Starting my Soil Moisture Sensor Project

Projects General Guidance
1

I'm a 9th grader starting a new project about making a Soil Moisture Sensor for yet another science fair project.

Unlike my last project with a pulse oximeter, researching this project has been less than relatively straightforward, as I keep getting directed to:

  1. Poorly built websites and/or guides that I just flat out can't navigate through due to their abundance of jank.
  2. Code that doesn't work or is said to be broken by people who tried the project.
  3. Links to products many people have reviewed as poor quality or a scam.

Falling into any of these traps is terrible for me, as it'd be a waste of time and/or money in a situation where time is quite valuable.

Could any of you give me some suggestions as to which guides (preferably on the Arduino website or its project hub) to follow? What materials should I use? Which microchip do I get? What code do I use for the microchip?

Thank you.

2

Could this project page work for you?
Soil Moisture Sensor Arduino Tutorial

3

GOOGLE broken ?? .........:melting_face:

4

You should have started several months sooner.

1 Like
5

Buy soil moisture sensor from respected supplier.
Adafruit maybe.
Use their code examples to get started.

6

This works

my best advice - start three months ago.

7

Urgent?

570×760 92.6 KB

3 Likes
8

If it needs to work during the fair only...
Put two pieces of copper in the soil. Run a current through these pins. (Controlled from whatever arduino you have).
Use a known resistor in series(approx. 100 kohm)
Measure voltage over the known resistor.
Calibrate sensor to your needs (try readings for dry earth, moist earth and wet earth...)
Add some nice interface. One rgb led could be sufficient. Costs: almost nothing.

9

Come on let us not exaggerate. This could be done in half a day.
OP is likely to need more time and ordering stuff is not handy in Christmas season...
But still, this can be done.
But OP needs to do a bit more than googling and complaining...

11

while what youre saying is true, i wont deny that
i would prefer if u responded to this with something a bit more, helpful
with all due respect tho

12

Project Hub is as bad as those failing, copy/pasted websites.

Search for the data sheet of the device and find things you need to use:

- Operating Voltage: 3.3 ~ 5.5 VDC (this is the voltage required by the device)
- Output Voltage: 0 ~ 3.0VDC (this is the voltage level/range of the output, in bits)
- Operating Current: 5mA (current required is low enough to power with Arduino)

Connect power, ground and the datapin to an analog pin or a digital pin, then read the pin.

13

I found a weird inconsistency though. It says to use a capacitive soil moisture sensor, however in the diagrams (and even the video), I noticed the guy using a resistive sensor? Is there something else I should know, orrr?

Your answer is appreciated though :slightly_smiling_face:

14

YouTube videos are only for clicks so they can make money. They do not care if you notice their jump cuts or different pins or devices. They got your "click."

Your best bet is to learn to read the datasheet (not easy, but you are able to learn how to find the data you need in the mountain of data in a datasheet).

1 Like