PROTOTYPE OF AUTOMATIC WATERING USING SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR BASED ON ARDUINO MEGA 2560 MICROCONTROLLER AT HARUM MANIS MANGO BULELENG BALI

PROTOTIPE OF AUTOMATIC WATERING USING SOIL MOISTURE SENSOR

BASED ON ARDUINO MEGA 2560 MICROCONTROLLER

AT HARUM MANIS MANGO BULELENG BALI 

In early 2019, Buleleng sweet-smelling mango farmers were able to export 2.5-toned of harum manis mangoes to Russia. This triggered the Minister of Agriculture, Amran Sulaiman, to target 100 tons of exports of the sweet fragrant mango of Bali Buleleng in order to be able to meet market demand during 2019. This makes farmers have to work extra to be able to meet market demand.

Various methods are used by farmers to increase the number and quality of harum manis mangoes, one of which is to reduce operational costs. Thus, farmers will work extra. One solution that can be applied is to allocate operational costs by utilizing appropriate technology.

Based on this, the researcher designed a device that can automatically water the harum manis mangoes. The device is designed to use the Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller as an automatic controller. The watering process is done automatically based on soil moisture detected by a soil moisture sensor. The entire measurement process carried out by the sensor is displayed using an LCD, so users can find out easily information related to soil moisture levels in harum manis mango plants.

In the tests that have been carried out in this study, the state of the soil is divided into 3 namely dry soil, fairly wet soil, and wet soil. Dry soil has a range of soil moisture values ​​of less than 20%. Moderately wet soils have a range of soil moisture values ​​of 20% - 29%. Meanwhile, wet soil has a humidity value of more than 30%. The watering process takes place automatically when the level of soil moisture is dry or less than 20%. If the soil moisture level is more than 20%, the watering process will be stopped. The results of tests that have been done, automatic watering devices using a soil moisture sensor can work well, so that it is expected to simplify the work of the farmers.