Drip Irrigation System

Project Description

Difficullty Level: Intermediate
Programming Platform: evive Firmware|PictoBlox (Scratch)
Products Used: Agriculture Kit, ATL Kits, evive
PictoBlox Extensions: NA

Introduction

Drip irrigation system is a type of micro-irrigation of soil which has the potential to save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants. This leads to the wise use of water and also makes water reach the roots of plants and minimize evaporation. Drip irrigation systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters. Its efficiency depends on how well the system is designed, installed, maintained, and operated. A simple drip irrigation system is shown below in the figure.

Drip Irrigation = Smart Irrigation

Drip Irrigation Kit

In this project, we will be using evive Drip irrigation kit. This kit consists of various components out of which the following are required in our project

Feeder line pipe is used to transfer water from water tank source to the drip irrigation system. It is also used to connect the T-connectors to make different connections.
Drip emitter is a small piece used to water the plant drop by drop. It is connected to the T connector with the help of feeder line pipe of around(2.5 cm as per our requirement).
T connector is a T shaped piece of plastic which connects one drip emitter to the adjacent drip emitter with the help of feeder line pipe.
Emitter stakes are stands with a curve at top and pointed at other end. It will help to provide stability to the feeder line pipe drip emitter connections.
A 12V,3W Water pump is connected at one end of feeder pipeline.The male end of water pump is connected female dc connector.

Plant and take Measurements

Plan how you want to implement the drip irrigation.

Once planned, measure the distance between your plants. Each emitter will water 1-2 plants.

Connecting T Connectors and Pipe

We will make cut off the feeder line pipe according to the required dimension of our setup. Feeder line pipe is cut in different sizes so as to fix the connection between T connector and Drip emitters.
Now, one end of the T junction fully connects the pipe as shown in the figure. Make sure the length of the pipe is not too long or too short.

Setting Up the Emitters

Now insert the adjustable emitters to the other end of the pipe.

Now the setup consisting of one Drip emitter looks like as shown in the figure above.
We can connect the above setup in a series according to the required setup.
Since both the ends of setup are open. One end is connected to the water pump.

Blocking the Free End

Block the free end of the pipe using a glue gun.

Mounting the irrigation system

Place the emitter stacks near the plants and mount the pipes. Adjust it to change the flow.

Interfacing Water Pump with evive

The following steps will guide you how to interface water pump with evive:

A water pump is taken and the end wire contains a male connector which is connected to the female DC connector.
The male end of jumper wires(2 wires) are connected to female DC connector.
The female end of jumper cables is connected to evive motor M1 slot as shown in the figure.
Dip the water pump in the water reservoir.
evive is powered with 12V,2A power adapter.
The above setup after the arrangement of the circuit looks as shown in the figure.

Operating with the evive menu

Now go the evive menu >> select controls>>select Motor1. Now we can control the water pump flow with the help of evive potentiometer 1 and slide switch 1.