Water Your Garden with IoT - Soil Moisture Sensors
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- čas přidán 1. 07. 2024
- Learn to use Soil Moisture Sensors with microcontrollers and build a Soil Moisture Meter and an automated watering system that uses the Arduino IoT Cloud!
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There are many methods of measuring the moisture content of soil, but the two types that are most commonly used by hobbyists are resistive and capacitive sensors.
I’ll show you how to use and calibrate both of these types of sensors, both with analog and I2C interfaces.
After we get our sensors calibrated, we’ll use them to build a soil moisture meter using a Raspberry Pi Pico and an OLED display.
We’ll then focus our attention on the main project in this video, an automated watering system that uses an Arduino Nano 33 IoT and works on the Arduino IoT Cloud. This will allow you to maintain your solid at a specific moisture level and monitor it from anywhere on the Internet, with both a desktop and mobile interface.
Here is the Table of Contents for this video:
00:00 - Introduction
01:55 - Soil Moisture Sensors
07:06 - Moisture Sensor Calibration
14:49 - I2C Moisture Sensors
20:52 - Build a Soil Moisture Meter
29:30 - IoT Plant Watering System
52:33 - Conclusion
I’ll also explain why I’m the last person on planet Earth that you’ll want to get gardening advice from!
I hope you enjoy the video.
Bill - Jak na to + styl
Hi everyone - It's come to my attention that there has been someone masquerading as myself, responding to some comments here with a link to a Telegram chat to win a prize from me. THIS IS A SCAM, I am not holding a contest, nor do I have a Telegram account. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THESE MESSAGES!!
It's happening on a lot of my videos, I'm taking steps to remove them manually, but as I have 162 videos, it will take some time. If you do run across a suspicious comment, I would appreciate you letting me know at info@dronebotworkshop.com.
Thanks!
Bill (The real one!)
What did you draw your diagrams with?
The detailed explanation leaves no stone unturned. Greatly appreciated and good health to you, Sir.
Pls go on teaching us never stop
Thank you for everything
All love and appreciation ❣️
This is litralllly the exact project I was gunna try doing... this is perfect!!
Thanks for another great video! I have used various moisture sensors as input to my "Geek Garden" project since 2014. I found that the resistive sensors will last quite a while if you only power them on briefly to get a reading. With resistive sensors, I only take a reading once a minute and have had a sensor last almost 3 years. I have also found that both the resistive and capacitive sensors have an S shaped output and are linear over only a very small voltage range so I calibrate to use only the linear portion for my percentage scale. The best sensor I have is a Vegitronix vh400. It is a little pricey at $43 but has worked continuously for 9 years.
I always enjoy you clear, concise and timely videos. Keep it up.👍
Love the usual mix of hardware, software, and practical application. Longtime subscriber!
This Video comes at the perfect time for me. I just got into Ardunio, gardening and hydroponics a feew weeks ago. Thanks, I'll get some snacks and a notepad 🌱
Just one addition: you will likely want to solder in a flyback diode to the motor contacts. A lot of DC pumps, when they shut off, can cause a large enough back EMF to cause sparking in the relay that can jump to the control side, or even hold the relay open. Adding a Schottky diode based on the motor's specs can mitigate the risk of frying the control side electronics.
I know you said you're not a gardening expert... From an irrigation expert, you may want to calibrate with actual soil as the electrolytes in soil will likely affect the readings, both dry and wet. Also, when watering plants, the goal is only to wet the dirt around the roots, so I'd suggest a set time for activating the pump to accomplish this and only this. Overwatering is the second worst killer of plants behind drying out. The time it takes the water to penetrate the dirt will vary from planter to planter and this can lead to overwatering due to the latency of the sensor and percolation through the soil. Just my two cents. Some neat ideas in here anyway. I was actually working on my own Arduino controller project, so the timing of this video is impeccable. Please keep putting out content like this. It is always very much appreciated!
You're advising to use a timer instead of the moisture sensor to trigger the pumps, right? That's what I thought was best. The sensor can be inaccurate and a failure can have catastrophic consequences; whereas the timer strategy is safe. You just have to calibrate how long you want the pumps activated depending on how much water you want in your plant. The sensor is only there for monitoring.
Timer is not good. Because the evaporation speed is not the same
I would add to this, it may be best to use an OR logic, if one of the instance (timer or the moisture reading) reaches the required threshold, pump stops. Just an idea
Excellent and helpful especially as spring is on its way. I think I have the confidence to try this this year. Thank you.
As usual : thank you DroneBot. Great information for me. How to do and what not to do (along with the great comments for added information). I've had great success reliving my electronic past with the present newly available IOT33 and the cloud. So easy but yet so hard.
Nice project! I was thinking of making something similar for a long time. Thanks for the help!
That's a great video, I actually used to do this kind of calibration with my capacitive sensors. However, unfortunately soil moisture contents and output voltage are not linearly related and especially when getting wet, the percentage value barely wanted to move. I'm currently looking for a way to read capacitance and then soil dielectric constant, to then approximate soil moisture. Got myself some barebone PCB capacitive sensors without the 555 circuit and I'm planning on rebuilding a 555 circuit, this time instead, measuring pulse widths that directly translate into capacitance after triggering a conversion. Instead of the classical filtered square wave into a DC output
Might be the cutest intro on the web. Nice
Thank you, for sharing your knowledge and skills to the world.
Thanks for this. It's perfect for a project I was going to do
Hi, thank you for sharing your knowledge, greetings from across the pond!
Thanks from Finland,very good axplanation.
Dude, you are really a proffessional! You explain everything in details and you keep no "secrets" for yourself. I'm glad to follow you! Keep up the good job! 🦾
Thanks Bill for another excellent presentation on using both RPi & Arduino in such cute projects. I did a similar project a while ago but had the readings drifting off after a while. Thanks to you I figured out it is because I didn't connect the ARef pin on the Arduino for increased accuracy.
Thanks for the timely information. It's always a joy to watch and listen to you.
Just a quick question though, will it be possible to replace the Nano 33 IoT board with a MKR WIFI 1010 board and still connect it to the 5V relay? If yes, can you kindly provide some pointers since it is rated as a 3.3V board.
Thanks once again. 👍👍
Thanks for teaching and sharing. May the force be with you :)
Very valuable tutorial, thank you!
I have been wanting you to do a video like this. I am working on automating a hydroponic greenhouse. I need to turn on various pumps and fans based on temp, ec, and ph. Thank you for this video. Would love to learn more about using relays with 110v outlets
You are awesome!! I have been following you for a while, Thanks for all your videos and interesting content
Very cool project, and great explanation! 😊
Your videos inspired me to build my own little shop and learn Arduino and sensors. Now I have an automated Greenhouse that waters and opens vents.
Thats a step up!, esp the opening vents part. Are you achieving that with fairly heavy motors?
Holy crap, that's awesome! I wanna do that too
Perfect video…. Thank you
you are the best in youtube for arduino
thanks a a lot
This is great stuff. I've been looking at doing something very similar and never used an Arduino before. I have hanging baskets that I want to be able to water and I'm wondering if that pump would be strong enough to pump out water 3-6ft above itself in order to water the hanging plants.
Your channel is so good, Thank you very much for this channel
Defenately enjoyed the video !
God bless and thanks for sharing your knowledge
thanks iot tech make life easier.
Ur the best man I really like ur videos, also i made many projects u made so thank u
Funny that I'm currently in the process of building such a thing, on a Arduino Nano, with small pumps, and also a photo sensor to add water only when the sun is down. I added a maximum watering time, and if said time is reached, I trigger an alarm. I have also moisture sensor readings alarm, if the value goes out of range (loop open) or something. I'm an industrial automation technician so... I work with sensors all day long, and I like "diagnostic" outputs. Great Video! I still learned a lot from it.
Fancy. I'm an integrated systems technician. Mostly work with industrial access control but we will integrate with ANYTHING. If this then that... so simple yet it can get so complicated. For some reason it's fun.
I'm with IBEW so I may try to switch over to another area.
Another great video!
Great video, the end had me laughing pretty hard.
Quick note about those moisture sensors... I had to seal the edges of mine and reduce how often it took readings, to make them last longer.
you use the capacitative ones? Why did you seal the sides of the pcb? Is it susceptible to rot?
Another awesome video 😁👍
The best experiences I have made with the capacitive sensor V1.2. It is highly reliable over years. Because its output is a voltage with respect to ground I have used a simple comparator circuit to get a switching signal for a watering system for my balcony plants. It operates a little 6 V pump using an NMOS transistor from the comparator output. I have used 30 liter containers as water reservoirs which even in the summer hold for more than a week. The plant containers are equipped with a perforated hose at the lowest position of the container.
I have planned to use differential pressure sensors for my next project in order to get the real water level inside the plant container, because I have found that the capacitive sensors are sometimes not very accurate leading to floading the plant containers. So I guess the hydrostatic pressure is more accurate, when measured against the open atmosphere for the compensation of air pressure variations.
Excellent ♥
Thank you
Great explanation
Love it, you are wonderful
3I enjoy your channel very much and use it frequently. Thank-you for your effort it is much appreciated!
Thank you, glad to hear that you find the videos useful.
Excellent
So interest Sir. Thank you
Very interesting video!
Thanks for this Bill - a great project. However, I've had problems driving the relay off Pin D3. The voltage I'm getting at the 5V reads 4.36V and I was wondering if this was insufficient to drive the relay. The LEDs light as they should on the relay module - but no click of the coil. I soldered the 5V jumper points on the back of the nano iot 33 board and have ordered a 3.6V relay module in the hope that this will solve my problem. I was wondering if anyone had had this issue. Thanks Jon
Love your dry Canadian humour.
Thank you!!
Very good demostration
Is it possible to use esp8266 for a microcontroller?
Excellent tutorial. For me though it stops just short of being really practical. Please consider showing how multiple units can be used in a garden together with power supplies particularly when mains power is not available. IOT is not a necessity if all that is required is connection to the local WiFi maybe managed by Home Assistant , this also drastically reduces the cost.
OH yeah thats PERFECT for my indoor tomatoes
49:33 Could you provide a link to where I can buy this sort of pump?
Thanks a lot for all your in-depth tutorials! I learn a lot from them.
Just a small comment, it’s better to give plants a good soak instead of small doses of water so personally I would trigger a timer with the moisture sensor and then water for a set time. The time depends on the size of the pot, bin or garden.
Thanks
Debatable. Yes, outdoor plants do require a good soak as well as a dry back. That said, hydroponic grown plants would and do benefit from water gifts periodically throughout their day cycle. Different strokes for different folks! Happy growing.
@@THEoneWITHaFACE but what wld u need "Soil Moisture sensor" for if u were growing in hydro
@@davidmassengill5290 To measure percentage dry back in the growing media.
To specify, there are an incredible number of different ways to grow, 'hydroponically'.
Deep water culture vs drip drain are vastly different but still considered hydroponic growing.
@@davidmassengill5290 soil moisture sensor is sensing the percentage moisture. I don't believe that it matters what material it is sensing moisture from.
a tip to dronebot workshop and other video editors, go to your headphone's audio settings and make sure the box for "loudness equalization" is unchecked. otherwise, you end up making videos like this one, where the added music is 2x louder than the dialogue.
This guy is a gifted teacher. Too bad so many in college in high school are mostly not nearly as good as Bill is.
i would add a light sensor so that watering doesn't happen in direct sunlight as watering in direct strong like can kill plants. also for the wet and tdr tests, i'd use miust and dry soil. if the woil is as wet as a glass of water than it's likely you over watered, which kills plants.
I've dabbled with plant electronics, but have never bothered with soil sensors as I presumed them to be unreliable. Assuming I am wrong, I have a hypothesis that these will not work well unless you bury them at the bottom of the plant pot, meaning the PCB electronics need to be potted to protect them.
Reasons for hypothesis:
1) The soil at the top is always going to be dryer than the soil at the bottom. What's at the bottom is what matters, that's where the roots will grow to (and where you want to encourage them to grow to).
2) As water travels through the pot, it will disperse, meaning if your sensor is at the top on the left side and your pump outlet is on the right, you're going to drown your plant before you get a moisture reading. However, if it is at the bottom, position still matters but it is less critical because the water will spread as it flows downward.
From every plant person I've talked to, more people kill plants by overwatering them than you would expect. They have proposed that this is because most people see the top layer is dry, and proceed to water the plant. Also, they have mentioned that the material of the pot is critical - porous materials like terra cotta are much better as they pull excess water out of the soil.
Excellent, what program do you use to produce these graphics. I have power point and it does not work very well. thanks
Awesome video, thanks! Two questions: 1. If I wanted to send data from the raspberry over Wifi f.e. through API POST requests, could I use a raspberry pi pico W with the same general design. 2. Is it possible to make data gathering happen at specific times of the day using code? I'm quite new to this, so advice would be greatly appreciated.
thanks author
Moisture in the soil is only a small part in gardening. Be consistent with water and let the plant find it like it finds the Sun light. A nice project, I will attempt this winter. Build it with ESP32, please.
I really liked the video and the idea, can we have a link for the code as well so as to understand it better?
Is it possible to gold plate the sensors for the resistive sensor, to eliminate or reduce corrosion?
Would it be better when you are get add the add water, just start the pump for a set time (second or 2 to 3 or a ounce or 2) then wait and start the measurement process again???
Bonjour je viens de trouver votre chaine quel superbe vidéo je débute dans ce domaine je vous dit pas comme je galère et je remercie des personnes comme vous, je comprend un peux plus donc grand merci . J'aurai une question a vous posez si je veux mettre 4 moistures avec 4 pompes j'ai essayé de bricolé votre code mais rien a faire désolé pouvez-vous m'expliqué si vous avez du temps. Merci Cordialement.
Great nice one
Hi. I encountered a problem between library SH1106 (because I have OLED from ebay) and millis() and also timer interupt. I’m trying to switch views between moisture, temperature and humidity but as soon as I add millis() to main loop or try timer interupt, display() functions don’t work for some reason… Maybe there is a colision between this tu functions. Everything works fine with delay(). Did enyone had this problem?
Wow nice work. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. it is always a pleasure to watch your videos.
I have a question and dont think i will get an answer because i am late at commenting and asking. Maybe someone other can help by my question. Is (yes it is) and how is it possible to do the whole project whit just the needed components? I mean how can i build my own firmware (i think wih a kernel and the busybox?) and put it on a chip (microcontroller and flash chip, i see a possibility to solder the components on the sensor [also holding a battery])? How can i build a userinterface like the arduino cloud to manage the iot? how can i update the firmware easely i would say over the user interface?
I thank for answers :-)
Hi. Love your videos. Very educational and inspiring. It would be nice to see a video on a IoT project with board powered by solar energy only.
*inspiring
👍Thank you
Can the Nano 33 IOT be used in conjunction with the Arduino UNO R3?
I would like to express my gratitude for this wonderful project. I am planning to use it for growing sweet and delicious watermelons in my garden. However, I noticed that the 5V output pin on the Nano 33 IoT board did not provide any voltage, so I had to solder a connection point and obtain the 5V output for the relay. Once again, thank you very much for this amazing project. I really appreciate it.
Hi, I've been facing the same issue. would a low voltage relay work instead?
@@sameerarallabandi8221 Hello, thank you for your response. As a beginner in Arduino, I would like to try using a relay that operates at a lower voltage next time.
Could you post an OTA firmware upgrade video? That'd be awesome! Thanks for sharing these videos!
Hi, these projects are really great! But, what if I would decide to connect, say, FOUR sensors+pumps to the same microcontroller? Do you already have a similar project somwhere?
How long will this sensor last?
I have this weird behavior: when I insert the moisture sensor into the ground, the line differential switch breaks. Thus, I need to disconnect both the 5Vdc wire as well as the data.
Why is this happening? It didn't happen when I was prototyping (powering the probe through a Wemos D1 mini. But as soon as put "into production", I started experiencing this. Something worth mentioning is that the probe started giving trouble when first inserted into the ground. It didn't happen when it was out of the soil, surrounded just by air.
love the creative idea and the informative content
How can this be done with wireless sensors? I have different plants in different areas of the house that have different water needs. Thanks
Hey Drone Bot have you ever worked with esp32-s3, soil sensor capacitive adafruit and i2c? I'm working in a project and i have to connect 4 sensor in 4 plants for monitoring humidity and temp. So, i have a problem I don't have a multiplexer and it's a little bit difficult found an i2c multiplexer in my country. I'm using the seesaw library by adafruit and when I'm coding i have a problem because the example of this library use by default the pin 8 and 9 which are seted by default as SDA and SCL by ESP32-S3 and at this time noting happen when i read only one sensor but I'm trying to setting up GPIO 1-2, 4-5, 6-7 as SDA and SCL but when I'm running my code I have and error.
In short words I don't know how to make that the library seesaw take my GPIO (1-2, 4-5, 6-7) for read the other 3 sensors. I need help maybe I can send you an e-mail. I also read the .cpp of the seesaw library and in the start they said this:
*****************************************************************************************
* @brief Create a seesaw object on a given I2C bus
*
* @param i2c_bus the I2C bus connected to the seesaw, defaults to "Wire"
****************************************************************************************/
Adafruit_seesaw::Adafruit_seesaw(TwoWire *i2c_bus) {
if (i2c_bus == NULL) {
_i2cbus = &Wire;
} else {
_i2cbus = i2c_bus;
}
}
github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Seesaw/blob/master/Adafruit_seesaw.cpp
ESP32-S3 has pins 8 and 9 configured as SDA and SCL by default. and when you use the original example code of the seesaw for read the temperature and humidity using soil sensor level I supposed that this line "_i2cbus = &Wire" take automatically the pins 8 and 9 and read the sensor values. I left you also de example code: github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Seesaw/blob/master/examples/soil_sensor/soilsensor_example/soilsensor_example.ino
I also tried to adapt the code example of this great article which explains you how to use Multiple I2C devices (same address) in this website:
randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-i2c-communication-arduino-ide/?unapproved=897762&moderation-hash=e63d5fbe5bb493bc8620d56ec227c63b#comment-897762
but i have errors when i use the seesaw library. I'm close to find the solution but I'm not a real programmer guy I know that the problem is with creating a new i2c bus with other GPIO as 1-2. Help and sorry for my bad English.
DB1 are you going back to it
I think you might have red fingers because it was never into your interest area. I think you are a very intelligent person and, if you want, you can control whatever subject on the human knowledge. Regards from Argentina!!
Does this sensor can be use other than soil? just curios.
hey can you do a video of a hydroponic system please
How can I use this same setup up with a nodemcu esp8266
I have two same sensors that show different soil moisture in the same soil at the same place. Does that mean that one of them is broken or can I somehow fix it?
can you pls link the hardware you used for this?
I have tried cheap capacitive moisture sensors, even multiple at different depths of a plant bed but my experience say they get very inacurate over time. I could not rely on them for watering at all. So, sadly to say now I make it much simpler and just water on a timer.
Hello sir, I have a similar project. When the water reaches certain level, which is measured by HCSR04, it turns on pumps to release the excess water. It has 3 catergories, level 1, level 2, and level 3. Each category turns on pumps. At level 3, all pumps turn on to release the excess water. This is applicable in mini dams to avoid excessive water. But when the relays turn on, the board lags and the oled 0.96 display glitches and shows random pixels, and the entire setup just lags, and stops working. But if i disconnect the oled to the system, it works fine. What do you think is the problem? Thank you sir
Is there anyway to get say an email notification if/when the plant needs watering?
Hi , Can I use the same software with Arduino mkr gsm 1400 card
The resisitive sensor is much less accurate since dissolved salts (nutrients/fertilizer) greatly change the resistance.
Distilled water doesn't conduct. Tap water conducts ok-ish, but water with fertilizer dissolved conducts at least an order of magnitude better.
So the more nutrients the plant uses up, the less resitive the soil will become, even when wet.
However, if you always use a specific fertilizer solution and flush the soil each time you water the plant, the reading should be much more accurate.
The amount of fertilizer dissolved in water is actually measured by measuring the conductivity of the solution.
I have a few of these started out for snow depth now working on plants I can kill any plant and am going to see if tech can help me get a green thumb
Very nice project, congrats. I'm trying to do a similar one (with moisture, light and temperature sensors) but I cannot power all three sensors simultaneously from the esp32 (a microcontroller similar to Arduino). Apparently they draw too much current, what can I do?
Have you found a solution ?
@@minamilad9252 Yes sir, I decided to use only one sensor at the time while keeping the other ones turned off. I would get a reading for one sensor, then turn it off and move to the next one
Anyone having problems with the adafruit sensor? Seems to give out random numbers no matter the moisture level. They have mentioned on their website that the value range is between 200 to 2000 but I get 1016 at max and 320 minimum.
They have mentioned on their shop that they have updated the firmware and am guessing they mean the firmware of the chip and not the seesaw library. Any ideas on how to fix without reprogramming the chip?
I would avoid that sensor for now at least.
The Soil Moisture meter code just doesn't work anymore, I had to install an older version of the display library to just get the code to compile and even now the display just doesn't work. Does somebody know a fix ? The calibration worked fine but the display just doesn't work.
Hello, I know you don't do 3d printing and that this is not really a 3d printing channel, but I have been trying to get into coding and building of my own 3d printer and have been having issues on figuring out where to start. The thing is, I know they run off of things like a stepper control board with an onboard controller, is there anyway you could ever dive into this topic? It would be nice because something like those boards could also be handy for things like robotic arms and such. I appreciate all the videos you release, always an amazing amount of info.
czcams.com/users/Dronebotworkshop1search?query=motor
I have heard some people claim that the capacitive boards should have the edges sealed with epoxy or such. To stop water soaking into the board over time.
I bought several but have not used them so far, I don't know if it matters yet.
Go ahead and put them to use. Don't let those tips and tricks hold you back.
So I have a question based on personal experience with other moisture monitors.
The ones in this video, if permanently left in the soil, would they not build up some kind of coating or oxidation or something that will stop them from functioning?
I'd like to eventually make something like this for our greenhouse, but I'm concerned about that problem
I would have to leave the sensors in the soil as well, there's be lots of them. Probably 30 to 50. So I wonder how that would all work out.
Problem is in DC bias current that slowly eats up the probe contacts by electrolisis.
Platinum or gold layer that are resistant, AC bias for probes are some of solutions.
Capacitive probes might be the interesting to.
My self whoud go whit gold, it might seem expensive but its long term solution.
But there are some organic acids and cyanides that etch even gold.
Does anyone know, how to draw such kind of animated circuit as shown in the video, where you have photo of electronic components instead of their schematics.