instructables
IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO
by Asis Gotam
Farmers across the world face a lot of di culties in
growing crops because of unpredictable weather
conditions and shortage of water. The traditional
irrigation system uses a large amount of water and
supplies uneven water to corps. This a ects the
quality of crops.
Many farmers already start using the Greenhouse
farming and Smart Irrigation System. Emerging IoT
technologies and sensors are used to develop the
irrigation system that can automatically supply water
according to climate conditions like moisture value,
temperature, etc.
Step 1: Components Required
Ha rdw a re
NodeMCU ESP8266
Soil Moisture Sensor Module
IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO: Page 1
In this project, we are building an IoT ba s e d s m a rt
irrig a t io n Sy s t e m us ing No de M CU , Moisture
sensor, and LDR. It will automatically sprinkle the
water to plants when the moisture value goes below a
particular value. It will also send the moisture data to
Adafruit IO Server to keep track of the land condition.
Adafruit IO dashboard will also have some buttons to
manually turn on/o the solenoid valve and lights.
This project uses a solenoid valve to supply the water
to the plants. You can change the moisture value at
which the solenoid valve should turn on according to
your plant's requirement. Here we are using
NodeMCU ESP8666 which is a very popular Wi-Fi
module for IoT-based Projects.
 LDR10K Pot
solenoid valve
Relay Module
LED

O nline S e rv ice s

Adafruit IO

Step 2: Circuit Diagram for Smart Irrigation System Using IoT

In this circuit, the Soil sensor is connected to the A0 pin of NodeMCU. LDR sensor is connected to the D1 pin, and
the Relay module is connected to the D0 pin of NodeMCU. Solenoid Valve is connected to the relay module, so
whenever NodeMCU generates a trigger, it will sprinkle water.

Step 3: Adafruit IO Setup for Smart Irrigation System

IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO: Page 2
Adafruit IO is an open data platform that allows you
to aggregate, visualize, and analyze live data on the
cloud. Using Adafruit IO, you can upload, display, and
monitor your data over the internet, and make your
project IoT enabled. You can control motors, read
sensor data, and make cool IoT applications over the
internet using Adafruit IO. For test and try, with some
limitation, Adafruit IO is free to use. We have also used
Adafruit IO with Raspberry Pi previously.
1. To use Adafruit IO, rst, you have to create an
account on Adafruit IO. To do this, go to the Adafruit
IO website and click on ‘Get started for Free’ on the
top right of the screen.
2. After nishing the account creation process, log in
to your account and click on ‘AIO Key’ on the top right
corner to get your account username and AIO key.
When you click on ‘AIO Key,’ a window will pop up with
your Adafruit IO AIO Key and username. Copy this key
and username, it will be needed later in the code.
3. Now, after this, you need to create a feed. To create
a feed, click on ‘Feed.’ Then click on ‘Actions,’ and then
on ‘Create a New Feed’ as shown in the image below.
4 . After this, a new window will open to enter the
Name and Description of the feed. The writing
description is optional.
5. Click on ‘Create,’ after this; you will be redirected to
your newly created feed.
IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO: Page 3
For this project, we created a total of three feeds- for
solenoid valve, moisture data, and LED. After creating
feeds, now create an Adafruit IO dashboard to show
all of these feeds on a single page.
To create a dashboard, click on the Dashboard option
and then click on the ‘Action,’ and after this, click on
‘Create a New Dashboard.’ In the next window, enter
the name for your dashboard and click on ‘Create.’
6 . As the dashboard is created now, we will add our
feeds to the dashboard. To add a feed, click on the ‘+’
in the top right corner.
First, we will add two toggle buttons blocks to control
the LED and solenoid valves. And then one Graph
block for Moisture Data.
To add a button on the dashboard, click on the Toggle
block.
In the next window, it will ask you to choose the feed,
so click on LED feed.
After this, follow the same procedure to create
another Toggle button block for the solenoid valve.
7. Now to add the Graph on your dashboard, follow
the same procedure, but instead of creating a RESET
block, create a Line Chart block for graph view. After
creating all the blocks, my dashboard looks like this:
You can edit your dashboard by clicking on the
settings buttons.
Step 4: Programming NodeMCU for Smart Irrigation System

IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO: Page 4
Complete source code for Sm a rt Irrig a t io n
Sy s t e m is available in the attachment.
Here we are explaining the program step by step so
that you can easily understand the working of this
code. Start your code by including all the required
libraries.
To program the NodeMCU for Smart Irrigation
System, plug the NodeMCU into your laptop with a
Micro USB Cable and open Arduino IDE. In this
program, only the Adafruit MQTT library is used as an
external library. You can download the library from
here:
Adafruit_MQTT.h
To program NodeMCU with Arduino IDE go to File–
>Perferences–>Settings.
Enter https://
‘Pump’ are the feed names.
Read the LDR reading from the A0 pin and compare
the reading. If the reading is less than 200, then turn
on the LED else turn o the led.
Read the moisture reading from the sensor and
compare the readings with the required value. If it is
less than the required value then turn on the water
https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FX0/BO5H/KGQJZ06T/FX0BO5HKGQJZ06T.ino
Step 5: How NodeMCU Based Smart Irrigation System Works
IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO: Page 5
arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp82... into the
‘Additional Board Manager URL’ eld and click ‘Ok’.
Now go to Tools > Board > Boards Manager.
In Boards Manager window, Type esp in the search
box, esp8266 will be listed there below. Now select the
latest version of the board and click on install.
After installation is complete, go to Tools >Board >and
select NodeMCU 1.0(ESP-12E Module). Now you can
program NodeMCU with Arduino IDE.
Then include the WiFi and Adafruit IO credentials that
you copied from the Adafruit IO server. These will
include the MQTT server, Port No, User Name, and AIO
Key
Set up the feed you're publishing to. Here
AgricultureData is the feed name.
Set up the feeds you're subscribing to. Here ‘LED’ and
pump else turn it o .
Publish the moisture data to Adafruit IO feed every 5
seconds.
Read the subscribed feeds. If the string is ‘OFF’ is then
turn on the LED/Water pump and if the string is ‘ON,’
then turn o the LED/water pump.
Download
This is how No de M CU ba s e d Sm a rt Irrig a t io n
Sy s t e m us ing IoT works. You can expand this
project by using more sensors to measures the other
parameters like humidity, pressure, temperature, etc.
We have previously built an ESP8266 based weather
station to read all these values.
Comment below if you have any doubts regarding
this project and check the demonstration video.
Also, Follow us on Instructables for more such
interesting projects.

https://youtu.be/bVv8q4_pBNw

IoT Based Smart Irrigation System Using NodeMCU ESP8266 & Adafruit IO: Page 6