Journal of Volume-8, Issue-2 (May-August, 2023)

Analog and Digital Devices

[Link]

Arduino-Based Soil Moisture Testing System

Sounder.J1*, N. Deepa2
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Systems, Cherraan’s Arts
Science College, Kangeyam, Tamil Nadu, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Cherraan’s Arts Science College, Kangeyam,
Tamil Nadu, India
*
Corresponding Author: sounderj09@[Link]

Received Date: May 15, 2023 Published Date: May 26, 2023

ABSTRACT based systems.

In this project we designed to automatically An embedded system is a technology in
sense the soil moisture conditions, and which intelligent devices are designed for a
nourish them, without any need for human specific process to be achieved perfectly. It is a
involvement. It will automatically monitor the combination of computer hardware & software
soil and it reduces water waste and increases and the maybe in extra, mechanical or other
plant growth. We use Arduino and a moisture parts were designed to perform a precise
sensor in this project, to solve these soil function.
moisture problems and the major benefit is In an embedded system, the software is
that the system's operation can be altered fused into a hardware device. An embedded
according to the conditions of crops, soil, system is the element within a quantity of a
weather situation, and all kind of soil larger system, dissimilarity from a general-
humidity problems etc. By applying this purpose computer. The software is known as
Arduino-based soil moisture testing system, firmware. Embedded systems are everywhere
the horticultural lands, agricultural, parks, and affect virtually every aspect of our lives. We
use embedded systems in our homes such as
grounds, and golf courses can be moistened.
washers, dryers, microwave ovens, stereos,
We can also use the simple battery to store
climatic control systems, alarm system devices,
energy as a back-up in case of interrupted
hand-held thermometers, greeting cards and
power supply. Ancillary pumps can be used in smart toys.
case of a fault in the pump. This project can
be used to evaluate the loss of moisture in the Arduino
top soils, over time as a result of vaporization
and consumption. Moreover in any type of The word "UNO" means (one)
climate this system will be useful and easily in Italian and was selected to spot a major
rectify the soil problem. This Arduino-based redesign of the Arduino hardware and software.
soil moisture system will also control water The ATmega328 is an onboard comes auto-
wastage, and will increase agricultural plant programmed board that we can boot-loader that
growth much more advanced or higher. allows, by this pre-installed code we can access
easily. There are many variants of Uno boards
Keywords- Agriculture water moisture, available in the market, due to our needs, we can
Humidity, Simple arduino soil moisture test, Soil purchase
health monitor, Simple soil moisture
Soil Moisture

INTRODUCTION It is commonly used in grouping with

irrigation system controllers. Linking a moisture
This project entitled “Arduino Based sensor will get, some "smart" features, which are
Soil Moisture Testing System" is an automated stopping irrigation when the soil is previously
control system using a microcontroller. The most wet sufficiently. Soil moisture will find the
important objective of this project is to create condition of the soil and do the smart needs to
simple, and easy-to-install, microcontroller- give health to the soil.

1 Page 1-6 © MAT Journals 2023. All Rights Reserved

 Journal of Volume-8, Issue-2 (May-August, 2023)
Analog and Digital Devices

[Link]

Farmers can use soil moisture sensing to POWER SOURCE

schedule irrigation properly, which has been
shown to potentially increase profits and protect An Arduino board need MEGA, and
the environment at the same time. [1]. While UNO will mostly come with AC sockets and we
many commercial soil moisture monitoring will use an adapter to give supply to boards. The
systems are available, they are still not widely power adaptor will give the output power of 7v
adopted for irrigation scheduling among to 12v of DC.
commercial growers due to several factors [2].
Consequently, irrigation scheduling decisions in ARDUINO PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE:
most commercial farming operations are still
It is one of the open-source s/w and h/w
based on “the condition of the crop”. For
platforms, and on computer well-programmed
example, [3] found that around 95% of growers
languages like C++ will be used for Arduino [5].
in South Carolina used “the condition of the
crop” to decide when to irrigate, which exceeded SOIL- MOISTURE SENSOR
the national average of around 80%. The fact
that most farmers are basing irrigation Soil moisture sensors are used to sense
scheduling decisions mainly on “the condition of the water content. Another group of sensors
the crop” could potentially create considerable determine another asset, It is also called water
production, profitability, and environmental potential, the sensor senses the soil water
problems [4]. potential sensors, and the soil moisture operate
on 3.3V to 5V (Fig. 1).

Figure 1: Soil moisture sensor.

Table 1: Pin to configure on the arduino board.

Pin Name Details
1 OUT Active High Output
2 +5V Power Supply
3 GND Power Supply Ground
4 RX Receiver
5 GND Power Supply Ground
6 TX Transmitter

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 Journal of Volume-8, Issue-2 (May-August, 2023)
Analog and Digital Devices

[Link]

It is mainly used to monitor the water on the convert it into resistance between the 2-
present in the soil. By using two conducting conducting plates. The resistance on 2 plates
probes we can test the moisture sensing. It can exist varies in a contrary manner with the
calculate the moisture pleased in the soil, based quantity of moisture in attendance in the soil [6].

BLOCK DIAGRAM

Figure 2: Block diagram.

BLOCK-DESCRIPTION comparator to give the corresponding

voltage value.
This project entitled “Arduino Based  The soil humidity sensor senses the value of
Soil Moisture Testing System” is designed using the humidity in the soil and then converts it
an Atmega microcontroller, soil moisture into the corresponding analogue voltage
sensors, and liquid crystal display (Fig. 2). and sends it to the microcontroller.
 The Arduino gets its power supply from the  The analogue voltage is converted into
regulated power supply circuit where the either high signal by the sensor itself.
AC voltage is converted into DC for the  The converted digital value will be checked
Arduino operation. by the microcontroller's code.
 It is placed on the soil in which the  Basically in this system, we are operating
moisture stage (levels) has to be measured. with two modes of operation [9].
 It consists of the LM393 comparator.
 This operates in the range of 3.3v to 5 v [7, High and Low Mode
8].
 This sensing circuit also consists of a power When the Arduino receives the low
indicator LED and a switching indicator signal from the sensor the switching circuit will
LED. be SET and at the same time the message will be
 Thus the moisture level is sensed by the displayed on the (LCD) and the text message
sensors which are taken as the resistance will be sent to the registered mobile [10].
value. and will be compared by the

3 Page 1-6 © MAT Journals 2023. All Rights Reserved

 Journal of Volume-8, Issue-2 (May-August, 2023)
Analog and Digital Devices

[Link]

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Figure 3: Circuit diagram of the proposed system.

Circuit Description pin (A0) of the microcontroller, and the pins of

the LCD LM016L are connected to 8,9,10,11
The microcontroller-based Arduino-Based Soil pins of the Microcontroller, The supply voltage
Moisture Testing System is an electronic device is given to the third pin (VEE) of the LCD, The
used to control a motor pump (Fig. 3). pins 12,13 are joined to the RS(Register select),
The circuit comprises three main sections, RW (Read/Write), E(Enable) pins respectively
 Input section of the LCD LM016L, The PORT C of the
 Controlling section Microcontroller is also connected with the GSM
 Output section modem, The receiving-pin of the GSM-modem
is connected with (RC6) and the transmitting
Circuit Connections attach of the GSM modem is connected with
(RC7) [12].
From this circuit, the Arduino board is
connected 12x2 LCD as shown in the above SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION
following block diagram to display the soil
moisture readings and the soil moisture sensor is The Arduino UNO R3 microcontroller is
connected to A0-PC0/ ADC0 Pin to configure on inbuilt with the IC of ATmega328P and the AT-
the Arduino board (Table 1). Now join the Mega 16U2-Processor.
power to the board and run the source code to
the Arduino board and then put the soil sensor to Features
the soil to detect, the moisture and display the
readings [11].  ATMega328P Processor, and its CPU have
up to 16 MHz, CPU at up to 16 MHz, 32KB
Circuit Explanation Flash, Memory, Power On Reset (POR),
1KB EEPROM , Brown Out Detection
The sensor is connected to the second (BOD), Security, 2KB SRAM.

4 Page 1-6 © MAT Journals 2023. All Rights Reserved

 Journal of Volume-8, Issue-2 (May-August, 2023)
Analog and Digital Devices

[Link]

SOURCE CODE APPLICATIONS

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>  The project can be used to evaluate the loss

LiquidCrystallcd(12, 11, 5, 4, 3, 2); of moisture in the topsoil over time as a
result of vaporization and consumption.
const int AirValue = 600; //you need to replace
this value with Value_1 CONCLUSION
constintWaterValue = 350; //you need to
replace this value with Value_2 Thus, this structure avoids excess
intsoilMoistureValue = 0; irrigation, lower irrigation, and topsoil wearing
intsoilmoisturepercent=0; away and decreases the remaining water. This
void setup() { Arduino-based soil moisture system can always
Serial. begin(9600); // open serial port, set the be monitoring the moisture level in the soil it
baud rate to 9600 bps moisture it automatically to the soil without any
[Link](16, 2); help from humans and this will do in a routine
} process. Applying this system to agriculture has
void loop() { more benefits, we can also use this system for
soilMoistureValue = analogRead(A0); //put home gardening largest agricultural lands parks,
Sensor insert into soil etc., and very highly sensitive sensors are put for
[Link](soilMoistureValue); huge areas. We can also set pumps and Arduino-
soilmoisturepercent = map(soilMoistureValue, based soil moisture systems to automatically
AirValue, WaterValue, 0, 100); water flows for gardening. This project will find
if(soilmoisturepercent>= 100) the loss of humidity in the soil then convert it
{ into the corresponding analogue voltage and
[Link]("100 %"); sends it to the microcontroller and the controller
[Link](0, 0); do the physical work, like turning in the water
[Link]("Soil Moisture"); pumps and fixing the problems. Mostly a small
[Link](0, 1); type of Arduino-based soil moisture system will
[Link]("100 %"); be designed and applied for small home
delay(250); gardening and local housing. For large
[Link](); agricultural land we can use progressive soil
} monitor sensors, the same above project has
else if(soilmoisturepercent<=0) been stretched and used. In future, we will use
{ this project for agricultural areas to maintain
[Link]("0 %"); healthy soils and gain more benefits
[Link](0, 0);
[Link]("Soil Moisture"); REFERENCES
[Link](0, 1);
[Link]("0 %"); 1. S. Irmak, M. J. Burgert, H. S. Yang, et al
delay(250); (2012). Large-scale on-farm
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} irrigation management strategies for
else if(soilmoisturepercent>0 increasing maize water productivity,
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{ Available at:
[Link](soilmoisturepercent); [Link]
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 Journal of Volume-8, Issue-2 (May-August, 2023)
Analog and Digital Devices

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CITE THIS ARTICLE

Sounder.J and N. Deepa (2023). Arduino Based Soil Moisture Testing System, Journal of
Analog and Digital Devices, 8(2), 1-6.

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