Water Your Garden with IoT - Soil Moisture Sensors

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!

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

[Dronebotworkshop]

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!!


Thanks!

Bill (The real one!)

[craig]

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!

[spoopedoop]

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.

[weavingandmore...]

Pls go on teaching us never stop
Thank you for everything
All love and appreciation ❣️

[matt]

This is litralllly the exact project I was gunna try doing... this is perfect!!

[donny]

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 🌱

[sinjhguddu]

The detailed explanation leaves no stone unturned. Greatly appreciated and good health to you, Sir.

[homedad]

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.

[MrJoegotbored]

Love the usual mix of hardware, software, and practical application. Longtime subscriber!

[carlwright]

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.👍

[MrPlaiedes]

Might be the cutest intro on the web. Nice

[dion]

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.

[gkdresden]

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.

[chra]

Thanks from Finland, very good axplanation.

[BorisSiber]

Thanks for teaching and sharing. May the force be with you :)

[dfurrow]

3I enjoy your channel very much and use it frequently. Thank-you for your effort it is much appreciated!

[mmuhamme]

Thank you, for sharing your knowledge and skills to the world.

[diggee]

Excellent and helpful especially as spring is on its way. I think I have the confidence to try this this year. Thank you.

[hopolo]

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.

[johnnz]

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.