Development of a prototype watering vegetables device via smartphone

Abstract

Due to the increasing cost of living, people with low to middle incomes need to reduce their household expenses. One of the main problems is the cost of household consumption. If this cost can be reduced, it will alleviate some of the expenses. Growing vegetables for household consumption is one possible solution. However, vegetable cultivation requires care, such as watering. Therefore, the objectives of this research are: 1) to study and analyze the components of a home-grown vegetable irrigation system through a smartphone application. 2) To design and implement a home-grown vegetable irrigation system through a smartphone application. This system will be done by applying Internet of Things (IoT) technology to adjust the appropriate moisture level for the growth of each type of home-grown vegetable. A soil moisture sensor will be used to send data to a microcontroller which will control the moisture level through a smartphone application using the Blynk Platform. This platform can be used with various IoT devices such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP8266, ESP32, Particle, and others. The appropriate moisture level for each type of home-grown vegetable will be set. If the measured moisture level is lower than the set standard, the system will immediately activate the water pump for ease of control and use. The system was tested with three types of vegetables, coriander, basil, and bird's eye chili, ten times each. The results showed that the system was functional with minor errors due to internet connectivity issues.