should be simpler. Therefore, to make life easier and more convenient, we have to make “automatic plant”.
An automatic plant irrigation monitoring system is the good solution to overcome this problem. This irrigation system is not only provides a good hydration system for plant but
also provides the controller that allows the user to set their irrigation system operation. Users also can set the level of moisture that is allowed according to the specification in the soil so
their crops will always have a maintained moisture level. With an availability of a simple user-friendly monitoring display, this system provides
a display that can be easily understood by anyone who uses it. In additional, this type of technology is very helpful in terms of better productivity and reducing the burden on farmers
and gardeners.
1.3 Project objective
1. To design reliable soil moisture sensor
2. To compare the sensitivity of two type of sensor probe that was made of stainless steel
and copper 3.
To provide a system that can help monitor plant growth by reducing the manual monitoring system.
1.4 Project Scope
This project focuses to the low cost automatic plant irrigator design. The project involves the evolution of manually watering techniques to automatic watering techniques. The
controlling automatic watering system in an agricultural. Some scope and limitation have been set to complete this project in a more systematic and organized.
Sensor used to control the watering system is soil moisture sensor. Soil moisture sensor will be buried in the soil to a depth of about 3cm. The distance between the two rods in
the probe is 2cm. The soil will be tested in three condition which is dry condition, optimum condition and
Dry condition
The sensor will be placed in dry soil conditions and embedded at a predetermined depth. In dry soil conditions, the sensor will be in the high resistance value because there is no
conduction path between the two stainless steelcopper rods.
Optimum Condition
When water is added to the soil, it will spread across every layer of soil due to capillary force. This can cause increases in soil moisture content. The resistance value of the sensor decrease
due to the conductive path is formed between the two rods.
There are several software will be used, the software is livewire that been used to simulated the circuit. The second software that will be used in this project is Visual Basic 6 that will be
used to implement a graphical user interface for PIC as the system controller.
Chapter 2
Literature review
2.1 Introduction
Literature review is a section that being responsible for imparting requires information on the project which entitled “development of automatic plant irrigator system”. There are a
lot of researches that have been done involving plant watering system. Each part of the system has its own features. Some part of the system might be available on the market.
Some of the problems that often arise are most cost-watering quite expensive on the market. Financial factors seem is one of problem or obstacle to many gardeners or farmer
who have small-scale plants to run the application of this technology in their mechanization. Therefore, this chapter aims to gather all the information in the design of user friendly and low
cost in the automatic watering applications. In this chapter, the matters to be discussed are the design procedure and the
construction of an automatic irrigation system. This discussion will be into several topics in order to facilitate a better understanding of the criteria used for this system.
2.2.Soil moisture sensor
Sensor is a device which used to measure a physical quantity and convert this information into a signal that can be read by the observer or a tool. [1]
The Sensor converts one form of energy into another form because the sensor is a transducer. For this reason, the sensor is categorized according to the type of energy transfer
that they detected. Soil moisture measurement provides very useful information to agriculture,
such as agriculture farm, soil stability, soil moisture and construction activities. [2] The probe selection for sensor is very important. This is because the material that used
in the probe. Sensor sensitivity is depending on the material that used to construct the probe. Usually, soil moisture sensor refers to the resistance of the soil. Water is a good electric
conductance. Generally, if the soil is wet, the resistance between the probes is low and vice versa [3].
Gypsum block is a product of the low cost soil moisture monitoring. Their low cost and ease of interpretation make this block is particularly suitable for seasonal crops. There are
two electrodes embedded in the gypsum block. When gypsum wet, it will conduct electric easily and when gypsum dry, it is a poor conductor. A pair of electrode within the block will
measure the change in the resistance. It is possible directly using a pair of electrode measure the resistivity in the soil but the measurement will influence by changes in soil conductivity
brought about by salt and other ingredients. The ion gypsum provided a buffer against the effects of salt and nutrients. It is very effective for prevention of salt ions from reaching the
electrode and to ensure the sensor is only responding to moisture level. [4]
2.3.PIC Microcontroller
Microcontroller is a computer on- a- chip. It is a type of intelligence processor that can be programmed for collecting data from input. Microcontroller frequently uses in
automatically control devices such as remote control system, toys and hardware. [5]
PIC is act as the main brain system in a moisture monitoring system. Technically, PIC
is used to convert analog signals to digital signals that can be read by a computer that provides a view of the monitoring system. In the measurement of soil moisture, the soil moisture
sensor is use to measure the difference voltage across the probe. Then transmit the measure
to the PIC. .[6]
PIC can impose for a particular sensor to the 5V output. By doing this, the sensor probe will be able to collect charges to it. Then, perform the sensor will be done with the
circuit resistance to ground. The time is taken to implement correlation with the level of moisture in the soil. [6]
In additional, the PIC also is a decision maker. The PIC is the main unit to be used as a monitoring system in the overall system. As decision-makers, the PIC will be set to
determine every action of each part inside the system. For example, by control the irrigation unit and determine the time for watering. [11]
2.4 Irrigation System
