, so there is not a problem of availability of soil moisture sensor.
Secondly, it gives both type of outputs with on-board status led and potentiometer for adjusting the values. Also the quality of main PCB is good as compared to probes.
Third, you can mount this sensor to any surface as the PCB ensures a mid-hole for screwing the main PCB to any surface.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

In case of hardware implementation the sensors temperature sensor, soil moisture sensor, methane sensor were connected  with the ATmega328p microcontroller and was connected with the microcontroller with the motor driver module and the  power was supplied with the help of a solar panel. Flow chart of this entire project has been shown in Figure 9. The sensors  sensed  the parameters  such as temperature,  methane quantity,  soil moisture and the microcontroller  sensed  the  values  from them and was displayed  onto the LCD screen and accordingly the control actions were  done that were needed. In case  of temperature sensor, if temperature  is  increased then the greenhouse door was closed manually and if the moisturequantity of the sand is less than the desired value then accordingly motor was  on and vice-versa  

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Agriculture

Other Industries

Food , Others

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Cloud Infrastructure

Sustainable Development Goals

Quality Education, Life Below Water

Required Resources

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