ISSN 00204412, Instruments and Experimental Techniques, 2010, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 591–595. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.

, 2010.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENTS FOR ECOLOGY,

MEDICINE, AND BIOLOGY

ATMEGA32 Microcontroller Based Conductivity Measurement

System for Chloride Estimation of Soil Samples1
P. Neelamegama and R. Vasumathib
a
Department of Electronic and Instrumentation Engineering, SASTRA University, Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, India
email: neel_keer@yahoo.in
b PG and Research Department of Physics, AVVM Sri Pushpam College, Poondi, Tanjore, Tamilnadu, 613503 India

Received October 26, 2009

Abstract—This paper presents the development of an inexpensive and portable microcontroller based instru
ment set up to measure the electrical conductivity of the soil samples and hence to determine the Chloride
concentration using empirical relation between the two parameters. A dedicated ATmega32 microcontroller
and its associated peripherals are employed to measure electrical conductivity and temperature. A special fea
ture of the designed instrument is that the conductivity temperature compensation can be achieved by soft
ware or the user can maintain the sample at desired temperatures by using the temperature controller.
An empirical relationship between Chloride concentration and electrical conductivity of soil samples has
been developed using Linear Regression Model, which gave a Correlation Coefficient of R = 0.95 (n = 20),
Slope = 14.95, and Intercept = –563.9. The obtained results are compared with the ELICO CM 180 con
ductivity meter to check the accuracy of the designed instrument, which gives a correlation coefficient of
R = 0.98 (n = 20).
DOI: 10.1134/S0020441210040214

1
1. INTRODUCTION
Electrical conductivity is a general indicator of
water quality, especially a function of the amount of
dissolved salt, and can be used to monitor processes in
the wastewater treatment that causes changes in total
salt concentration and thus changes the conductivity.
Recently different circuits have been presented to
measure conductivity, from the application point of
view. In [1] a circuit model is presented which
responds to the electric behavior in conductivity fre
quency. In [2] an analog interface is presented which
provides good accurate results but with a fourelec
trode cell. In [3] an electronic conditioning circuit,
based on a variant of Wheatstone bridge is presented
with the help of a digital processing stage based on a
microcontroller.
In the present work, option is provided for the con
ductivity temperature compensation by software or
the user can measure the conductivity by keeping the
sample at a desired temperature for the analysis of
conductivity variation with temperature. The conduc
tivity of a solution is proportional to its ion concentra
tion, and if Chloride is the predominant anion in a soil
solution, the Chloride concentration in m mole would
be approximately equal to 10 times the electrical con
ductivity measured in dS/m [4, 5]. In this experimen
tal study, we use the ATmega32 microcontroller
mounted in the system, to correlate electrical conduc
1 The article is published in the original.
tivity with the Chloride concentration of the soil sam
ples using regression model.
2. EXPERIMENTAL
2.1. Design of the Measurement System
The block diagram of microcontroller based elec
trical conductivity measurement set up is shown in
Fig. 1. The conductivity cell made up of platinum is
used to measure the conductivity of the samples is kept
in block 1. The cell constant is determined conve
niently by calibration with pattern solutions [6].
Polarizing the conductance cell by an external DC
potential produces some undesirable effects (double
layer capacitance, electrolysis, ohmic resistance and
electrolytic saturation). On the other hand, it is proved
that the electrolytic saturation is reduced considerably
if the AC polarization frequency is high enough. Prac
tical values are (1–5 kHz) although those values must
not be high in excess because it would appear the effect
of the capacitance in parallel with the electrolytic
solution itself [7]. Hence, a fixed sinusoidal excitation
voltage of 1 V is applied to the bridge.
The conductivity cell is connected to one arm of a
modified Wheatstone’s bridge network. The block 2
consists of precision rectifier to rectify the output of
bridge network. Block 3 represents the temperature
sensor LM35D to measure the temperature of the
sample. Output of this sensor calibrated directly to
Celsius does not require any external calibration. The

591
592 NEELAMEGAM, VASUMATHI

1 2 4
Conductivity Precision Keypad
cell rectifier
5
Micro
3 controller 7
LM35D LCD

6
8 9
Temperature
MAX232 PC
controller

Fig. 1. Block diagram of microcontroller based electrical conductivity instrumentation set up.

В 3 IС1
R2 R3 R4
6
Z1
I1 2

Z3 3
IС3 3
IС4
D1
I3 6 6
С 2 2 To pin 38 of MC
Rf R1
AC
input Z2 Z4 D2
I2 I4
3 IС2
R5
D 6

Fig. 2. AC modified Wheatstone’s bridge network with precision rectifier. (IC1–IC4) CA3041.

effect of temperature is important when an electric
conductivity of a liquid or solution must be done.
Block 4 indicates keypad to give input data to the
microcontroller for processing. Block 5 consists of
ATmega32 microcontroller from Atmel company. It is
a low power, high performance 8bit AVR microcon
troller with 32 kbyte in System Programmable Flash,
one 16bit timer/counter and two 8bit timer/counter,
an eight channel 10bit ADC [8], 32 programmable
I/O lines in four I/O ports and 2 kbyte of SRAM. Tem
perature controller kept in the block 6 is used to keep
the sample at a desired temperature. Block 7 is a four
rows twenty characters LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
from Hitachi, to display the experimental results.
Block 8 consists of MAX232 (dual RS232 transmit
ter/receiver interface), which is used to communicate
with PC kept in block 9.
2.2. AC Modified Wheatstone’s Bridge Network
A modified AC Wheatstone bridge network is
shown in Fig. 2. In the developed instrument, two high
gain operational amplifiers (CA3041) IC1 and IC2 are
connected with the bridge network with the non
inverting terminal connected to the ground circuit.
The bridge output nodal points B and D almost at the
same potentials with respect to the ground and hence
the effect of stray capacitance that will exist between
them and also between them and ground is assumed to
be minimized. Since, B and D are at virtual ground,
the sinusoidal supply voltage, V = Vsinωt, the current
through the bridge impedances are Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4
respectively. The output voltage of the circuit is [3]
Vo = Rf (Z2Z3 – Z1Z2]V.
At balance condition of the bridge, Vo = 0 which is
identical with the conventional bridge network. The
conductivity cell is connected instead of Z3. The con
ductivity of a sample is determined by
1/Z3 = Gc = (Z1Z4/RiVi + VoZ1Z4/Z2)–1,
where Vo —bridge output voltage, Vi —input excita
tion voltage, Z1, Z2, Z4 —known resistances, Rf —feed
back resistance, and Gc —conductivity of a sample.
The output of the amplifier IC2 is given to input of
the precision rectifier constructed with operational
amplifiers IC3 and IC4 as shown in Fig. 2.

INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Vol. 53 No. 4 2010

 ATMEGA32 MICROCONTROLLER BASED CONDUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT SYSTEM 593

+5 V
LM35D ATmega32
8 1
+5 V +VS Vout VCC
GND
4 40
R PA0/ADC0
39
PA1/ADC1
O/P from AC Wheatstone’s bridge 38
PA2/ADC2
37 22

Key pad
+5 V PA3/ADC3 PC0/SCL
36 23
PA4/ADC4 PC1/SDA
+12 V +5 V R 35 24
PA5/ADC5 PC2/TCK
34 25
PA6/ADC6 PC3/TMS
opto transistor

Heater coil 33 26
5 PA7/ADC7 PC4/TD0
R Q
1 1 27
PB0/T0 PC5/TD1
MCT2E 28
2
D 2 PB1/T1 PC6/TOSC1 MAX232
4 3 29 PC
PB2/AIN0 PC7/TOSC2
Q 4 14
PB3/AIN1 PD0/RXD D4
BDX33C Q 15
5
PB4/SS PD1/TXD D5
BC547
6 16
R PB5/MOSI PD2/INT0 D6
+5 V LCD
7
PB6/MISO PD3/INT1 17 D7
8
C PB7/SCK PD4/OC1B 18 RS
9
RESET PD5/OC1A 19 EN
13 R/W
XTAL1 PD6/ICP1 20
X 12
XTAL2 PD7/OC2 21
32
AREF
30
AVCC
31
AGND

GND
11

Fig. 3. Microcontroller and interfacing circuit.

2.3. Microcontroller and Interfacing Circuit 2.4. Software

The circuit diagram of the microcontroller based Software is developed in C and assembly language
instrumentation set up to measure the electrical con to initialize LCD, to compute conductivity tempera
ductivity of the sample is shown in Fig. 3. In this cir
ture compensation by software, to keep the sample at
cuit, the output from the modified Wheatstone’s
bridge network is given to pin 38 (ADC2) of micro desired temperature using temperature controller, to
controller. The temperature sensor LM35D is con start AD conversion, to check End of conversion, to
nected to pin 39 (ADC1) of port A. A crystal oscillator read 10 bit of data from ADC, to measure the temper
of 8 MHz is connected between pin 12 and 13 of ature, to control the temperature, to compute conduc
microcontroller as shown in Fig. 3. Three keys are tivity, to compute Chloride concentration using
connected to PC0, PC1, and PC2 port C. A four rows regression model, to display the results in LCD, and to
twenty characters LCD is connected with port D, to send data to PC for further processing.
display the measured data and the computed results.
The temperature controller built with optocoupler
transistor and heater coil with battery (12 V, 7 A h), 3. SOIL SAMPLING
Exide power safe, ShinKobe Electric machinery Co.
Ltd, Japan, and other associated components is also 3.1. Field Description
shown in Fig. 3. An opto transistor MCT2E is used to
isolate temperature controller section from the micro Soil samples are collected from twenty paddy field
controller circuit. The opto coupler is activated/deac sites originated from ThanjavurThiruvarur Delta dis
tivated through the transistor BC547, which is con tricts, TN, South India, where rice is the main crop of
nected to PA7 of microcontroller. By proper com several agricultural products. The samples are col
mands from the microcontroller, heater is switched
ON/OFF to maintain the temperature of the sample lected at every 3 km from Thanjavur to Thiruvarur over
at desired temperature. MAX232 (dual RS232 trans 60 km, during the major cropping season of spring
mitter/receiver interface) is connected with pin 14 and summer (March–June), which produces about 56%
15 of port D to transmit/receive data from PC. of the National total production.

INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES Vol. 53 No. 4 2010

594 NEELAMEGAM, VASUMATHI
Electrical conductivity, mS/cm
30
25
20
15
10
5 0.4 N, and 0.5 N are measured. Then, the conductivity
0 measurements are made for electrical conductivity.
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
NaCl concentration, N
Fig. 4. Electrical conductivity measured for known con
centration of NaCl solution using developed instrument.
3.2. Soil Sample Collection
Sampling areas of paddy fields are selected by
avoiding tracks, drainage lines, sheep camp, or influ
ences other than effluent irrigation. During collection,
the size of the sample (volume or weight), identifica
tion of sample (unique labeling), special packaging
and storage are noted. After collection of the samples,
they are airdried to remove moisture.
3.3. Sampling Procedure
The collected soil samples are dried overnight in a
cabinet equipped with a heating element and an
exhaust fan to remove moisture. The temperature in
the cabinet does not exceed 36°C in order to approxi
mate airdrying conditions. Samples are crushed with a
mechanical grinder equipped with porcelain mortar
and stainless steel 10 mm mesh sieve to remove larger
clods and unwanted debris. Since the material from
the particle sizing 2 mm and smaller are most impor
tant in making an inventory of the mineral constitu
ents of the soil and in evaluating EC, the sample is
crushed again and the particles sizing 2 mm and less
than 2 mm are sieved using 2 mm mesh. The sample is
prepared as given below to measure the conductivity.
Three 10 g scoops of soil and 30 ml of deionized water
are taken in a large test tube and shaken well for 30 min
to get 1:1 suspension of soil sample. After initial shak
ing, the suspension is allowed to stand, with intermit
tent shaking for 30 min [9]. The supernatant solution
is then filtered and it is used for the measurement of
electrical conductivity.
3.4. Measurement
To measure the electrical conductivity of the sam
ple, the conductivity cell is connected at one arm of
the modified AC Wheatstone bridge and selecting the
resistance value Z1 (100 Ω or 1 kΩ), Z2 (1 kΩ), and Z4
INSTRUMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES
(1 kΩ). A fixed sinusoidal excitation voltage of 1 V
with frequency 1 kHz is applied to the bridge. For the
calibration of the instrument, the known concentra
tions of NaCl are prepared and the conductivity is
measured before using the soil samples. The solution is
maintained at 25°C by means of temperature control
ler. Initially, the conductivity cell is immersed into the
solution of NaCl having concentration of 0.1N, and
the electrical conductivity is measured. Then the
probe is washed with deionised water and the electrical
conductivity for various concentrations 0.2 N, 0.3 N,
cell is immersed in the prepared soil sample and the
The Chloride concentration of the prepared soil sam
ples is determined using the titration method for the
development of regression model.
3.5. Development of Regression Model
The Chloride concentration of the sample is
strongly related to the electrical conductivity of the
sample, a relation between them is evaluated using lin
ear regression model (using software ULTI
MACALC).
The regression line equation y = –563.9 + 14.95x is
obtained and it is used by the microcontroller to com
pute Chloride concentration of the soil. The correla
tion coefficient between the electrical conductivity
and the Chloride concentration is R = 0.95 (n = 20).
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The developed microcontroller based instrument is
used to measure the conductivity of the soil samples.
The empirical relationship between the electrical con
ductivity and the Chloride concentration has been
developed using linear regression model to determine
the Chloride concentration of the sample. The perfor
mance of the designed instrument is investigated by
comparing the results with the standard instrument
(ELICO CM 180).
The calibration curve is obtained by plotting the
concentration of Chloride against the electrical con
ductivity of prepared NaCl solutions at various con
centrations as shown in Fig. 4. From the figure, it is
observed that the developed instrument shows the lin
earity between the Chloride concentration and the
electrical conductivity. The regression line between
the electrical conductivity measured for soil samples
using the developed instrument and the commercially
available ELICO CM 180 instrument is: y = –1.10 +
1.07x, and the correlation coefficient for this line is
R = 0.98 (n = 20). The reproducibility of the instru
ment is tested by taking five replicate readings for soil
sample and it is found to agree well within the limits.
In this study, it is observed that the range of electri
cal conductivity of soil samples are varied from 45 to
74 mS/cm and the Chloride concentration is maxi
Vol. 53 No. 4 2010
 ATMEGA32 MICROCONTROLLER BASED CONDUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
mum at Ammaiyappan (560 ppm) and minimum at
Kattuthottam (140 ppm). It is also to be noted that all
the collected paddy field soil samples are having the
Chloride concentration within the maximum tolera
ble limit (1050 ppm).
5. CONCLUSIONS
ATmega32 microcontroller based instrumentation
system has been developed to compute Chloride con
centration of the soil samples using electrical conduc
tivity. The design allows an efficient and easy solution
to the thermal compensation needed in this type of
measurements. This system is a portable one and can
be easily handled by irrigators and farm managers. The
electrical conductivity determination has replaced the
tedious chemical methods for the Chloride determi
nation. The results are comparable with the values
reported using the standard method.
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