Long time test done with soil sensor!

[Nicklas Starkel]

Alright, so in 2016 (the 14th of November 2016 started recording into SQL) I created a soil sensor.
I used 3.3V pro mini with regulator removed and powered by Vin pin. Also removed leds from the pro mini.
Connected to a prong inserted into the soil.
Every hour it woke up, measured and sent info to the gateway.
Driven by two AA batteries it showed battery voltage at 3.074V at the start.
In the end of 2024 it showed 2.399 which should be sufficient to get several years more or measurements.
However, one of the batteries had started to leak (cheap battery!).
But it's safe to say this sensor did its job very well with recorded measurements of over 57000 data points!
And to top this I had not the gateway set up some time, but the soil sensor still was on.
So those records are obviously not recorded.

So this little bad boy continued for 8 years with measurements for 6.5 years recorded.
The prong looks like new.

Just thought I'd let you all know this sunshine story

[mfalkvidd]

Nice, @Nicklas-Starkel !

Good to ser you again btw

[nagelc]

@Nicklas-Starkel
8 years -- amazing! I have temperature sensors that get over 2 years on a pair of AA batteries, but they do read every 3 minutes: )

[OldSurferDude]

I am duly impressed! I tried something similar. I knew that the environment into which I was putting the sensors was pretty harsh ... I only got about a year. I used an 82650 battery, 5W solar cell and a charge controller. Worked well for a short while.

I think you inspired me to try again.

OSD

[eiten]

Wow @Nicklas-Starkel congrats, that sounds great! And thanks for the feedback. Would you mind sharing your setup?
Regards, Edi