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Smart Irrigation System – Circuit Diagram and

Code
Electrical Technology

1 9 minutes read
Arduino Based Smart Irrigation System
India is a country where 70% of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Nowadays,
every work can be done in the easiest way by the use of machines. No doubt, automation increases
the productivity and saves a lot of time and effort. Irrigation is the most important part of agriculture to
yield maximum profit from your investment in the field. However, there are several machines which
can be used in agriculture field by farmers to ease their work. Unfortunately, such machines are not
affordable by farmers due to high cost. All they need is a simple and low-cost machine that can be
used easily for agricultural purposes.
In this post, we will be discussing a smart and simple irrigation system that is designed using low-cost
materials. The aim of this irrigation system is to detect the moisture content in soil and run the motor
pump automatically.
Apart from the agriculture field, we also need an automated plant irrigation system at our home to
take care of our plants in our absence. Through this article, we will be discussing the design process
of smart irrigation system project than can be used to water the plants automatically while you are
sitting at the comfort of your home. You can tailor the water schedules and run time using this smart
irrigation system device.
About 50% of water losses are caused due to inefficiencies of traditional irrigation systems that cause
overwatering. To overcome this problem, we are going to design a smart irrigation system that checks
the moisture level in soil and provide water to the plants automatically. When the circuit finds enough
moisture in the soil, the motor pump gets off.
Also, we have used GSM module to update your regularly about the condition of moisture in soil and
water pump. This project is highly reliable and useful to eliminate the need of manpower from
irrigation process in fields.
As discussed above, we have used soil moisture sensor to sense the moisture in the soil. Before
starting the project, let us take a look at the major components used in the circuit to help you clearly
understand the circuit working.
 Related Project: Automatic Plant Watering & irrigation System – Circuit, Code & Project
Report
Table of Contents
 Soil Moisture Sensor
o Technical Specifications:
o Pinouts of Soil Moisture Sensor:
o Applications of Soil Moisture Sensor:
 TTL SIM800 GSM Module:
o Technical Specifications:
o Features of GSM 800 Module:
 Arduino UNO Board
 Interfacing Soil Moisture Sensor and GSM Module with Arduino
 Programming Code Explanation
 Working of Automatic Irrigation System
 Features of Smart Irrigation System

Soil Moisture Sensor

There are two probes in the soil moisture sensor which is used to measure the volumetric content of
water in soil. These two probes allow the current to pass through the soil and then it gets the moisture
value present in the soil.
When there is water present in the soil, there will be less resistance and therefore soil will conduct
electricity. As a result, the moisture level sensed by the sensor will be higher. Dry soil is a poor
conductor of electricity. When there is less water in the soil, it will conduct less electricity and
therefore resistance will be more. This is the reason moisture level will be lower.

Technical Specifications:
 Input voltage – 3.3-5V
 Output voltage- 0- 4.2 V
 Input current- 35mA
 Output voltage- Analog/Digital
Pinouts of Soil Moisture Sensor:
 Vcc- Power supply
 A0- Analog output
 D0- Digital output
 GND- Ground
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As discussed above, soil moisture sensor consists of two conducting plates which function as probe.
As Soil moisture sensor simply acts as two conducting plates. First plate is connected to the +5v
power supply. Second plate is connected directly to the ground. The output is taken directly from the
first terminal of soil moisture sensor pin.
Soil moisture sensor works on the principle of open and closed circuit. When the soil is dried, no
current will flow through it and it works like an open circuit. When soil is moist, the current will start
flowing from one terminal to another, working as a closed circuit. We have interfaced the moisture
sensor with Arduino UNO board. We will be discussing the interfacing and simulation code of the
circuit in later part of this article.
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Applications of Soil Moisture Sensor:
This device can be used in home gardens and lawns to eradicate the need of manual plant watering
process. It can be used for interior plant to supply water regularly for irrigation.
The second most important part of this project is GSM module that is used along with the Arduino
microcontroller for communication.
TTL SIM800 GSM Module:
We have used SIM800 GSM module in our irrigation system project and interfaced with the Arduino
to send and receive messages. A GSM module is basically a GSM modem. This device is connected
with PCB to take different types of outputs from the board. In our project, we have interface the GSM
module with Arduino and TTL output is taken. This quad-band GSM module works on frequencies
ranging from GSM 850MHz, EGSM 900MHz, DCS 1800MHz and PCS 1900MHz. GSM modules are
highly compatible with Arduino and microcontrollers. TTL SIM800 GSM Module is assembled in
24*24*3mm size to fit almost every device be it smartphone PDA etc.

In Asia, most of the mobile phone operators operate in the 900 MHZ band. GSM modules are
manufactured by connecting a single GSM modem to PCB. Then provision of RS232 output is
provided. Make sure to double check the GSM power requirement in your project before choosing the
suitable GSM module for your device. Also, always choose the TTL enabled output pins to interface it
directly with Arduino without any inconvenience.
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Technical Specifications:
 Quad band based
 Required voltage -9VDC-12 VDC
 Power supply- switching regulator based
 Power required- 1 MA
 Operating temperature- -40 TO + 85-degree Celsius
Features of GSM 800 Module:
 Coding scheme- CS-1, CS-2, CS-3, CS-4 Tx power
 It consumes low power
 Equipped with audio channels that include a microphone input and receiver output
Now you have a good knowledge about working of both the devices namely soil moisture sensor and
GSM module. Next, you have to interface both the components with Arduino microcontroller.
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Arduino UNO Board
Before uncovering the details of Arduino UNO board, let us make you aware that there are various
versions of Arduino boards present in the market namely Arduino mega, Arduino Due etc. We have
used Arduino UNO in our project as it is the cheapest and easiest to interface microcontroller. This
microcontroller consists of 14 digital I/O pins and 6 Analog pins. Arduino UNO microcontroller also
supports serial communication using the TX and Rx pins. The biggest advantage of using Arduino is
that you can optimize and modify the software and the Arduino board according to your requirement.
Interfacing Soil Moisture Sensor and GSM Module with Arduino
The interfacing of this circuit is simple. You just need to follow the circuit diagram.
Firstly, connect the soil moisture sensor’s analog pin to the analog pin 1 of Arduino. Now, connect the
VCC and GND of sensor to the 5V and GND of Arduino.
Next, insert a sim card in the module. Now, you need to connect the GSM module with a power
supply. We are using module of 12V if you have a module of 5V then you can directly power it with
Arduino’s 5V. Connect a 12V source as shown in circuit diagram. Now, connect the GND pin of
module with the GND of Arduino. Connect ST pin of module with digital pin 9 of the Arduino and SR
pin of the module with digital pin 10 of Arduino. We’ve also connected an LCD to display the sensed
moisture level. Connect the LCD as shown in circuit diagram also connect a pot to manipulate the
contrast of LCD.
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Connect the relay and transistor using the relay driver diagram.
Now gather the below components mentioned in the list and connect the circuit as shown in the circuit
diagram:
 Arduino UNO board
 GSM module
 Connecting Wires
 Transistors
 16×2 LCD display
 Power Supply
 Relay
 Pump
 Soil Moisture Sensor
 Resistors
 Terminal Connector
 Voltage Regulator
Programming Code Explanation
The programming part for this project is very easy. Firstly, we need to define the library for LCD and
for the moisture sensor. In the next line we’ve defined the transmitter and receiver pins of sensor
which are connected to digital pin 9 and 10 respectively:
#include
#include
SoftwareSerial mySerial(9,10);

Now, we have defined some variables to use them instead of using the pin numbers:
int M_Sensor = A0;
int W_led = 7;
int P_led = 13;

In the next line, we’ve defined the LCD pins connected to Arduino:
LiquidCrystal lcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2);

In the setup function, firstly we’ve initialized the LCD by lcd.begin() function and moisture sensor by
using mySerial.begin() function. We’ve passed 16,2 because the LCD is having 16 columns and 2
rows and this indicates that we will be using the whole LCD. Next, we’ve initialized and defined the
pin mode of digital pin 13 as output which is connected to the pump status LED and relay and pin 7
as input pin which is connected to water level led.
void setup()
{
lcd.begin(16, 2);
mySerial.begin(9600);
pinMode(7,INPUT);
pinMode(13,OUTPUT);
}

Now, come to the loop function. In the first line, we’ve cleared the LCD so that if there is any previous
output that clears out. In the next line we’re fetching the moisture sensor value and storing it in a
variable named ‘Moist’:
lcd.clear();
int Moist = analogRead(M_Sensor);

In the next lines we have introduced the conditions for dry, wet and soggy soils:
if (Moist> 700) // for dry soil
{
lcd.setCursor(11,0);
lcd.print(“DRY”);
lcd.setCursor(11,1);
lcd.print(“SOIL”);
if (digitalRead(W_led)==1) //test the availability of water in storage
{
digitalWrite(13, HIGH);
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print(“PUMP:ON”);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGF=1”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGS=\”NUMBER”\r”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“PUMP:ON”);
delay(100);
mySerial.println((char)26);
delay(1000);
}
else
{
digitalWrite(13, LOW);
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print(“PUMP:OFF”);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGF=1”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGS=\”NUMBER”\r”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“PUMP:OFF”);
delay(100);
mySerial.println((char)26);
delay(1000);
}
}
if (Moist>= 300 && Moist<=700) //for Moist Soil
{
lcd.setCursor(11,0);
lcd.print(“MOIST”);
lcd.setCursor(11,1);
lcd.print(“SOIL”);
digitalWrite(13,LOW);
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print(“PUMP:OFF”);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGF=1”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGS=\”NUMBER”\r”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“PUMP:OFF”);
delay(100);
mySerial.println((char)26);
delay(1000);
}
if (Moist < 300) // For Soggy soil
{
lcd.setCursor(11,0);
lcd.print(“SOGGY”);
lcd.setCursor(11,1);
lcd.print(“SOIL”);
digitalWrite(13,LOW);
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print(“PUMP:OFF”);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGF=1”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“AT+CMGS=\”NUMBER”\r”);
delay(1000);
mySerial.println(“PUMP:OFF”);
delay(100);
mySerial.println((char)26);
delay(1000);
}
delay(1000);
}

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Working of Automatic Irrigation System
The working of automatic irrigation system is very simple and easy to understand. In this project,
Arduino is used for controlling the whole working of the circuit. First of all, when there is no moisture
present in the soil, there will be conduction between two probes of the soil sensor. In result, the
transistor will remain in ON state. Also, the pin13 of Arduino will remain low. After that, Arduino will
send message to the user as Soil moisture is normal. Motor turned OFF”. In this situation, the motor
pump will remain in “OFF” state.
When there is no moisture in the soil, transistor Q2 becomes OFF. Also, pin D7 becomes high.
Consequently, the Arduino send starts the water pump and send the message to the user as Low
moisture detected. Motor is turned ON. Again, the motor pump will automatically be turned OFF when
there is enough moisture in the soil detected by the soil moisture sensor.
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Features of Smart Irrigation System
This smart irrigation system fulfills all the criteria of an ideal irrigation system. Some of the profitable
features are:
 This smart irrigation system easily adapts with the weather condition and sense the
moisture accordingly to operate the water pump
  The soil moisture sensor easily senses the high-water flow by sensing the moisture present
in soil and therefore shuts down and starts automatically
 Using the smart irrigation system, you can manage the water flow remotely without going to
the field
 The LCD connected with the circuit displays the soil moisture data regularly which can be
used to keep record of moisture at different instances
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Bottom Line
Smart irrigation system is of great use in terms of productivity and reliability as well. Also, this
device is easy to design and can be assembled using easily available electronic components. The
Arduino microcontroller used in the software is very popular and can be easily interfaced without any
inconvenience. We have used the soil moisture sensor to sense the moisture in the soil.
GSM module is used this project to inform the users by sending messages on their cell-phone. We
have also described the working and interface method of all the components with Arduino. We hope
that you will now be able to design this low-cost smart irrigation system to save water in your day to
day life.
Automatic Plant Irrigation System
 August 29, 2015
 By Administrator

Here is a simple project more useful in watering plants automatically without any human
interference. We may call it as Automatic plant irrigation system. We know that people
do not pour the water on to the plants in their gardens when they go to vacation or often
forget to water plants. As a result, there is a chance to get the plants damaged. This
project is an excellent solution for such kind of problems.

Outline

o Block Diagram of Automatic Plant Irrigation System:

 Main Components in Automatic Plant Irrigation System:
 Circuit Diagram of Automatic Plant Irrigation System:

Block Diagram of Automatic Plant Irrigation System:

Explanation:

 Circuit is not that much complicated. We use the basic concept in this circuit i.e. soil
have high resistance when it is dry and has very low resistance when it is wet.
 By using this concept we will make the system work. We insert two probes in the
soil in such a way that that they will conduct when the soil is wet and they will not
conduct when the soil is dry. So, when the probes do not conduct, system will
automatically detect this condition with the help of HEX inverter which will become
high when the input is low.
 HEX inverter will trigger the NE555 Timer and this NE555 timer will trigger
another NE555 which is connected to the output of first NE555. Now the second
NE555 which is configured as astable multivibrator will help to switch on the
Electric valve and as result, it will allow the water to flow to the soil.
  When the water wet the soil, probes will again conduct and make the output of
7404 low which will make the first NE555 to low and also drive remaining circuit to
low. So, automatically it will switch off the valve.

Main Components in Automatic Plant Irrigation System:

Hex Inverter 7404: the main function of the inverter is to give the complemented output
for its input i.e. it will give output which is opposite to input. For example, if the input is
low to the inverter, then the output will be high. Just like the normal inverter which gives
high output when the input is low and gives low output when the input is high. 7404 IC
will be having six independent inverters; Operating supply voltage is around 4.75V
minimum to 5.5V maximum, normal supply voltage is 5V. They are used in different
applications like inverting buffers, drivers, hex inverters etc. 7404 IC will be available in
different packages like DIP (dual inline package), QFP (Quad Flat Package) etc. The pin
configuration of Hex Inverter 7404 is shown below.

Circuit Diagram of Automatic Plant Irrigation System:

Circuit Explanation:
  We are all well aware that the plants will die due to lack of water in the soil. Soil will
have high resistance when it is dry and it will have very low resistance when soil is
wet. We use this simple logic to water the plants and make the circuit work.
 Two probes which are connected to the circuit are placed into the soil. The two
probes will conduct only when soil is wet (resistance is low) and they cannot
conduct when soil is dry due to high resistance. The voltage is given to the probes
to conduct is given from the battery connected to the circuit.
 When the soil is dry it will produce large voltage drop due to high resistance. This is
sensed by 7404 hex inverter and makes the first NE555 timer trigger which is
configured as monostable multivibrator with the help of a electrical signal.
 When the first NE555 is triggered at pin 2, it will generate the output at pin 3 which
is given to the input of second NE555 timer. The second 555 timer is configured as
astable multivibrator which got triggered by the first 555 timer and will generate
the output and drive the relay which is connected to the electrically operated value
through the transistor SK100. You can use a heat sink for SK100 transistor if it is
dissipating more heat.
 The output of second NE555 timer will switch on the transistor SK100 which will
drive the relay. Relay which is connected to the input of electrical value and output
of value is given to the plant plots through the pipe.
 When transistor has turned on relay, it will open the valve and water is poured on
to the plants pot. When the water content in the soil is increased, the resistance in
the soil will get decreased and conduction of the probes will get started which will
make the 7404 Inverter to stop the triggering of first 555 timer. Ultimately it will
stop the electrical valve which is connected to the relay. Variable resistor (R5) and
capacitor (C1) are used to adjust the valve when to we want to conduct the probes.
 The capacitor C5 (0.01uf) is used to ground, the CV pin of second NE555 timer. C3
will remove the AC noise and allow only DC to the remaining circuit. C4 and R3 will
constitute to configure the NE555 in astable multivibrator.
Values of the Components in the Circuit:

 Capacitor (C4) = 10u 16V.

 Capacitor (C5) = 0.01u.
 Resistor (R3) = 27K
 Resistor (R4) = 27K
 Diode (D1 and D2) = IN4148
 Relay = 6V, 150 ohms
DIY Project Kit: Automatic Irrigation System on Sensing Soil Moisture Content »

Note:

 Battery should be continuously monitored from power outage or simply you can
use 9V DC supply adaptor.
 Probes must be inserted into the soil. They should not be kept on the soil.
 Electric valve should be used for best result.

Reference:

https://www.electronicshub.org/automatic-plant-irrigation-system/