Automatically Water plants in your Garden

Hello Guys, this is Fedelyn Wester and this is my intermediate Arduino project for a self-watering pot using soil moisture sensor.

In this project, the self-watering pot uses an analog moisture sensor to trigger a diode-protected pump protected by a level switch. In this example, we’ll be using the Adosia SPACE IO shield for Arduino UNO.

Adosia SPACE IO shield

First, let’s take a look at the Adosia SPACE IO shield:

In this project, we’ll be connecting the water level sensor switch LS (you can disregard polarity) which is tied to a 4.7kΩ pull-up resistor and ground.

We’ll connect the submersible pump to a transistor driven channel P1 and ground. The moisture sensor will be connected to the analog port with ground pin closest to the top of the board.

Materials:

Steps:

Build suitable housing for your self-watering pot. Here’s how to build the pot in detail: Connect the water level sensor switch, the submersible pump, and the moisture sensor to the Adosia SPACE IO board.

If using the Arduino, follow the steps below. If using the WiFi Module, follow the instructions included with your device.

Arduino

Connect the Arduino or WiFi Module to your PC and open up your Arduino IDE.

Paste the code below into your Arduino IDE:

https://github.com/adosia/adosia-token/tree/master/hardware/bluponix/space_v2.2/sample_code/bluponix-space-v2.2_self-watering-pot.ino

Calibrating Moisture Sensor for your Self Watering Pot

Calibrate the moisture sensor by placing it in water and recording the analog input reading using analogRead(A0). Remove the sensor from water, allow to dry, and again record the analog input reading. Replace the values below with your readings.

const int ms_H2O = 220; // REPLACE with water-submerged value

const int ms_AIR = 575; // REPLACE with open-air value

You may find it useful to re-calibrate the analog sensor every few months or so.

Conclusion

Your DIY self-watering pot should begin watering immediately. The light on the control board will blink blue when the water reservoir is empty. The easiest way to refill the reservoir is to simply pour 1 to 2 gallons of water directly onto the base of the plant when needed

The self-watering pot will prevent the pump from watering when the water reservoir is low.

About the Author

Fedelyn Wester