Automatic Plant Watering System
You could have your neighbour come over to your house to water your plants when you go on holiday, or you could build your very own automatic plant watering system, which sounds more fun? Here i am going to prepare you for the day you have to leave your beautiful plants in the hands of some stranger.
How does it work? That is a good question, the voltage that the sensor output changes appropriately to the water content in the soil. Voltage decreases when the soil is wet, and increases when it is dry. The sensor detects when to send a signal to the pump to water the plant as there is a specific threshold voltage that needs to be exceeded. This threshold voltage can be changed by adjusting the potentiometer on the sensor.
Hardware:
- Zio 4 DC Motor Control
- Soil Moisture sensor (Comes in two parts, electronic board and probe with two pads)
- Water Pump Motor (2.5- 6V)
- Zuino M UNO
Software:
Step 1: Hardware
Here is a guide for all the connections you will have to make for your plant watering system
| Water Pump Motor | Zio 4 DC Motor Control |
| Red: DC+ | A201 |
| Black:DC- | A202 |
You will need to connect the Zuino to the motor control using a single Qwiic connectors.
| Soil Moisture sensor | Zuino M UNO |
| A0 | Analog pins |
| GND | GND |
| VCC | 3.3V |
Step 2: Software
You will need to change the analogInPin to the pin you have connected on your Zuino.
Upload to the code to your Zuino.
You will need to open the Arduino IDE serial monitor to view the values the sensor is detecting and through that you can adjust the potentiometer to your specific threshold voltage.
Just like that, you have just built your very own automatic plant watering system.
From here you can build on to this single watering system and start your very own large scale watering system for your garden.