Development of a Real-Time Soil Moisture Meter using Oscillation Frequency Shift Method

The objective of this study was to develop a real-time soil moisture meter using RF impedance. The impedance suchas capacitance and resistance (or conductance) was analyzed using parallel cylinder type capacitance probe(C-probe) and Q-meter (HP4342). The capacitance and conductance of soil increased as volumetric water content increased. The 5 MHz of modified Colpitts type crystal oscillator was designed to detect the capacitance change of the C-probe with moist soil. A third order polynomial regression model was proposed to describe the relationship between RF impedance and volumetric water content. The prototype real time moisture meter consisted of the C-probe, sample container, oscillator, frequency counter and related signal processing units. The calibration equation for measurement of volumetric moisture content of soil was developed and validated. The correlation coefficient and root mean square error between measured volumetric water content by oven method and predicted values by prototype moisture meter for unknown soil samples were 0.984 and 0.032$cm^3$$cm\^3$, respectively.