Water Quality Measuring System Using Wireless Sensor Network

INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (IRJET) E-ISSN: 2395 -0056
VOLUME: 04 ISSUE: 02 | FEB -2017 WWW.IRJET.NET P-ISSN: 2395-0072
© 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 5.181 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1926
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Abstract - Wireless sensor network (WSN) is the simple
and basic way to measure the quality of water using wireless
sensor network technology powered by solar panel. To
measure the quality of water in a real time application, a
base station and corresponding different sensor nodes are
used to cover the large area. As this work is done in a remote
area with limited access, signal from the sensors will
collected and transmitted wirelessly to the base monitoring
station. So the application of wireless sensor network (WSN)
for a water quality measuring consists of a number of sensor
nodes. Such monitoring system will results into low cost, easy
installation, easy handling and low maintenance system.
Basically, the use of wireless system for monitoring purpose
will not only reduce the overall monitoring system cost in
terms of labor cost, but also will provide large covering area.
In this paper, we discussed the fundamental design and
implementation of WSN using a high power transmission RF
based technology. It is chosen due to its features like a low
cost, easy to use, minimal power consumption and efficient
data communication between different sensor nodes. Also for
monitoring purpose the graphical user interface (GUI) is
developed at the base monitoring station. It is used to
monitor the water parameters continuously in real time. GUI
is designed using MATLAB & VB because of low cost and easy
customization.
Key Words: WSN, pH sensor, temperature sensor,
turbidity, rain sensor, GUI, etc.
1. INTRODUCTION
In earlier days, there were lots of research, inventions,
globalization and developments but in that time there were
pollutions, global warming is also be formed and because of
this there is no safe drinking water for human beings. In
the developing countries because of lack of proper water
treatments and technologies the dirty & polluted water is
used for drinking purpose. The lack of water quality
measuring systems causes lots of health issues.
Water is essential natural resource of life for each
living organism on the earth. In examining quality of water
parameters like pH level, turbidity plays an important
roles. So health issues of human, plant and other living
organisms on the earth depends on water quality. The
different water sources like rain, rivers and lakes are
available on the earth. Rain water running over the lands
contains many useful as well as harmful contents, may be
soluble or insoluble. Salt and other particles in soil decides
the acidity of water. Traditional methods fails to remove
insoluble particles present in water causes a limitations on
the use of water for particular applications.
The main ambition of this system is to measure pH
level, temperature and turbidity of drinking water as well
as water that may be used for domestic, agriculture and
industrial process. This system measures parameters by
using wireless communication providing quality control,
record keeping and analysis using simulation software at
base monitoring station. The parameters that are analyzed
and control to improve water qualities are pH level,
turbidity, temperature and quantity of rain water.
To take preventive actions for quality maintenance we
got an idea that a system should be implemented to
measure the quality of water in easy way, so it can easily
analyze some of the critical and important parameters of
water. Various environmental parameters such as
temperature, pH, and turbidity from water can be collected
by these systems using different sensors. The development
of WSN technology provides us approach to real time data
acquisition, transmission and processing. In general the
user can get real time water quality data from faraway.
Collected data from different sensors will sent to base
station via WSN channel. Basically a computer with
Graphical User Interface (GUI) for user is used at a base
station and using various simulation tools the recoded data
can be analyzed for future actions.
2. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Water is essential natural resource of life for each
living organism on the earth. So water quality plays
important role in the health issues of human, plants and
other living organisms on the earth. The pH level,
temperature and turbidity level are the parameters that are
analyzed and control to improve water quality. The
objectives of idea implementation are as follows:
[1] Measurement of pH, temperature, turbidity,
quantity of water using sensors at remote area.
[2] To provide power to sensor nodes using solar
energy.
[3] To collect data from various sensor nodes and send
it to base monitoring station by wireless system.
[4] To control data communication between source
and nodes.
Water Quality Measuring System Using Wireless Sensor Network
Mr. Vikas Mane1, Mr. Pranav Medsinge2, Mr. Akash Chavan3, Mr. Sudhakar Patil4
Department of E&TC, Sanjeevan Engineering & Technology Institute, Panhala, Shivaji University Kolhapur,
Maharashtra, India
------------------------------------------------------------------------****----------------------------------------------------------------------

[5] To simulate and analyze quality parameters for
quality control. (Graphical and numerical record
using VB & MATLAB )
[6] To publish the corresponding record over web for
public information and further assessment of
water resource.
The detailed block diagram of water quality
monitoring system is shown in Figure:
Fig -1: Block diagram of transmitter
Fig -2: Block diagram of receiver
3. HARDWARE DESIGN
Here we are going to discuss the detailed
design of pH sensor, turbidity level sensor, temperature
sensor, rain sensor, RF transceiver module, LCD display
and solar power module.
Parts of the System:
[1] Sensors
pH Sensor
Turbidity Sensor
Temperature Sensor
Rain Sensor
[2] Liquid crystal Display (LCD)
[3] Microcontroller PIC 16F877A
[4] Solar panel
[5] DC battery
3.1.1. pH sensor interfacing
A pH sensor is a device that measures the
hydrogen-ion concentration (or pH) in a solution,
indicating its acidity or alkalinity. The high accuracy pH
probe TL42 is used as a pH sensor which is a special glass
refillable electrode. It consists combined electrodes of pH
glass & reference electrode in a single entity. Its range
varies from 0 to 14 pH. It is available with cable length
around 1 to 5 meters. This sensor requires BNC connector
at the output. For acid output voltage is positive, for neutral
it is null and for bases it becomes negative. This output
voltage is affected by environmental temperature changes
thus it is required to compensate the temperature factor.
Output of sensor is converted into 0~2.5V range which is
further given to PIC processor for further processing.
Fig -3: pH Sensor (TL-42)
3.1.2. Turbidity level sensor interfacing
Turbidity level sensor is used to measure the
clarity of water or muddiness present in the water. The
output voltage range represents turbidity value ranging
from 0 to 4000NTU (Nephelometric turbidity unit). Output
of circuit is 0~5V which is transferred to 0~3V compatible
to PIC controller.
The TSD-10 module measures the turbidity
(amount of suspended particles) of the wash water
commonly used in washing machines and dishwashers. An
optical sensor is a measuring device for a turbid water
density using the refraction of wavelength between photo
transistor and photodiode. By using an optical transistor
and optical diodes, an optical sensor measures the amount
of light coming from the source of the light to the light
receiver, in order to calculate water turbidity.
The sensor operates on the principle that when
light is passed through a sample of water, the amount of
light transmitted through the sample is dependent on the
amount of soil present in the water. As the soil level
increases, the amount of transmitted light decreases and
thus the turbidity sensor measures the amount of
transmitted light to determine the turbidity of the water.
Fig -4: Turbidity Level Sensor (TSD-10)

3.1.3. Temperature sensor interfacing
The LM35 series are precision integrated-circuit
temperature sensors, whose output voltage is linearly
proportional to the Celsius (Centigrade) temperature. It can
be used with single power supplies, or with plus and minus
supplies. +5V supply is provided by using 7805 regulator
IC. When IC senses the temperature, it gives linear voltage
as +10.0mV/°C at the Vout pin of IC. This Vout pin is
connected to the +Vin of A/D Converter.
The LM35 does not require any external calibration or
trimming to provide typical accuracies of ±1⁄4˚C at room
temperature and ±3⁄4˚C over a full −55 to +150˚C
temperature range. The LM35 has low output impedance,
linear output, and precise inherent calibration make
interfacing to readout or control circuitry especially easy.
The LM35 is rated to operate over a −55˚ to +150˚C
temperature range, while the LM35C is rated for a −40˚ to
+110˚C range.
Fig -5: Temperature Sensor (LM-35)
3.1.4. Rain sensor interfacing
The rain sensor is used to detect water and it can
detect beyond of what a humidity sensor do. The YL-83
rain sensor is set up by two pieces: electronic board and
the collector board that collects water drops.
The rain sensor has a built-in potentiometer for
sensitivity adjustment of the digital output (D0). It also has
a power LED that glows when the sensor is turned on and a
digital output of LED. Basically the resistance of the
collector board varies according to the amount of water on
its surface. When the board is wet, the resistance increases
and output voltage decreases and the vice-versa.
Fig -6: Rain Sensor Module (YL-83)
3.1.5. RF module interfacing
NRF24L01 RF Module is a transceiver module which
provides easy to use RF communication at 2.4 GHz. It can
be used to transmit and receive data at 9600 baud rate
from any standard CMOS/TTL source. It works in half
duplex mode.
Fig -7: RF TX-RX Module (NRF24L01)
3.2. LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen is an electronic
display module and find a wide range of applications. A
20x4 LCD display is very basic module and is very
commonly used in various devices and circuits. These
modules are prefer over seven segments and other multi
segment LEDs.
Fig -8: 20x4 LCD
3.3. Solar panel interfacing
In a practical water quality monitoring system, where
sensor nodes are distributed in remote sites, power supply
has become an extremely important issue. Using wires to
connect the nodes to power lines is practically so difficult
and the total expense in connecting all these nodes
becomes high also. So another method is to use battery
only. The advantages are obvious, but batteries have
limited lifespan and cannot stand for a long time. Replacing
depleted batteries regularly is inconvenient and to avoid
this unnecessary work and make the system more flexible,
solar panel is used in this system to supply power for the
sensor node, together with the battery to recharge when
solar power is not enough, such as night. The output
voltage and power of the solar panel used is 6V. Since a
battery with 6V output is needed to store and maintain the

output voltage of the solar power module. When the
sunlight is strong and solar panel outputs higher than 6V,
the regulator turns on, thus solar panel powers remaining
blocks and battery is in charging mode. When the sunlight
become poor, the regulator turns off & the whole sensor
node is powered by 6V battery. Solar charging controller 6
V/DC, 6 A is used as a regulator to convert 6.5V into
regulated 6V DC.
4. SOFTWARE DESIGN
The GUI platform was successfully developed using
the MATLAB software that was able to interact with the
hardware at the base station.
Once the battery powered sensor node is turned on;
the temperature, pH, rain and turbidity sensors dipped in
water start sensing the respective data. Different push
buttons are provided for reading the temperature, pH, rain
and turbidity values which are ‘Read pH’, ‘Read Temp’,
‘Rain’ and ‘Read Turb’. Once the user clicks on any of the
push buttons of the panel the RF transceiver on the
transmitter side sends a signal to the RF receiver on the
receiver side. The ‘Graph’ push button plots the different
values that are obtained at the receiver side. Once the
values are plotted, it is inherently saved and stored in MS
Excel Database, which can be accessed by clicking on the
‘Database’ tab.
5. RESULTS
Following figure shows the snapshot of database
using different collected parameters on excel sheet.
6. ADVANTAGES
[1] WSN technology provides us approach to real time
data acquisition, transmission and processing
[2] Low power consumption, long battery life
[3] No carbon emission, more flexible to deploy at remote
site
[4] It checks quality of water at the places where generally
it is inconvenient to take frequent tests manually
[5] It is the easy installation of the system where the base
station can be placed at the local residence close to the
target area and the monitoring task can be done by any
person with minimal training
7. FUTURE SCOPE
The analysis of the material contents in the soil in that
particular region can be monitored easily at the base
station using this system. In order to monitor water quality
in different sites, future works can be focused on
establishing a system with more sensor nodes and more
base stations. In future connections between nodes and
base station will be done using Ethernet. The Ethernet can
also be connected to Internet so that users can login to the
system and get real time water quality data faraway. This
system can be also used for water pollution control in
different conditions. Also it can be used to guess abnormal
moments under sea by measuring the turbidity at sea
shore.
8. CONCLUSION
Thus the proposed system using high power RF based
WSN for water quality monitoring system offers low power
consumption with high reliability. The use of natural solar
energy helps to reduce power consumption & operating
cost. Another important fact of this system is the easy
installation of the system where the base station can be
placed at the local residence close to the target area and the
monitoring task can be done by any person with minimal
training at the beginning of the system installation.
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