ELECTRONIC Hardware Overview:

The major components of such an irrigation system would be

A central smart system consisting of an Intel Atom to for the decision making.
Connected to this central system will be daughter system/systems, each consisting
of a microcontroller, XBee interface circuit, sensors, and the relay system to open
and close the valves of the irrigation pumps.

Following Figure 1 shows the interconnections of such components in a Block diagram
format and gives a clearer view of the hardware overview of the irrigation system.
FIGURE 1: OVERALL BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE HARDWARE


Following Figure 2 shows the interface between the User and the Central system of the Intel
Atom through a very simple use of mobile phone(a very common commodity among farmers
in these days) with use of DTMF.

FIGURE 2: USER INTERFACE WITH THE INTEL ATOM CENTRAL SYSTEM (DTMF)


Figure 3a details the Block diagram of the daughter board incorporating the relay circuitry to
control the irrigation pumps, the interface circuit to interface with the central system which
is controlled by the Intel Atom.

FIGURE 3A DAUGHTER BOARD BLOCK DIAGRAM


FIGURE 3.B SHOWS THE RELAY SYSTEM INTERCONNECTION WITH THE IRRIGATION PIPES

Figure 4 shows the details of various sensing circuitry Block diagram used to provide
information to the central system through the daughter board.

FIGURE 4: SENSOR SYSTEM INTERCONNECTION WITH ADC CHANNELS OF THE DAUGHTER BOARD

In our opinion, it will be a better to utilize 230VAC/50 Hz or the 120VAC/50hz both of which
are household standards in the country to power the irrigation System. The relays would
require 5V to open and close the valves. Also the circuit boards need DC. So we plan to
incorporate the following circuit to get all the required voltages.

FIGURE 5 : POWER SUPPLY FOR MICROCONTROLLER AND SENSOR
Once the valves open, the system becomes primarily a mechanical system with pipe heads
which will open due to the water pressure in the pipes.
At this stage, sensing circuitry will come into picture to determine how long to irrigate to
reach the desired moisture level in the ground.

Various factors like environmental situations will determine whether the desired moisture
level is reached or not where the algorithms will account for the occurrences to ensure that
irrigation is still effective.
WORK DONE SO FAR IN HARDWARE:
E.1 Microcontroller Daughter Board (designed by our team)
Specifications:
Microcontroller: Atmel At-Mega 32/168 (SMD)
Clock Speed: 16 MHz
ADC Resolution: 8 Bit
8-pin Interface connector to connect with XBee and sensors.
Consists of a boot loader circuit customised to get programmed with a laptop (through a
USB connector similar to that of a thumbdrive)
Size of the complete Atmega assembly is approx 2 inch x 2inch.
FIGURE 6 : SCHEMATIC OF THE DAUGHTER BOARD MADE

FIGURE 7 : PCB LAYOUT OF THE DAUGHTER BOARD MADE

FIGURE 8: EAGLE LAYOUT OF THE DAUGHTER BOARD DEPICTING THE SIZE OF APPROX
2INCH X 2INCH


E.2 UART Data Flow between Daughter Board and Central system
We made a dummy board(another Daughter Board) and used to mimic the Intel Atom
Central system to check the UART data flow.
To start off, ZigBee(XBee) is a specification for a suite of high level communication protocols
using small, low-power digital radios based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard for wireless
personal area networks (WPANs). ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh
networking standard. . The low cost allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless
control and monitoring applications.

FIGURE 9: XBEE MODULES
The ZigBee RF Modules interface to a host device through a logic-level asynchronous serial
port. Through its serial port, the module can communicate with any logic and voltage
compatible UART; or through a level translator to any serial device (For example: Through a
Max-Stream proprietary RS-232 or USB interface board).
Devices that have a UART interface can connect directly to the pins of the RF module as
shown in the figure below

FIGURE 10 ZIGBEE DATA FLOW DIAGRAM IN UART INTERFACED ENVIRONMENT
Serial Data enters the module UART through the DI pin (pin 3) as an asynchronous serial
signal. The signal should idle high when no data is being transmitted.
Each data byte consists of a start bit (low), 8 data bits (least significant bit first) and a stop bit
(high). The following figure illustrates the serial bit pattern of data passing through the
module.

FIGURE 11 UART DATA PACKET TRANSFER
UART data packet 0x1F (decimal number 31) as transmitted through the RF module
Example Data Format is 8N1 (bits parity # of stop bits)
WORK DONE SO FAR:
We were able to create a UART system which performs tasks, such as timing and parity
checking, that are needed for data communications. Serial communications depend on
the two UARTs to be configured with compatible settings (baud rate, parity, start bits,
stop bits, data bits).


References:

[Electronics 1] Maxstream Xbee Datasheet
http://ssdl.stanford.edu/ssdl/images/stories/AA236/0708A/Lab/Rover/Parts/xbeeproprodu
ctmanual.pdf
NovaLynx, 250-124 Soil Moisture Sensor, *Online Document+, Unknown Date
of Publication, [visited 2006 January 19], Available HTTP:
http://www.novalynx.com/250-124.html
AquaPro, AquaPro Sensors, *Online Document+, Unknown Date of Publication,
[visited 2006 January 20], Available HTTP:
http://www.aquaprosensors.com/pics&specs.html#Direct%20Burial%20Specs