Automated Irrigation Control System

Hardware Description

Julie Chang 5-1-2007

Introduction
The Automated Irrigation Control System is a system that monitors and controls the soil moisture content of a blueberry fields. The block diagram for this project is in Figure 1 on page 2. It shows that the signal from soil moisture sensor will be conditioned and amplified by operational amplifier before it reaches microcontrollers analog-todigital converter. According to this input information, the microcontroller will decide when to turn on the water pump and how long to keep it on. The operator can also communicate with the microcontroller through the a keypad and a LCD display to change settings, such as on time and off time.

Soil Moisture Seneor

Microcontroller

Water Pump

KeyPad

LCD

Figure 1 : Basic System Block Diagram

Power Supply Wall transformer Input 120V Output 5V Current 1A

Soil Moisture Sensor

MC9S12DP256B

32k Flash 12k Ram

Op-amp

PAD

4x4 Keypad

PortB

PortA 2 x 16 LCD Display

Port T

PortK

Power Supply 120VAC

Relay & Water Pump

Figure 2 : Functional Hardware Diagram

Hardware Overview
The functional hardware diagram is Figure 2 located on page 3. The Automated Irrigation Control System is composed of two circuit boards. The first one is used for user interface components including LCD, keypad, microcontroller, relay and soil moisture sensor. The second circuit board is for the water pump controller and the switch that turn off the water pump manually if microcontroller fail to do so. We will now look into the hardware components in more detail.

Power Supply
There are two separate power supplies for this system. The microcontroller and the peripherals, including LCD, keypad, microcontroller, relay and soil moisture sensor use a wall adaptor that converts 120 VAC to 9V. Then the LM2931T-5 regulator will transfer 9V to a steady 5V DC output to this part of the system. The other power supply is for the water pump, which is controlled by a controller manufactured by Franklin Electrical Co.. The controller have already installed in a well house where irrigation water is pumped out from a well to the blueberry field.

Sensor
I am using a soil moisture sensor manufactured by HomeTrends,Inc, it does not require battery or any power. I tested it by put the sensor probe in tap water with a pinch of salt, it will output 90 minivolts and if it is in dry soil or air, it outputs zero volt. In the ideal soil moisture condition I set up for tests, it outputs 40 to 50 minivolts. This voltage signal is then conducted through a CAT 5 cable to MAXIM 492 rail to rail cmos op-amp.

MAXIM 492 op-amp

The dual MAX492 operates from a single power supply of +2.7V to +6V. It has wide input and output range, and is configured as a noninverting operational amplifier with an amplification of 4. The conditioned signal then is input to the A/D converter on the microcontroller.

Microcontroller
The Automated Irrigation Control System is based on the Motorola MC9S12DP256B (U1) microcontroller which is configured to operate in standalone mode. It has 256k of Flash EEPROM, 12k of RAM and 4k bytes of byte-erasable EEPROM. This project will use Ports A, B, K, and T. Also it will use the PAD0 for A/D conversion.

BDM
J1 is a 10 pin BDM header used to communicate with the MC9S12DP256B (U1) microcontroller. This id connects to BKGD along with the ECLK. It will allow for future updates to this system.

Relay
I am using a NPN transistor (Philips 2N3904), a diode (Philips 1N4004) and a relay(Tyco-SSRQ-240-D20) to switch on and off the water pump controller. Both use 5 V DC power supply and receive signal from Port T of microcontroller to switch on and off.

Keypad
The keypad used is an 8 by 2 matrix keypad (kp1). It is connected to Port B of the microcontroller. The keypad will allow the user to input settings into the control system.

LCD
The LCD is a 2 by 16 liquid crystal display. It is connected to Port B of microcontroller. It allows the user to set all settings on this control system.

Automatic Irrigation Control System Parts List

Item 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Quantity 7 4 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Description Capacitor 10% 100nF Capacitor 10% 10uF Capacitor 10% 22pF Capacitor 10% 330pF Capacitor 10% 3nF Resistor 1% 10k Resistor 1% 22k Resistor 1% 3k Resistor 1% 1k Resistor 1% 4k Resistor 1% 3.01k Resistor 1% 1k Pot 10-20k MC9s12DP256 Max492 cmos op-amp (Maxim) LCD HD44780A00 2x16 Soil Moisture Sensor Connector BDM Connector Water Pump Controller Connector Wall Adaptor Keypad Relay (Tyco-SSRQ-240-D20) Diode (Philips 1N4004) Transistor (Philips 2N3904 Transistor)

Designator C1,2,3,5,9,10,13 C4,11,14,15 C6,7 C8 C12 R1,4,7,8 R3 R11 R10 R6 R5 R2 R9 U1 U2 U3 J1 J2 J3 J4 KP1 K1 D1 Q1