PROJECT REPORT ON

AUTOMATIC WATER LEVEL CONTROL

SYSTEM

By

PANELIYA HIREN S.

PATEL HARSHIL

Under Supervision of

PROF. KEYUR M. PATEL

Department of Electronics and Communication

Faculty of Technology, Nadiad

October, 2015
 DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the term work carried out in

subject of TERM PROJECT and recorded in this report is bonafied work
of Mr. PANELIYA HIREN S. (EC-64) and Mr. PATEL HARSHIL J. (EC-68)
of B.TECH semester 5th in the branch of ELECTRONICS &
COMMUNICATION during the academic year 2015.

Staff in charge:- Head of Department:-

Date :- Date:-
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This project consumed a noticeable amount of work and resources. This project was not
possible without research and dedication. This project also demanded that we had to ask for
suggestions and the remedy to the current strategy. So we would like to thank the batch mates
who were readily available for the aid of this project.

We would also like to extend our gratitude to our faculty member in-charge of this subject
Prof. Keyur M. Patel for her guidance and sharing knowledge related to the project. We
would like to thank this honourable university (Dharmsinh Desai University) and our
Department (Electronics and Communication) for giving us an opportunity to work on the
project basis by including this particular subject in our academic programme.

At last we would like to thank all those who played an individual role in the progress and
completion of this project. Without the support of the people mentioned above this project
wouldn’t have been possible.
 ABSTRACT

The drinking water crisis in India is reaching alarming proportions. It might very soon attain
the nature of global crisis. Hence, it is of utmost importance to preserve water. In many
houses there is unnecessary wastage of water due to overflow in Overhead Tanks. Automatic
Water Level Controller can provide a solution to this problem. The operation of water level
controller works upon the fact that water conducts electricity. So water can be used to open or
close a circuit. As the water level rises or falls, different circuits in the controller send
different signals. These signals are used to switch ON or switch OFF the motor pump as per
our requirements.
 INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………....06
2. BLOCK DIAGRAM…………………………………..………….……….07
3. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM……………………………………………………..08
4. CONTROLLING CIRCUIT………………………………………………09
4.1 Controlling the level of overhead tank…………………………..09
4.2 Circuit for sensing the water level of underground tank...............11
4.3 Circuit for Alarming the User…………………………………...12
4.4 Relay Driving Circuit…………………………………….……...13
5. INDICATING CIRCUIT…………………………………………………16.
6. POWER SUPPLY……………………….………………………………..18
7. PCB LAYOUT……………………………………………………………19
8. OUTPUT PHOTO………………………………………………………...20
9. CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………21
10. ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATION…………………………………..22
11. REFERENCE……………………………………………………………..23
12. DATASHEET…………………………………………………………….24
 1. INTRODUCTION

People generally switch on the pump when their taps go dry and switch off the pump
when the overhead tank starts overflowing. This results in the unnecessary wastage and
sometimes non-availability of water in the case of emergency.
The circuit that we are using makes this system automatic, i.e. it switches on the pump
when the water level in the overhead tank goes low and switches it off as soon as the water
level reaches a pre-determined level. It also prevents ‘dry run’ of the pump in case the level
in the tank goes below the suction level.
Water Level Controller employs a simple mechanism to detect and maintain the water level
in a tank or any other container by switching it on/off the motor automatically when needed.
The level sensing is done by three sensors which are placed at different levels on the tank
walls.
The three sensors are placed as following:
Sensor C- At the bottom of the tank.
Sensor B- A little above of sensor 1.
Sensor A-At the top of the tank.
The three sensors are maintaining the water level in the tank by triggering & retriggering the
timer IC. Here the timer IC is acting in monostable mode or one-shot mode. Sensor C carries
the +Vcc supply thus when the water level falls below sensor B the timer IC is triggered &
the pump is energized through a relay & transistor. Now when the water reaches the topmost
level & touches sensor A it retriggers the timer IC once again & and the pump is switched off
automatically.
Hence this water level controller is one of the cheapest & simplest devices which prevents
wastage of both electricity & water.
 2. BLOCK DIAGRAM

Block diagram is very much useful technique of representing the project more effectively.
Here the same is given as under.

Fig 1.0 Block Diagram

This project consists of two parts:

(1) Controlling Circuit:

This part is controlling the water level of the tank by sensing through the sensor which
is, here, copper wires or steel roads inserted inside the tank at specific level. It uses
the concept of conducting property of water. When water level reaches some level, it
would make the respective connection short circuit. By this way the controlling circuit
can sense the level of the water level and give appropriate output. This part consist of two
ICs i.e. LM555(timer) and CD4011 (Quad 2 input NAND gate). The first one is used to
control the water level and the latter is used to sense the water level inside the
underground tank. This disables the control of the controller part if the level inside the
underground tank goes below some reference level to avoid the wastage of power which
is wasted by dry-running of motor.
(2) Indicating Circuit :

This part senses the water level using the same sensor and glows the appropriate LED.
Here we are having four LED which can indicate four different levels of water i.e. low,
50%, 75% and Full.
Now let us talk about overall working of the project. The sensors are inserted into both
the tanks as shown in block diagram. Let us take initially the overhead tank empty.
So the controlling part would sense that the VCC wire and LOW wire are not connected.
So it would come to know that the tank is empty and would switch on the motor. Now
water is filled gradually until it becomes full. Meanwhile the indicating part continues
to indicate level. Now the circuit would know that the tank has become full so it would
cut the supply to the motor. Now the circuit would wait until the tank becomes empty, to
turn on the motor again. This process continues.
Now if the water level inside underground tank decreases below the reference level then
the circuit would cut the supply to the motor without considering work of controlling part
to avoid dry run of the motor. Also the user would have attention by the sound of buzzer.
Now it's a user's duty to again fill the underground tank. The circuit would again work
as previously explained.
3. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
 4. CONTROLLING CIRCUIT

The controlling part controls the supply to the motor according to the water level sensed
inside both the tanks.
This block consists of two parts i.e. controller for overhead tank and circuit for sensing the
water level in underground tank.

4.1 Controlling the level of overhead Tank:-

This portion of the circuit senses the level of overhead tank and accordingly switches on or
off the motor.
Here for sensing the water level of overhead tank we use the IC-LM555. In case of 555 IC,
we are getting many benefits in this application. If we see in the internal circuit diagram of
this IC, then we can find one S-R latch inside it. Also the Trigger pin of 555 (i.e. pin no.2) is
active low eliminating the need of one NOT gate which we required in the former case. The
question is how to configure the circuit? The circuit given below.

Fig 2.1 Controlling Circuit using 555

The wires named Vcc, L and H are to be inserted into the tank at specific level as per the
figure given in latter section (they are the part of the sensor). Here the resistance network of
1K and 100K is used to overcome the problem of sensitivity of the 555 timer's input pin. First
we have tried without using this network. At that time I was getting some unpredictable
results as it was very sensitive. It was eliminated by the resistance network. The logic behind
it is,

V (at pin 6 or 2) = 100 * Vin /(100 +1) ≈ Vin

So the voltage remains the same approximately. Let us see how this works. Observe the
internal circuit diagram of the IC :

Fig 2.2 Internal Circuit Diagram of LM555

Here pin 2(Trigger) is given to L and pin 6(Threshold) is given to H. So when both the pin
are low i.e. at low voltage, the input to SR latch becomes 0 0 because the voltage at
comparator 1 falls below Vcc/3 and it gives High to FF and voltage at comparator 2 falls
bellow 2Vcc/3 giving low to the latch. So flip-flop sets. This type of process is applicable to
all cases. This is how it works.

Pin no. 5(Control voltage) is kept ground via capacitor to remove the effect of noise. Pin
4(Reset) is kept at Vcc to enable the working (as we don’t require any reset signal). Pin & is
unused. The datasheet of LM555 is given in appendix, for more reference.
4.2 Circuit for sensing the water level of underground tank:

Till now we have designed the controlling circuit for overhead tank assuming that the water
level inside the underground tank is at sufficient level. It would work perfectly if the user is
not concerned with the reservoir water. But this is not the situation in every case. Because
most of the users are using the underground tank to fill the overhead tank. So the
underground tank gets emptied then our circuit of controlling is of no use. So we have to
modify the circuit so that if the underground tank gets emptied it must cut the supply to motor
(without considering the state of motor). And only after the underground tank is filled, the
controlling circuit should be activated.

Designing the Circuit:

To sense the water level of underground tank, we have to insert two copper wires or steel
rods namely Vcc and U so that when water reaches at that level, it would connect these two
wires (refer the block diagram for arrangement). Let us say that the output of the timer is A
and the signal from underground tank is U. So the output must be AND operation of A and U
which is given to relay driving circuit.

Vrelay = A·U

Problem: This would definitely work. But when I implemented this using Quad 2 input
AND
gate IC, it wasn't sensing the level properly. The reason behind it was that when the pin of
IC is kept open that time it was taking it as high (internally) ! Here we were giving Vcc i.e.
high as sensing voltage (in fact it is the case in most of the logic gate ICs). So it wasn't
differentiating that when the tank is empty and when it was full!

Solution: Since when the pin is kept open it is taking the state as high, we have to use
ground (0 V) for sensing. Now modified logic would be:

Vrelay = A ·Ū

To implement this we would require one NOT gate and one AND gate. Total two ICs.

Modification to decrease the size and cost: It is possible to make NOT gate using NAND
gate. So, let us modify the above logic equation:

Vrelay = A ·Ū
Circuit Diagram:

Fig 2.3 Design For Underground Tank

Now, we would require three NAND gates. One for Ū, one for A ·Ū and the last for another
NOT gate. So we need one NAND gate IC which would include at least three NAND gates
and which would be able to work on higher voltages up to approx. 16V(for safety).

These all requirements are fulfilled by the IC named CD4011B which is Quad 2 input NAND
gates. Why only CD4011B? Why not other NAND gate IC? The answer is to save the
power. As it is a domestic product, we should consider the power consumption of the device
which should be as low as possible. Here this IC is of CMOS logic. We know that power
consumption of the CMOS IC is very low as compared to that of TTL logic IC. Also the
voltage rating of the IC are higher (which is required here). So finally I selected this IC. The
datasheet of the IC is given in Appendix, for more reference.

4.3 Alarming the User:

The question may arise how the user would come to know that his underground tank has got
emptied? So we have to design the circuit which gives alarm when the tank is empty. The
designing steps are as under.

Designing the alarming circuit:

Here we would use buzzer. The logic is very simple. When the wires inside the reservoir i.e.
U and GROUND are open, give high voltage to buzzer to on it otherwise give zero voltage to
buzzer to turn off. So we need one transistor as a switch. The circuit diagram by which we
can achieve this, is as under:
Circuit Diagram :

Fig 2.4 Circuit for Alarming the User

Here we have used PNP transistor BC 558. When the two wires U and Ground are connected
(i.e. reservoir has water above certain level) , transistor would ON and Buzzer would have
approximately 0.4 V which would keep the buzzer off. At the instant when water level falls
below that level, the transistor would be turned off, giving approx. Vcc to the buzzer to turn
on and alert the user. There is one switch provided, which allows the user to enable and
disable the buzzer (to make the device user friendly).

4.4 Relay Driving Circuit:

Till now our circuit is giving the output high to on the motor and low to off the motor. Using
this dc voltage we have to control the ac voltage. The device performing this action is known
as Relay. The working of the relay can be easily understood by the following figure.
 Fig 2.5 Mechanism of relay

To drive the relay, we would use transistor as a switch again, but here NPN transistor with
high input ratings.

Fig 2.6 Relay Driving Circuit

As seen in the diagram, we have used the 2.2K resistance to prevent the current exciding the
limit of SL100 to prevent the burning of the transistor. And it is of 1W. Because the drain
current of CD4011 is high. So normal resistor would have much heat and may burn also.
When the input voltage is high, the transistor may turn on giving approx 0.2 V to the
collector. So relay gets energized and LED would glow stating that motor is on. When input
voltage is low, T1 is off and relay don’t have ground which would turn it off. Also the LED
would be off stating that motor is off.

Why we require Diode?

When relay is energized, it stores electric energy in terms of magnetic energy. So when it
turns off, it would discharge through rest of the circuit. And it might damage the active
components. To prevent this use the diode in anti parallel fashion so that the discharging
current flows through it when it turns off. Also we would have high Switching speed.
 5. INDICATING CIRCUIT

As the name suggests, this part of the circuit would indicate the level inside the overhead tank
so that user may have the idea about amount of water inside the tank. This part senses the
water level using the same sensor and glows the appropriate LED. Here we are having four
LED which can indicate four different levels of water i.e. low, 50%, 75% and Full. The
circuit diagram by which we can achieve this is as follows:

Fig 3.0 Water Level Indicator

Designing the circuit:
To design the indicating part, we have to use four switches. One can also approach the
transistor as a switch. To do so, he has to use four different transistors in switching mode
configuration. In other hand, he can use quad bilateral switch IC. The problem in using the
transistor is that it has somewhat high power consumption (which is the major issue to be
avoided in domestic products) as well as biasing network of resistors. In case of IC the power
consumption is less. The IC named CD4011 provides the same. So it has been used here. The
circuit diagram is given in figure.
IC CD4011 is containing four bilateral switches. Each switch is having 3 pins. Two for in/out
and one control switch. When the control voltage is high, the remaining terminals are sorted.
So in our case, we have to join the sensing wires to the appropriate pins of control voltage.
The indicating LEDs are joined to one pin of the switch via current limiting resistors and the
last is grounded.
When the switch is activated, we are getting approximately 0.2V at pin 1. Now the supply
voltage is 13V (approx.). Therefore, Current limiting resistor is
R = (13 - 0.2)V/(10mA) = 1297 ohm
So we can use 1000ohm instead, after all it’s a current limiting resistor. The other resistor
which is 180k ohm is used to provide the biasing to the IC and protect the switch.
As described earlier, we have to insert five wires inside the tank as shown in diagram for
sensing the level of water. The water would sort the wires and accordingly the LED would
glow indicating the user the level of water. The arrangement of the LEDs are given in the
figure.
 6. POWER SUPPLY

Above all circuit parts would definitely work if user is using DC battery. But it would made

the user to replace the battery when it is empty(making the circuit less automatic!!). So it

would be a good designing if the user can use the circuit on either the supplies ac 230V or

12V dc. To do so we have to step down the ac voltage and then rectify and then filter. These

can be done by the following full wave bridge rectifier.

Fig 4.0 Power Supply

The transformer will step down the voltage to 12 V (provided the ac signal input voltage is

240V. The bridge rectifier would convert that ac 12 volt into pulsating dc. After that the high

value capacitor would filter it and would give approximate 12 V with negligible ripple. All

the diodes are 1N4007.

The user can also give the DC 12V (if he/she can afford!) directly to the 1-2 terminals.
7. PCB LAYOUT
 8. CONCLUSIION

- This system is very beneficial in rural as well as urban areas.

- It helps in the efficient utilization of available water sources.
- If used on a large scale, it can provide a major contribution in the conservation of water for
us and the future generations

In these days, when Earth’s reserve of consumable water is decreasing every

moment, every drop has its value. Water level controller is a simple yet effective way to
prevent wastage of water. Its simplicity in design and low cost components make it an ideal
piece of technology for the common man.
 9. ADVANTAGE AND LIMITATION

ADVANTAGES:-
- Saves the electricity.
- Wastage of water can be avoided.
- User-friendly and automatic system.
- Affordable cost
- A very useful home appliance.
- Overcomes the problem of dry running of motor

LIMITATION:
- Applicable only to single phase motor (which is mostly used in homes)
- Not applicable to the users who are having two overhead tanks (otherwise
they have to use two circuits and motors).
 10. REFERENCE

www.electronicshub.com
www.circuitstoday.com
Principle of Electronics by Albert Malvino
Linear Electronics by Jacob Millman and Christos C. Halkias
EFY Magazine (July – 2010 issue)
11. DATASHEET