ArduinoGeneral

Help Required on Auto Water for Plants

userHead Account cancelled 2013-01-24 14:03:40 6348 Views9 Replies
Hi Friends,

I have a 3.5V~12V Immersible Water Pump and as per its specifications it works at 60mA to 500mA and a Moisture Sensor for the plants. Both I have purchased from DFRobot.

The Immersible pump product I am talking about is : [url=http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=667]http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=667[/url]

The problem I am facing is with powering the pump using the Arduino UNO with any of the digital pins. When I connect it directly to 5V pin it works fine. So I assume its not getting the required power to start the pump.

My Sketch looks as

[code]
int sensorPin = A0;
int sensorValue = 0;
int pumpPin = 2;
int ledPin = 13;


void setup() {

Serial.begin(9600);

pinMode(pumpPin,OUTPUT);
pinMode(ledPin,OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(pumpPin,LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);

}

void loop() {
// read the value from the sensor:
sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);


if (sensorValue >= 500){
digitalWrite(pumpPin,LOW);
digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);
}
else
{
//Start the Pump and the LED
digitalWrite(pumpPin,HIGH);
digitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);
}

Serial.println(sensorValue);
delay(1000);

}[/code]

Everything works fine except powering the pump through the DigitalPins. Any suggestions on how to solve this.

Regards,
Vijay
2022-11-14 17:28:17

I love flowers, especially exotic ones. I have a garden full of plants from all over the world, and they delight me with their blooms all year round. And I recently bought <a href="https://getpotted.com/plants/live-plants/indoorplants/">living room indoor hanging plants</a>. They look amazing in my house, now the beauty is not only in the garden) 

userHeadPic Natalia34Frans
2022-11-10 19:13:22

Quite interesting information, thank you 

userHeadPic Natalia34Frans
2021-08-22 14:26:29 Convective cells may transfer spore syringes from gaps as small as one centimeter wide and hoist spores as high as ten centimeters into the air. This research explains how mushrooms cope with crowding and even benefit from it, as well as their high water requirements. userHeadPic leiapresident332145
2014-10-30 05:26:09 Naaah I think I'll leave the 9v one. Already at the top of my budget for this project :( Thank you userHeadPic taao84
2014-10-28 09:58:40 Cool, so it is a power issue?
The voltage of the solar battery will drop with the time. I think you could choose a high capacity solar battery, which could be charged by solar and usb.
:)
userHeadPic Grey.CC
2014-10-27 12:01:29 Hi Grey, thank you for your answer. I checked the relay output voltage and there is a drop in the voltage when the relay goes to the "usually open position". It seems like it's not enough to move the pump. I changed the power source from a 5v solar battery to a common 9v battery and it works sweet. Thank you. userHeadPic taao84
2014-10-27 10:42:46 Hello taao,

What is your power of the relay module?
Could you share me your code? How about measuring the relay output voltage via a multimeter directly? It is better to attach a photo about your connection.
By the way, if you have the new "Auto planting KIT", the pump could be driven by the ecoduino.
userHeadPic Grey.CC
2014-10-25 20:11:14 Hi similar problem here. I'm controlling my water pump using arduino to open/close a relay.The relay when open provides 5V from an external battery to the pump. The problem is that the pump works only sometimes (Odd). If I connect the pump directly to the battery then always works. When connected to the circuit works randomly. I exchange the pump for a normal 12V motor and the circuits works perfect all the time. I used a multimeter to check the current and when the relay close the circuit a good amount of current goes through the circuit for about 1sec and then drops to zero.

Any ideas about what can be wrong??? I'm totally out of ideas at this point
userHeadPic taao84
2013-01-25 11:49:01 Hi Vijay,

The immersible water pump is much like a motor. So you can't use the Arduino digital pins to drive it directly. It need a driver circuit like the motor driver.

Please take a look at the schematic of our auto watering kit, which includes AP9930M driver circuit based on atmega32u4.
[url=http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=auto%20watering&product_id=641#.UQH7iCdObvM]http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=auto%20watering&product_id=641#.UQH7iCdObvM[/url]

On the other hand, you could drive the pump with the relay module v2. It's also a simple solution I think.  ;)
[url=http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=relay&product_id=64#.UQIAkCdObvM]http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=relay&product_id=64#.UQIAkCdObvM[/url]
[url=http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=relay&product_id=496#.UQIAkydObvM]http://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=product/product&filter_name=relay&product_id=496#.UQIAkydObvM[/url]

Hope it's helpful.

Regards,
Lauren
userHeadPic Lauren