This is a simple project based on the Internet of things.My primary interest for me to make this project is to get familiarised with IoT,to do data analytics, and do some automation.
- In this project, I have used Nodemcu(ESP8266) microcontroller to establish a wifi connection and interface other components.Soil moisture sensor which works on the capacitive principle is used to get real-time moisture content.The parallel plates act as a capacitor and give us analog data based on the moisture content of the soil which acts as a dielectric.The sensor module analog input is connected to the A0 pin of nodemcu.Then a single channel relay is used to perform the actuation of the water pump.It is powered with a 5V regulated source.
1 / 3
- Here I have faced a challenge in driving 5V relay using Nodemcu.Appropriate switching does not occur with normal driving.I found out that it is due to the insufficient current provided by Nodemcu and the floating state of output while switching.To tackle this I have used a Mosfet(IRF630) or a pulldown resistor could help.Here the digital output is given to the gate of MOSFET,the source is grounded and output is taken across the drain,this provides us efficient switching.
- The water pump is actuated when moisture content goes below the threshold and the plant is watered and is automatically turned off when sufficient moisture is reached.This data is uploaded to thingspeak analytics platform which gives us the real-time status of moisture content,moisture status, and many more if needed.The data can be viewed through mobile using thing view application.Thing speak is an easy to use analytics platform by Matlab.We can use it for free with a Matlab account with limited access.The only thing we have to do is to create a new project in thing speak platform,we will get an API key.We can use that key in our code to send or receive data.It is totally an easy project anyone can try it who are interested in the internet of things.
Thanks to circuit digest.










Comments