Non-contact Moisture Content Monitoring of Growing Media in Bonsai Pot by Using Radio Wave Frequency at 2.5 GHz

Prapan Leekul, Pornpimon Chaisaeng

Abstract


This paper proposes the growing media moisture monitoring in bonsai pots using the electromagnetic waves at frequency of 2.5 GHz based on a free space technique. This technique monitors the growing media moisture content without contacting the samples and uses a non destructive testing material method. The proposed system consists of a microstrip patch antenna having the |S11| less than -16 dB. The antenna works with the high frequency synthesizer which has the transmitted power of 0 dBm. The generated power of frequency is transmitted to the bonsai pot and then the received power will be converted to DC voltage by using the power detector and displayed by digital multi-meter. The growing media sample under test is a pumice stone. The experiment started from fully saturated growing media of 61.43% moisture content. The measured power of radio frequency was 1.405 volt. Leaving the growing media to dehydrate in 2 hour, the moisture was decreased to 61.33% with the voltage of 1.475 volt. When increasing time from 4 6 8 to 10 hours, the moisture content levels decreased from 57.08% to 39.61% which voltage continuously increased from 1.724 to 2.013 volts. In addition, the dehydration time from 14 to 18 hours could cause a few impact on the reduction of moisture content from 34.37% to 32.82% with the average voltage of 2.053 volt. From the measured results, the relation between voltage and moisture content showed that the electromagnetic wave was able to efficiently use in monitoring the level of moisture content of growing media in bonsai pots by non-contact.

Keywords


Microstrip antenna, Moisture content, Growing media, Radio frequency Power detector

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References


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