ABSTRACT

An automatic water level controller is a device which senses undesired low and
high water levels in a tank, and switches a water pump ON or OFF accordingly to
maintain an optimal water content in the tank.

The article explains 5 simple automatic water level controller circuits which can be
used for effectively controlling the water level of a water tank by switching the
pump motor ON and OFF. The controller responds depending upon the relevant
levels of water in the tank and the position of the immersed sensor points.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Water is an indispensable and inevitable substance to all living things due to its usability and high
priority among other substance and materials. Provision of large volume of waters essential due
to its significant purpose, which therefore called for a means by which sufficient, and good quality
water can be obtained. There are different types of water namely; well water, pipe-borne waters,
rain water, stream water, river water e.t.c.
In the earlier days, the use of buckets and calabash is employed in fetching water for homes,
agricultural and domestic’s uses. Later, hand pumps were developed to reduce the stress and
the inconveniences and other forms of contamination’s which arise due to direct contact of the
body to the available water for consumption. Besides, only a small quantity of water can be made
available due to physical factors such as tiredness, distance and climatic factors like dry season.
Hence, to eliminate these difficulties, pumping machines is employed to perform the job of
fetching water and storing it in storage tanks for future purpose. The system consists of
connecting pipes, water pump, which is connected to electric power supply and operated
manually. In order to fully eliminate the stated problems and future needs for large volume of
water, the concept of automatic pumping machine is developed.
This project emphasizes on the construction of automatic pumping machine which in turns
provide a simple logical, versatile and economical/circuit which turns on the pump when water in
the tank fall below the minimum level and also off process is achieved by the incorporating of the
following to the pumping system:
The sensor: This measures the physical states such as the level of the water.

The responder: which responses to what is being sensed, it comprises of electrical and
mechanical devices.
The actuator: This actuates the responder to sense the water level in the tank to perform the
switching operation.
In summary, the automatic control system is very effective, efficient and consequently reduces
labour cost, flooding, man power and provides enough water for usage.

Background of the study.

This project is carried out so as to provide a means of reducing stress involved in fetching water,
wastage of water and flooding which may result from overfilling of the tank and eventually reduce
to minimum, if not eliminating damages to the pumping machine.

Aim and Objectives

The aims and objectives of this project are:

To reduce the labour involved in operating pumping machine manually.

To prevent or protect the coil of pumping machine from being burnt as a result of continuous
work beyond its operating time.
To pump water automatically from water sources.
To prevent wastage of natural resources (water in particularly) and flooding of premises.
To prevent the machine from sucking mud and or air when there is no water in the well
or source of water supply.
Significance of Study
The significance of the study is to design a means of mankind water available in the storage tank
for future uses such as domestic, industrial, Agricultural and economic purposes, which are
beneficial to mankind. It is also reduce labour coil, wastage of water resulting from filling of the
tank, which can eventually leads to flooding. Consequently it enables long life span of the
pumping machine.

Methodology
In the course of searching for information on this project, we consulted some learned
professionals, lecturers, relevant textbooks, such as electrical drafting and design for the HND
students, journals and past project reports in the library of the institution e.g Federal Polytechnic,
Ede, Osun State, and browsing on the Internet to acquire relevant information on the design and
construction of the project.

Limitation of the Project

The major limitation of the study is that it cannot be used when there is no power supply from
Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) unless an alternative means of power supply is
designed to power the project.

Design And Construction Of Automatic Pumping Machine For Water Supply

METHOLOGY

CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION
When the water level in over head tank is sufficient , points B & C are closed
through water and keeps T2 in ON condition , so T3 will be off , resulting the
motor in off condition.

When water level lowers below B &C, T2 gets off and T3 on, which switches the
relay and pump ON (pump connections not shown in ckt). Pump get off only when
water rises and touch the point A only , because point C becomes neutral condition
when T3 get ON.

The pump switches on again only when the water level comes down below B & C .
Presets VR2 is to be set to a high voltage cut off, say 250V when the voltage rises
above 250V during pump ON condition, T2 gets ON, and relay off.

Preset VR1 is to be set to a low voltage cut off say 170V. T1 will be ON until
zener z1 loses its breakdown voltage when voltage lowers to 170V, Z1 will not
conduct and T1 stays OFF, which delivers a base voltage to T2 , resulting relay off.

T2 is handling the major role in this ckt. (high voltage cut off boards available in
market can be easily integrated to this ckt)

Electronic components in this circuit worked very fine, but recently some problems
were observed:
1) Minor deposits on sensor wire due to electrolysis in water, needed to be cleaned
in 2-3 months( this problem is minimized now by applying ac voltage to sensor
wire by means of additional circuit, which will be send to you later)
COMPONENTS

 Transistor BC547: It is a NPN bipolar junction transistor and it is

used mainly for amplification and switching purpose. Its features
include maximum current gain of 800.It is used in CE configuration
when used as an amplifier.
 Conclusion
 The aim of the project is to design and implement a microcontroller based automatic
water supply and control device with alarm and digital display system to be installed for
domestic, commercial and industrial used. The system has been realized to be usable with
the device that was found to be working properly based on its design and relatively cheap
components involved in its realization. Thus, the aim of the project can be said to have
been achieved.
 References Abdullahi, M.A (2012): Design and Construction of Microcontroller based
Water Level Detector with Digital Display. Unpublished thesis Submitted to Electrical
Electronics Engineering Department Federal Polytechnic Bauchi in Partial fulfilment of High
National Diploma. Attia, H. A, Getu, B.N (2016): Automatic Water Level Sensor and
Controller System. 6-8 Dec. 2016 IEEE Conference Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates
Beza N.G, Attia H. A, (2015) Automatic Control of Agricultural Pumps Based on Soil
Moisture Sensing, Proceedings of the IEEE AFRICON 2015 Conference, pp. 667-671, 14-17
September.
 © Associated Asia Research Foundation (AARF) A Monthly Double-Blind Peer Reviewed
Refereed Open Access International e-Journal - Included in the International Serial
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Using Raspberry Pi. A Mini Project Submitted to United States International University
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M.S (2013): Portable Water Level Indicator. Unpublished Thesis Submitted in Partial
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 .26 PUMP CONTROL SEGMENT The pump control segment consists of a 10k resistor diode,
an NPN transistor and 1 12v relay. The 240vac is attached to the common of the relay
while the pump is attached to the normally open pin of the relay. A diode is connected
across the energizing coil of the relay to bias the relay while the microcontroller controls
the biasing of the relay by sending logic 1 or logic 0 to the base of the NPN transistor,
which in turn biases the relay.