Automatic Garden Watering System

Building two different systems to water my garden. One just to collect data and make cool plots, one to create a simple and inexpensive solar-powered watering system.
Parts I designed for the project: www.printables...
More about the project: indystry.cc/di...
This is my favorite 3D printer: shareasale.com...
My design software: www.jdoqocy.co...
Patreon: / nikodembartnik
‪@PracticalEngineeringChannel‬ video: • Arduino Garden Control...
Raspberry Pi Pico: amzn.to/3O2GBdG
Garden irrigation set: amzn.to/3uLS3DL
Solar panel: amzn.to/3PqgpLp
Pump: amzn.to/3O74vF0
Follow me on Instagram: / nikodembartnik

[@nikodembartnik]

Thanks a lot for watching! Let me know what you think about this project! Here you can find files, code and plots: indystry.cc/diy-solar-powered-garden-watering-system/

[@007hansen]

Great Video! I do believe the capacitive soil moisture sensor can run with 5v and the analog pin will never see more than 3.3 Volts! Btw, do you know OpenSprinkler exists?

[@generalawareness101]

I am very interested in that capacitive tester for wetness because I lost all my plants this year because they were too dry, or sopping wet yet the meter was all over the place.

[@ric_dk-9520]

You should add a rainwater collector to the system.

[@theonlyari]

Awesome job! I dont think your LEDs are the biggest contributor to your power consumption, although its not a small part either. A few things to consider: 1. Reduce your sensor bandwidth. You dont need to know the soil moisture content every few milliseconds... or seconds... or minutes. You could check once an hour and turn the sensor off for the rest of the time. 2. Get rid of those pesky linear regulators. They are super inefficient. You can either lift some design examples for your own SMPS or go with a module. I have used Analog Devices "LTM" modules a lot and they are great- the downside is they are very expensive ($10+). They are also BGA parts, so you may have trouble soldering them. But they are a good option if you want something small that "just works" 3. Use low power modes in the microcontroller. Put the MCU to sleep when you dont need it. If you implement those few things there's no reason you can't get months of battery life out of this thing. Either way, very good job on making a clean, tidy system. Im sure you had a good time making it and its far better than some professional system i have seen. :)

[@tedbastwock3810]

Great comment, thank you. Also, focusing only on the moisture monitoring and water pump control, as he did toward the end of the video, I believe he could get about an order of magnitude lower power consumption with a single 8 bit microcontroller. He clearly has the skills to program one and develop a board with supporting parts.

[@teyuenbing8400]

It’s great that your dad supports you for your projects. I admire most western people that you can do what interests you such as this project instead of studying all day.

[@sunfoundermakereducation8590]

I watched your videos from beginning to end, and I really like your meticulous attitude to work.👍

[@husam2761]

" I want to make this project because it is the 21th century " Literally less than 20 minutes later, " 14:25 " : proceeds to use Stone Age tools.

[@leventeagas]

nicely done mate. i didnt read all comments so i dont know if anybody else suggested...ive seen that massive rain and you checked your water level and the barrel was almost empty. you can have maybe few holes on top with a mosquito mash as well to stop the dirt going into the barrel and have it refilled when its rain :)

[@piconano]

I just finished a solar ESP32 radiation detector async webserver project. Planted it into the ground on a 2x3 pole just like you, but used NiMH batteries instead. Now that I upgraded my electric moped to LiFePO4, I have 4 x 22Ah sealed lead acid batteries. I'll use one of them to replace the NiMH. They perform better in -20ºC of Canadian winters.

[@OhHeyTrevorFlowers]

This is neat work. Thanks for sharing your process. Also, your family's land is lovely.

[@mists_of_time]

Great project, I love how you showed your designing process in a nice condensed way.

[@nikodembartnik]

Thank you very much!

[@abdulrahmanismailali1064]

@@nikodembartnik can you help me in my project

[@TheRainHarvester]

Great project. Watch for long term uv exposure with plastics and water vapor will condense in the morning onto cool electronics and eventuality corrode. So best to put them in a breathable box which is dry (a nearby shed or big container ). Water vapor will even get sucked down wire insulation into a sealed box a the pressure inside a sealed box goes high then low.

[@TheRainHarvester]

Oh hot glue will not last through a freeze. It will melt\flow while inside a glass jar during Texas heat (oops).

[@TheRainHarvester]

Just some issues/tips to consider! Great project. Watch out for clear tubing growing algae which clogs.

[@TheRainHarvester]

I also want to automate my 35 minute daily watering....but drip doesn't evenly moisten the bacteria here in Texas. Need to grow bacteria in the moist soil to feed the plants. Wicking beds help (on my channel).

[@piconano]

The best programming language, is the one you know the best.

[@Accessgp]

Amazing project and I really appreciate your effort going into details, couple of inputs here from my experience. One the soil moisture sensor will not work reliably if it is too far from the microcontroller because of DC losses.you can move your controller and tank in the middle of the garden to overcome this. Next like others have already mentioned in the comments reduce the interval of data gathering and you will save power. Last add a 12v solenoid valve to the input line to keep the tank always topped up or top up when empty. Next for the challenges with your diy sensor 3D print the legs and have the metal only at the end for consistent performance because no matter how well you insulated the metal humidity will creep in and ruin the day. Hope my inputs help. Overall your project is far better than most commercially available systems for the same purpose. Keep it up 😊

[@Sylvan_dB]

Your soil moisture needs to be using A.C. to minimize corrosion. This simply means alternating the polarity of each probe or better to use an A.C. signal rather than D.C.

[@woolfy02]

Very cool project! Hope to build this, once I get my garden setup.

[@nobodyelse-h6h]

Great Video Nikodenus Bartnikator !!!!!

[@SimpleFarming05]

Awesome, I made a similar project when in school but I used RF modules to send a signal to turn on the pump at the water tank because it was to far away for using cables. I also used GSM module that could send me an SMS when the battery or water level in the tank was low. I reduced power consumption by putting the Arduino to sleep and waking it up every hour to check the moisture. The project worked but sadly I never implemented it in the garden. I got the inspiration now to finally do it after 6 years hah

[@VeerDaVlog]

love you film making & projects. Lots of love from somewhere in India.

[@Mr.Saiful]

we love you Bartnik 😊

[@pucek1517]

Szacun za projekt, wykonanie i fajną prezentację. Ostatnio zacząłem interesować się elektroniką i tak trafiłem na twój kanał :) Puki co jedyne co zrobiłem to prosty projekt z pompką, przekaźnikiem i czujnikiem wilgotności gleby zasilany powerbankiem, jednak polubiłem to i chciałbym spróbować czegoś z mikrokontrolerem. Leci sub i powodzenia

[@temyraverdana6421]

WOW, an amazing and useful project. I think it is useful to add an inlet filter to the pump and add a something like a funnel to the reservoir to recover the rain water falling down. Thanks for share it

[@nikodembartnik]

Adding a filter to the pump is a great idea! The funnel added to the reservoir would collect plenty of dust inside

[@temyraverdana6421]

@@nikodembartnik You are right about funnel, adding a little wire mesh at the end of the cone?

[@jothain]

Nice. Though for reliability I'd suggest to use that minimum level float inverted. Put ball in shaft and let it sink from top and use almost whatever switch when level goes too low. Parts are really easy to print. Also functions well as visual indicator of level far away.

[@nrdesign1991]

Another way to reduce power consumption is to only turn on the sensors and the SD card when they are needed

[@simonbaxter8001]

Totally agree. The rate at which things change in a system like this is very slow, so the device can easily spend 10 minutes in low power standby, then wake up, check the sensors and if nothing needs doing, go back to sleep for 10 minutes. If the pump does need to be on, then stay awake until the pump is turned of then repeat! Would probably save 80% of the power consumed and the battery would easily stay fully charged by the solar panel.

[@ianstarcroft]

Definitely. I created a very similar system using an ESP8266 clone. It sleeps for 1 hour, reads all the sensors, uploads then to the internet. It uses the light sensor to determine if its night or day and runs the pump on the transitions between the two. Using an old car battery and a 10w solar panel it never runs out of power.

[@thesower6577]

@@ianstarcroft hi. It’s lovely to hear about your project. Will you care to connect and share some of your insight with me? I’m trying to build a system like that in Africa

[@jamesmyles2009]

Thanks for the great video. Planning a simple timed system based on gravity feed with tank topped up with river water by a pump. Have gone for a 12v car battery and 120W solar. I hope I build something even half as neat as yours.

[@education.online_frevryone]

I really like your outdoor table!

[@lucyfeer2582]

Właśnie na to czekałem! Pozdro

[@makergona]

The video is very good. It seems to be a video that contains a lot of the prototyping process. I have a job to teach high school student the production process in Korea, and I will recommend this video to them. It's also very educational.

[@nikodembartnik]

That's cool thanks!

[@zilotix9377]

it would be cool if you could hook it up to a weather system or maybe just a weather app to predict certain aspects for the project like humidity or total rainfall to alert your system to save water and just wait for the rain.

[@KeritechElectronics]

Nice project. It takes some practice to solder these perfboards, but it can be done nicely. That's how I prototype devices (or build single production units).

[@HoneymoonCampers]

Pozdrowienia z Portugalii gdzie Twoja wiedza nam się przyda! :))

[@JPToto]

This is so well done Nik!!

[@kmSaifullah]

Great...👍👍👍 Excellent project. Best of luck Brother✌️✌️

[@Bhfcgjk]

Great video and project!

[@ScootLogix]

very cool man. I've been wanting to do something similar, possibly with aquaponics. Just need the land, I live in a small townhouse. Keep it up, looks like you really enjoy this stuff.

[@jsmythib]

I think the unstable readings may have had something to do with the reactance/decomposition of the metals in the sensor. Sitting in one spot, reacting with the moisture/etc over time. Very slight but the reaction eventually creates its own unique local environment in the soil. Maybe :) Fun stuff, thankyou for sharing this project.

[@jsmythib]

try graphite probes. Or a robotic arm to plunge the probe at intervals. Im over doing it! sry :)

[@Very_Dark_Engineer]

Well done Nikodem, i impressed by your productivity. Be careful with fiberglass dust whan work with pcb, fiberglass dust can be dangerous.

[@stevekent3991]

It also helps if you have good soil, I only water my veg during the seedling stage. Mother Nature does the rest, no need to water again unless there is a long hot dry period. If you need to water everyday, you are either overwatering and/or your soil is low quality and not retaining moisture. For thirsty veg, consider Kratky hydroponics and use a float value.

[@GreenCinco12Official]

Nice project. I would try to change the lid of the barrel to a grid/net to collect water but keeping leaves etc. out. This way the barrel fills a little bit everytime it rains.

[@hippopotamus86]

Maybe instead of a pump, you could run an electronic valve to open and close, and allow gravity to move the water.

[@Hofstader007]

There is a problem with that. It depends on how much water you have in your barrel and the hight where the barrel is placed. As the water level decreases the pressure decreases and less water is flowing through the nozzles . If you are connected to a water source with constant pressure you can use a solenoid valve as you speak of.

[@Ataraxia27]

Witam! I can't believe you are almost at 100k. Watching your channel for years now. sorry for not subscribing earlier.

[@RixtronixLAB]

Nice video shot, well done, thanks for sharing it :)

[@direnm100]

Great project! Exactly what i was looking for. 👏

[@mrcarlpaton]

You inspire me to make things brother!

[@sabaubogdan6997]

Frankly. Prototype boards are my to-go solutions usually. I don't have the patience to make or wait for a pcb. I found on KZbin different techniques for prototyping on perf boards. If you take a bit of time the end result could be quite nice.

[@jordansahs1529]

Great project!!! I really liked it.

[@johnspence8141]

Absolutely inspiring

[@cavinrauch]

That video from practical engineering got me into Arduino's

[@ARMadillo18]

This looks cool. Thanks for this video.

[@aaronag7876]

Thank you. This is such a great video and exactly I wanted to play with. Ive Subbed and notified

[@demotulation]

Ground moisture is the most important . But when I talked to a botanologist he told me that , the lack of water is the magic ingredient that gives so much better taste on home made vegs and fruits!! Lack of water forces vegs to produce some chemicals in order to survive and keep their fruits intact . When you give them plenty of water there is no need for those chemicals. Thats why fruits and vegs from big green houses are so tasteless. So keep that on mind ... more is not always the best

[@scerrisebastien]

Thanks for the share. Great video!

[@visuinoprojects]

Very Cool project!

[@FabriceCHERRIER]

nice work. I have same interrogation about soil moisture sensor... I use the capacitive one but need to replace it every year

[@kpmathis71]

Regarding the watering side, pull those emitters back a bit from the stems. Root rot can be caused by the base of the plant (stem to root transition) staying wet & fungus growing. Also it can help to make the plants "reach" for the water a bit - wider roots, More stable plants. Consider using rain collection at all? Loads of additional issues, but maybe less refilling the source drum? Have you found any reliable soil sensors on the market? Reviews all seem to point to fast failures for all I have seen. Your solid metal (I think?) probes make more sense to me. Been lurker-subbed for a while. Enjoy the work. Thanks for sharing.

[@YassinHM]

"I just wanna make cool graphs too!" Hah! nice one.

[@woody3says]

Fantastic work!

[@JaguarWisdom-9]

Just to comment on your opening statement. I have 3 polytunnels, what if I want to go on holiday for 2 weeks in the summer? It's not just about saving time, but allows me to take a break! Love your work

[@gennadiymoroz7252]

Hi from Ukraine, nice job! :)

[@Kmnri]

1. Imo automated systems work much better when you have remote control over them so i would use esp32 (so c++) 2. Putting mcu to sleep is also good idea, read sensors every 30 minutes or so, upload data via wifi, put it back to sleep

[@elmocho9003]

amazing job !!!!! congrats

[@antsz5451]

Po akcencie poznaję, ze to nasz człowiek. 😃

[@mitas3484]

Why spend 2 hours watering, if you can spend 20 hours on making a system that waters for you. As a software engineer, I approve :D

[@adamsdimension]

LOL i do this all the time with "monotonous tasks" at work automating in excel or excel VBA... sometimes i wonder why i spend 20 hours fixing a 5 minute per day task... but then I realize it's just fun.

[@DogeMultiverse]

use an arduino for the sleep mode. it uses 100x less power than rPI when in sleep.

[@Hybert_]

What a coincidence, I have everything needed for this project and a few tomato plants 👀

[@tedbastwock3810]

First time I saw someone do an actual real life version of this. Great job, and thanks for sharing! Almost 2 years later ... are you still using it? Edit .. p.s. new sub

[@pedro_8240]

Now you need to add another water level sensor to the barrel, but this time to the top, and with some hysteresis you activate a valve to automatically fill the barrel, and then, after that you realize that you over engineered the system and could have just used the water supply instead of a barrel and a pump 😝

[@mmhmnms]

I'm a big fan of the perf boards you can buy that have a few pins connected together in the same way as on breadboards 👌 can recommend

[@davidsherrick8633]

Adafruit makes one called the Perma-Proto board that you can solder on and is electrically connected just like a regular breadboard. They are significantly easier to work with than just plain perf boards. I use solderable jumper wire so you never have to make traces with solder like you do with perf boards.

[@mmhmnms]

@@davidsherrick8633 nice! I've only ever bought mystery brandless ones of aliexpress but looks like it's basically the same thing 😄

[@leandroalbero]

Dont use clear tubes, they will get covered in algae pretty fast. ;)

[@ronen124]

nice projects, 5:17 there are beautiful tomatoes hanging on your right (-: 12:47 that rain came where your father lives on July or much before? to my opinion LED's should glow only when a button is pressed to save power

[@paxon57]

Zajebista robota, mysle tylko czy nie lepiej na zaworach i zbiornik nad ziemia zeby grawitacja robila robote

[@xby2918]

dobry pomysł, dużo mniej prądu potrzeba!

[@DIYwithBatteries]

Yo... This is really cool Dude well made and we can easily make a automatic watering but data collection was a bit work Hah really so nice 👍

[@solarindependentutilitysystems]

Awesomeness

[@droneexperience2300]

Loved it

[@vincentliet7995]

Why not watering under the ground in stead above?

[@tullgutten]

Think you should also have a drain hole in your electronics container as water always find a way inn and can build up if it can't get out. Ive burned myself many times with electronics just burning up from water buildup even with everything sealed with caulk and tape...

[@UseR-ne8fm]

really cool job!!! ;)

[@WoLpH]

You should take a look at the Flaura project (it's also here on KZbin). He's done many tests to see which soil moisture detectors work well and which are wrong (most on aliexpress are wrong). Your current solution will work for a while but I highly doubt that the soil moisture sensors will work for long.

[@rubenwardy]

Very nice video as always! When I made such a system, I used an ESP32 which supports deep sleep - I only turn it on every 5 minutes. Maybe using this or turning sensors off would have allowed you to keep the sensors?

[@smallwhitebug7566]

wow you put label on it 😮 6:13

[@jev5]

I love this idea, but I wonder how the automated system performs Vs occasionally watering the plants Vs letting nature run its course? I guess in terms of crop yield and quality.

[@gg-gn3re]

welcome to 15 years ago man! you need checkvalved emitters with flow rate control, spread them around more, water plants shorter 15-30 seconds and switch to next plant, next plant, next etc and then restart to first plant this way they get less water in events instead of tons of water for 5 mins and then no more.

[@JoNorthkeeper]

Great project thx, nice Filament. Do you have a link? thx

[@babyfox205]

how frequently should i replace the 'capacitive' moisture sensors if i'll use in the winter at temperatures 0c to 5c? it'll probably get destroyed quickly in the winter because of the cold?

[@itisno1]

Made a system similar but think I'll go w Arduino bc of higher stability/reliability of 8-bit system; I find 32-bit is an overkill for my application. You may consider an 8-bit system too, since you're using solar to power it. Ofc, lower power consumption. I see you've already done an Arduino build in the past. One thing I've thought about, is perhaps using multiple sensors in one pot to water based upon an average soil moisture index between multiple sensors.

[@NaveenKumar-lz3ei]

hi. how to check voltage and current input of the system ? got any example video?

[@bryanblanco5751]

everything is relative and only the desgracia chases us: and what will happen when the boat is emptied - and what will happen if the sensor fails - and what will happen if you lose connection with the module? and what will happen if your phone stays if you battery? and what will happen if you die?

[@education.online_frevryone]

Have you considered making a video on being a businessman as an engineer?

[@قضاياالدينوالدنيا]

how did you get rid of that connection that almost burnt your circuit.

[@almasrafi4102]

Tell me, Sir? What was your college major EE,ME or what? And you are amazing sir....

[@nickgur7133]

I dont understand how are u able to drive these IRFZ44 mosfets with 3.3V from pico, datasheet says u need atleast 4V to open them fully

[@ibraheemali9541]

can we use this system for drip irrigation?

[@Bhfcgjk]

Nice

[@cridr]

how to you manage to make sure that the water reaches all the plants ? in my experience I always had locations where the water did not reach for some reason and more water reached other locations. This happens specially when there are more plants so more small cables. Also nice and strange locations for a garden, looks like in the middle of a public field. Hopefully no one will steal your project, literarily.

[@amirrezaheidari8041]

You are very skilled 👌 did you study electronics? By the way, how did you recorded data? Was it a free cloud service?

[@TheTurmanDreams]

Let´s go !!!

[@MrMic18650]

Hey, Nikodem will give to your Pateron if you make a room a clone?

[@jackson384]

amazing kid

[@likhitnimbekar9500]

Water tank use in this video in my country it cost is around 6.3$ or 500₹

[@j0nikus]

now its time to make it with wifi. Solar energy is future! Sensor block with solar mini battery and ESP module. Controller with solar panel, battery, water pump, ESP, day/night sensor.

[@explorerpragun431]

Sir what work you actually do it nasa

[@Sanjuro555]

As far i see you use normal cable glands. With more than one cable it isn't waterproof. To make it waterproof you must use sealing inserts for multiple cables eg. look at Lapp Kabel SKINTOP DIX (with SKINTOP DIX-DV for sealing unused holes in SKINTOP DIX) or use Icotek split cable gland with multicable instert seal. Only that or similar solution allow to waterprof seal multicable glands.

[@VDM97]

Very nice project, even more so if one considers your age👍 And don't get me wrong, but you should work on your soldering skills.. my instructor would have banned me from using a soldering iron for a year if he would see something like in 6:14😄