TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MOMBASA

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS

ENGINEERING

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN ELECTRICAL AND

ELECTRONICS ENGINEERING

YEAR 4 SEMESTER 1

TEE 4405 ENGINEERING PROJECT

Project proposal submitted in partial fulfillment requirements for the degree

of bachelor of technology in electrical and electronics engineering.

IoT WATER LEVEL MONITORING

AND CONTROL SYSTEM
BY

NAME; CALVINCE SUDI

ADM NO; BTEE/302J/2020

MOBILE NO; 0792218035

SUPERVISOR: MR. SOSHYO

DATE OF SUBMISSION:__________________________

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2023/2024

ABSTRACT
In today’s life, objects also can communicating each other, this concept is called the Internet of
Things (IoT). Internet of Things (IOT) Based on the concept that define energy conservation in
tank water level monitoring system. Generally, in the process of filling water in a tank, we may
forget to close the valve or pump so water overflows and gets wasted. Therefore I propose the
use the Internet of Things concept that can solve the problem. This approach will utilize a
ESP32 microcontroller of that can provide monitoring level of the water in a tank. That
controller will open and close the pump or valve automatically so that water does not overflow
and get wasted. The Main objective is to have an Ultrasonic Sensor placed at the top of the tank
in which it will measure the level of water and if the distance of the water from the sensor gets
increased, indicates that the water in the tank is low and finally after reaching to an extent the
system should notify a warning message to the user. Blynk IoT service incorporated with PHP
web programming utilized in providing water level monitoring and control. The user can get
notified that the tank is empty and can take further steps to fill the water in the tank.

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Contents
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................................................i
CHAPTER 1..............................................................................................................................................1
1.0 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................1
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT.................................................................................................................2
1.2 GENERAL OBJECTIVE...................................................................................................................3
1.3 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................3
1.4 ASSUMPTIONS..................................................................................................................................3
1.5 LIMITATIONS....................................................................................................................................3
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE AND MOTIVATION OF THE STUDY..............................................................4
CHAPTER TWO.......................................................................................................................................5
2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................................................5
2.2 RESEARCH GAP...............................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER THREE...................................................................................................................................8
3.1 METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................................................8
Design Procedure...................................................................................................................................8
Block Diagram.......................................................................................................................................9

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CHAPTER 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The process requirement in many industries,farms, hostels, hotels etc includes an overhead tank
for water, which is usually fed through an electric pump that is switched off when the tank is
filled up, and on when it becomes empty. As such, the most common way of knowing when the
tank is filled is by observing when it overflows the brim. Depending on the type of liquid being
handled, the overfilling of such a tank could lead to heavy material losses. These losses can be
prevented if the tank is regulated automatically by incorporating a feed-back control
mechanism,which would be capable of tripping the pump on or off as required. Although pumps
equipped with variable speed motors could be more efficient than on/off mechanisms, the former
are expensive to procure and maintain, especially for small and medium enterprises.
Furthermore, commercially available water level sensors are expensive being imported into the
country and as such cannot be deployed in every household.Control systems are classified as
open loop or closed loop. In open loop systems a command is given to a system and it is assumed
the system performs properly. A closed loop system, on the other hand, compares the result or
output of the system to a desired output and takes appropriate corrective actions. Closed loop
systems therefore,generally exhibit more accurate performance but cost more and tend to be
more unstable. Here the sensor used is Ultrasonic sensor, it’s a non contact based distance
sensor. Due to the not contact properties of the sensor it can be used for any type of liquid in the
tank. The level of the tank is monitor continuously and sends to the user mobile through internet.
The pump can be controlled anywhere using the internet.

NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. The user has a clear idea about the water level in the
overhead tank every time in the mobile using the internet. Also the user can control (ON/OFF
control only) the water pump through the mobile using IoT. When water goes below a certain
level the pump will automatically switched ON and gives an indication to the user mobile and
after a certain level the pump will switched OFF automatically. In this way this system ensures
continuity of water throughout the day and it also saves the spillage of water.

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1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Water is an essential asset in the agricultural field for carrying out various farming activities. It
is therefore mostly stored in reservoirs and tanks where it is properly managed by monitoring
and controlling its levels for smooth and continuous use in agriculture. Monitoring is crucial for
avoiding overflows which lead to wastage of water and flooding of the agricultural fields.
However, since method of monitoring and control of water involves much of human
intervention, it at times become labour intensive and time consuming hence, absence of the
human intervention from time to time lead to the mentioned challenges such as overflow and
flooding thus its wastage. Due to this, there’s need for automated water level monitoring system
that provide real-time data and enable remote monitoring and control.

1.2 GENERAL OBJECTIVE

i. To design and implement an IoT based water level monitoring system for managing
water level in agricultural water storage tanks.

1.3 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives is to;

 Carry out literature review
 Design a block diagram of the system
 Determine the specifications of components used
 Designing the IOT based water level monitoring system
 Carry out simulation of the system in proteous
 Implement the simulated system
 Designing a prototype of the system
 Test if the system is performing the desired functionalities

1.4 ASSUMPTIONS
i. It is assumed that the availability of reliable internet connectivity will be ensured for
seamless communication between the IoT devices and the Blynk platform.

ii. The ultrasonic sensors used for water level measurement will be accurately calibrated and
function within the specified parameters.

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 iii. Adequate power supply will be provided to all system components to ensure continuous
operation.

1.5 LIMITATIONS
i. The system's functionality may be limited by the range and accuracy of the ultrasonic
sensors used for water level measurement.

ii. Environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and interference may affect the
performance of the system.

iii. Integration with existing infrastructure or compatibility with specific hardware

configurations may pose limitations.

CHAPTER TWO

2.1 INTRODUCTION

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In this chapter I carried literature review on previous works done by other people briefly
explaining what they did and their results. I also discussed the available research gaps in my
system.

2.2 LITERATURE REVIEWS

The following are the previous papers and work done by different authors using different
technologies as discussed below:
a) Dr.M.S.Chavan(et,al., 2022)Design and Implementation of IOT Based Real Time
Monitoring System for Aquaculture using Raspberry Pi
This paper presents a system For monitoring Aquaculture system different parameters come into
picture like PH, Ammonia, dissolved oxygen, temperature, Nitrates, Salt,
Carbonates,Bicarbonates. These sensors are mounted to sense the data and the data is transferred
to the aqua farmer through IoT. This project uses an integrated on chip computer Raspberry Pi
which has an inbuilt Wi-Fi module which makes it unique on IoT platform.In the paper the
design team incorporated the use of Rasberry Pi , a high perfomance micro-controller which
requires highly skilled personnel to programm and maintain.
b) Prof. Rahul M. Dhokane(et,al., 2022) IOT Based Water Level Monitoring & Controlling
System
In this paper a Water level monitoring system is used to give right information about water level
and it will avoid wastage water in tank using Ultrasonic Sensor which will senses the liquid level
and compare it with the depth of the tank. The system also uses Arduino Uno, Buzzer, LCD
screen to display the level of water in the tank and the state of motor .In the paper the design
team incorporated the use of Arduino Uno which is a low level programming micro-controller
which is not appropriate for large complex systems.
c) Mrs. Teetla Asha and Mrs.Vidadala Srija”Design and implementation of wireless based
water monitoring system using Arduino and bluetooth”
In this paper, we design a micro control based wireless water level monitoring system. It consists
of an Arduino and Bluetooth module. The Arduino receives the level information from the
sensors and tracks the water level with predefined level indicators. The Bluetooth module
receives the command from Arduino and the same will be transferred to the registered mobile
through Bluetooth. Moreover, we place a buzzer as an additional indicator. Finally, we
demonstrate different water level settings, tracking and SMS & buzzer alerts.In this system a
bluetooth module was used so the water pumping can be controlled through the mobile device
and this requires the farmer to be in a close range to the system for it to work efficiently.

d) Souvik Naskar (11701616021)(et,al., 2020)Ultrasonic Sensor based Water Level Monitoring

and Control using IoT.

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In our project, we have used 19W submersible centrifugal water pump which is installed in the
lower reservoir, but there is no sensor or setup which can measure lower reservoir water level. If
water is dried out and the water level becomes below the pump set up. Then pump would not be
submerged in the lower water reservoir, diffuser could not suck the water by backward curved
vanes. As a result, Motor may burn. So this is the main limitation of our project.
e)

2.3 RESEARCH GAP

a. In this paper”Dr.M.S.Chavan(et,al., 2022)Design and Implementation of IOT Based Real
Time Monitoring System for Aquaculture using Raspberry Pi”the design team incorporated
the use of Rasberry Pi , a high perfomance micro-controller which requires highly skilled
personnel to programme and maintain which cannot be afforded by the local large scale
farmers while my project uses Node MCU ESP32 micro-controller which requires lesser
skills to programme and use hence can enable local both large and small scale farmers to
implement my system.
b. In this paper” Prof. Rahul M. Dhokane(et,al., 2022) IOT Based Water Level Monitoring &
Controlling System”The team used Arduino Uno which is a low level programming micro-
controller which is not appropriate for large complex systems.My system therefore uses a
Node MCU ESP32 which is highly reliable in large complex IOT systems and also enable
remote monitoring using Blynk platform hence improving efficiency of automatic water
monitoring systems.
c. In this paper “Mrs. Teetla Asha and Mrs.Vidadala Srija(Design and implementation of
wireless based water monitoring system using Arduino and bluetooth) a bluetooth module
was used so the water pumping can be controlled through the mobile device and this
requires the farmer to be in a close range to the system for it to work efficiently.My project
uses a Blynk software which enables remote control and monitoring of the water level even
if the farmer is far much away from the system.
d. In their paper “Souvik Naskar (11701616021)(et,al., 2020)Ultrasonic Sensor based Water
Level Monitoring and Control using IoT”we have used 19W submersible centrifugal water
pump which is installed in the lower reservoir, but there is no sensor or setup which can
measure lower reservoir water level. If water is dried out and the water level becomes below
the pump set up. Then pump would not be submerged in the lower water reservoir, diffuser
could not suck the water by backward curved vanes. As a result, Motor may burn. In my
project therefore i am using two level sensors which will help overcome this disadvantage.
e.

CHAPTER THREE

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3.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter I discussed about the methodology I would use to work on the project, deigned the
block diagram, gave the specifications of block diagram components ,the softwares I’ll use for
the project, the future scope of my project and the project time-line.

3.2 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

Design Procedure
 Define the technical specifications for the hardware components, firmware functionality,
and user interface features based on project requirements.
 Select suitable hardware components, including ESP32 microcontroller, ultrasonic
sensor, and supporting circuitry, based on performance, compatibility, and cost-
effectiveness.
 Design a block diagram for the hardware setup and construct the hardware setup on a
breadboard or custom PCB layout, ensuring proper wiring and connections according to
the block diagram diagram.
 Verify the functionality of the hardware setup through preliminary testing and
troubleshooting.
 Develop firmware for the ESP32 microcontroller to control the ultrasonic sensor, acquire
distance measurements, and establish communication with the Blynk platform.
 Implement signal processing algorithms to filter sensor data, calculate water levels, and
transmit data packets to the Blynk cloud server.
 Configure the Blynk platform and obtain the necessary authentication token for device
communication.
 Develop a user-friendly mobile application interface using the Blynk platform, allowing
users to visualize water level data, set thresholds, and receive notifications/alerts.
 Customize the mobile application interface to align with project requirements and user
preferences.
 Conduct comprehensive testing of the hardware setup, firmware functionality, and
mobile application interface to ensure compatibility, functionality, and reliability.
 Validate sensor accuracy, communication reliability, and power efficiency under various
operating conditions, including changes in water level and environmental factors.

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3.3 Block Diagram

Figure 3.1.1 Block diagram of the water level monitoring system

3.4 BLOCK DIAGRAM COMPONENTS

Smartphone with Blynk App

1. Interface for users to access and monitor water level data remotely.

2. Allows users to set custom thresholds, receive notifications/alerts, and control the motor
via the Blynk mobile application interface.

Blynk IoT Cloud Server

 Acts as the intermediary platform for communication between the smartphone app and
the ESP32 microcontroller.

 Receives data from the ESP32, stores it temporarily, and facilitates real-time data
visualization and control via the Blynk mobile application.

Node MCU ESP32

 Central component responsible for controlling the entire monitoring system.

 Reads data from the ultrasonic sensor and water level sensor.

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  Processes sensor data, calculates water levels, and transmits it to the Blynk IoT cloud
server

 Receives commands from the Blynk app to control the motor via the relay.

Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04

 Measures the distance from the sensor to the water surface.

 Provides distance measurements to the ESP32 microcontroller for calculating water

levels.

Water Level Sensor

 Monitors the water level directly or indirectly (depending on the type of sensor used).

 Provides data to the ESP32 microcontroller for redundancy or as a backup in case of

failure of the ultrasonic sensor.

Relay

 Acts as a switch to control the motor based on commands received from the ESP32
microcontroller.

 Allows the ESP32 to turn the motor on/off or change its direction as needed.

Motor

 Drives the mechanism for controlling water flow, such as a pump or valve.

 Controlled by the ESP32 microcontroller via the relay based on user commands or
predefined thresholds.

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3.5 SOFTWARES USED
Arduino IDE: where IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment - An official software
introduced by Arduino.cc, that is mainly used for writing, compiling and uploading the code in
almost all Arduino modules/boards. Arduino IDE is open-source software and is easily available
to download & install from Arduino's Official Site.

3.6 FUTURE SCOPE

Ultrasonic sensor based Water level Monitoring & Control using IoT:

1) Monitoring the lower reservoir level:

In our project, we have used 19W submersible centrifugal water pump which is installed in the
lower reservoir, but there is no sensor or setup which can measure lower reservoir water level. If
water is dried out and the water level becomes below the pump set up. Then pump would not be
submerged in the lower water reservoir, diffuser could not suck the water by backward curved
vanes. As a result, Motor may burn. So this is the main limitation of our project.

2) Measuring the water quality:

For the industry usage, when water pump will be allowed to uplift water from lower reservoir or
local pond, river, then mud, sand, pebbles, household junks, wastes, plastics can block the water
pipe attached with the motor. So we must check the basic quality of water by Turbidity sensors.
It measures the amount of light that is scattered by the suspended solids in water. As the amount
of total suspended solids (TSS) in water increases, the water's turbidity level (and cloudiness or
haziness) increases. On another hand, ph. meter is also used to make sure of the acidity of the
water.

3) Measuring the water temperature

Hot water can harm the valves, vanes and pumps efficiency. Some thermocouple sensors or
thermistors can measure the lower level reservoirs water temperature. The thermocouple is
prepared by two dissimilar metals which generate the electrical voltage indirectly proportional to
change the temperature. By this process, we can implement some IoT devices to show temp data
in both upper and lower reservoir and upload it in the server.

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CONCLUSION
Here we developed a circuit which will control and monitor the water level of an overhead tank
usingIOT. It also limits the wastage of water problem due to lack of proper monitoring in the
home. It consists mainly following parts wifi device, NodeMCU, , ultrasonic sensor(HC SR 04).
First it needs to be check whether our module is connected to wifi or not. If it is connected, it
will directly show the water level on mobile. It continuously monitors the water level of the tank.
Whenever the level crosses the predefined set lower, water pump will automatically start and if
the water level crosses the upper limit of the tank then the pump will automatically stop to
prevent wastage of water.

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REFERENCES
1. https://thesai.org/Downloads/Volume14No8/Paper_29-
Design_and_Implementation_of_an_IoT_Control_and_Monitoring.pdf
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
359253768_Design_and_Implementation_of_a_Smart_Water_Monitoring_System_IoT_Usi
ng_Arduino_Microcontroller
3. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/227194273.pdf
4. https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2202447.pdf
5. https://www.scribd.com/document/504662457/Water-Level-Monitoring-System-Using-
Iot
6. https://www.academia.edu/36782277/
Design_and_Implementation_of_IOT_Based_Real_Time_Monitoring_System_for_Aquacul
ture_using_Raspberry_Pi
7. https://radiobridge.com/lora-key-features#:~:text=A%20long%2Drange%20radio
%20(LoRa,and%20even%20animals%20and%20people.

LoRa Low data rate: LoRa technology has a slow transfer rate, usually in the hundreds of bits per
second. LoRa two-way communication: LoRa technology generally only supports one-way
communication, so additional communication protocols are required to enable two-way
communication.

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