Making a Water Management System Controlled by Arduino Within a Wooden Model

In this Instructable I will show you my second electronic and IT project that I have made during my studies at the Moroccan School of Engineering Sciences (EMSI). As an IT engineer I learned on my own how to use the electronic components and how to program Arduino with C language to control them all in a wooden model that I designed and then cut with a laser cutter.

The main idea of this project is to make water purification system that can provide us drinking water and also grey water made to water plants all inside a wooden model

Functions of the Product

In this wooden model there is a small garden and three types of tanks:

- Primary supply tank: contains the primary supply water which will be filtered and divided into two types: drinking water and grey water.

- Grey water tank: contains the water that will be used for watering the garden

- Drinking water tank: contains purified water for safe consumption.

This system is therefore able to perform the following actions:

- water treatment and release two types of water: drinking water and grey water for irrigation.

- display, in percentage, of the amount of water available in each tank.

- display of the current date and time.

- display of temperature and humidity.

- display, in percentage, of the soil humidity of the small garden.

- Alert when there is no more water in any tank.

- watering is done every time the soil in the small garden is dry and especially when there is still water to be used.

- ensure a water routing according to the following 4 cases :

first case: if both drinking water and grey water tanks are not yet full, the filtration is normally done without changing the passage, i.e. the drinking water will be directly conveyed to the drinking water tank and the waste water will be directly conveyed to the waste water tank.

second case: if the drinking water tank is full and at the same time the grey water tank is not yet full, the drinking water and the grey water will be led directly to the grey water tank.

third case: if the drinking water tank is not yet full and at the same time the grey water tank is full, the drinking water will be directly conveyed to the drinking water tank and the grey water will be directly conveyed to the sewer.

fourth case: if both the drinking water tank and the waste water tank are full, no work will be performed.

Electronic Components

1- Arduino Mega: this is the heart of our

project, we transfer inside it a program written in C language so it will capable of controling all the other electronic components.

2- Wires M/M F/F : Allow to conduct electricity to the desired location.

3- Resistances : are all of a value of 1Kohm connected with some electronic components to prevent them from being burned.

4- Temperature sensor DHT22 : Senses the temperature degree that will be displayed automatically on the LCD display.

5- Real Time Clock DS3231: this is the component that give us the exact date and time of today.

6- interruptor ON/OFF: Ideal for controlling the flow of electric current to all electronic components.

7- Push button : electric switch that is activated by pressing to pass the electric current each time the button is pressed

8- Ultrasonic sensor : emits acoustic waves that are inaudible to humans. Thanks to this component it will be possible to know the quantity of water available in a tank.

9- Soil sensor : is an analogical sensor designed to measure the volume of water present in the soil.

10- 8 channel 5V Relay : are there to help the Arduino board to turn pumps and solenoid valves on and off.

11- LM2596 DC-DC Module (Step Down) : it is an Adjustable Voltage Regulator Lowerer and thanks to which the Arduino board and the other components are powered from 24V.

13- Electrovalve 24V : it is an electrical valve that can be controlled by an electric signal to let pass or stop the water circuit .

14- mini water pump 12V : pump particularly suitable for for the transfer of the liquid food industry like milk, edible oil, drinking water ... etc.

15- Water pump RO 24V : it is a 24V pump that allows the movement of water thanks to its adequate pressure with a Reverse Osmosis system.

16- Reverse osmosis for filtration system : it is a water purification system containing some very fine filtering tools that only lets water molecules pass through. This system is composed of 4 types of filters:

1-sediments filter : captures dirt, rust, mud, dust and other particles visible to the naked eye.

2-carbon filter : eliminates the organic material present in the water and reduces possible bad smells and tastes due to the presence of organochlorine substances. It eliminates the coloring of the water due to humic acids.

3-RO filter: is the special membrane that applies the reverse osmosis process using a semi-permeable membrane to separate dissolved solids, organic matter, viruses and bacteria from the water. The process is called "reverse" because it requires sufficient pressure to force pure water through the membrane. This process achieves very good results because it can remove 95 to 99% of the dissolved solids and 99% of the microorganisms.

4-water softner : filter that will improve the taste and soften the water.

17- Water pipe : to make the water flow to the intended paths.

18- Plastic pots : they play the role of the water tank

19- Tds meter : it is a component that indicates the total dissolved solids of a solution. It is used to judge the potability of the water.

Schematic and Component Assembly

Programming the Arduino Mega

Once all the electronic components are properly connected to the Arduino board, a computer program must be downloaded to ensure proper communication of the system. To create any program, we must first download the programming tool by consulting the following link: www.www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software, then write the code in C or C++ language.

Here is the code source for who want to do the same