Irrigation System

Water Irrigation System

Inspiration

We were inspired to build this project because we wanted to work with microcontrollers and embedded systems for the first time for this Hackathon. In addition, as plant owners, we would often forget to water our plants, which is why we decided to build this project. We thought that this irrigation system will make it more convenient for us and for plant owners.

What it does

The irrigation system waters plants when it detects that the plant's soil is dry. In addition, it plays a cute tune when the soil is dry indicating that the plant needs water. Once the plant gets its water, the music stops playing. In addition, we have an LCD screen that displays the moisture percentage of the plant. A low percent indicates that the soil is dry and a higher percentage indicates that the plant has enough water.

How we built it

We built this project using an Adruino IDE to code how the electric components will interact with each other. The electric components include an Arduino Uno, an LCD screen, a moisture sensor, a water pump, a buzzer, and a relay module.

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges that we ran to are the batteries running low, the water getting onto the hardware, and the water overflowing. Some of the components started to function weirdly when we accidentally dropped the moisture sensor into the water, but once it dried up it worked as expected again. In addition, we had to use several batteries in order for the water pump to work because the battery runs low. In addition, the water overflowed a few times because the code was not working properly and kept on pumping out water, and we would often forget to unplug the power source.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An accomplishment that we are proud of is the cute tune that plays when the plant needs to be watered. In addition, we are quite proud that we were able to get all of the features to work together concurrently.

What we learned

We learned how to code in the Arduino language, hooking up all of the components together, and learning how the parts will interact with each other.

This is our first time working with the sensors and the electric components, so we learned to connect the parts in a way so that we don't accidentally short-circuit our system.