Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor
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Interesting project. To what degree, if any, has corrosion been a problem after you switched to soldered connections? Obviously the operating environment (near the ground outdoors) can be intrinsically humid.
Also, can someone please post a larger photo of how the sensor is attached at the base? The area of interest on the photo provided is miniscule, and it's too grainy if I try to enlarge it to a better size:
By the way, I notice this guy has a rather interesting soil moisture sensor that appears to go beyond measuring mere electrical conductance: https://www.tindie.com/products/Power_Modules/fdr-100mhz-plant-soil-sensor-mineral-transparency/
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@flopp Can you please include the pictures in your posting as the "tinypic.com" is rather intrusive, thanks...
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Interesting project. To what degree, if any, has corrosion been a problem after you switched to soldered connections? Obviously the operating environment (near the ground outdoors) can be intrinsically humid.
Also, can someone please post a larger photo of how the sensor is attached at the base? The area of interest on the photo provided is miniscule, and it's too grainy if I try to enlarge it to a better size:
@NeverDie said:
Interesting project. To what degree, if any, has corrosion been a problem after you switched to soldered connections? Obviously the operating environment (near the ground outdoors) can be intrinsically humid.
I have not checked how the sensor look like now, but I have only run it for 6 months. I have always used soldered connections.
Also, can someone please post a larger photo of how the sensor is attached at the base?
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By the way, I notice this guy has a rather interesting soil moisture sensor that appears to go beyond measuring mere electrical conductance: https://www.tindie.com/products/Power_Modules/fdr-100mhz-plant-soil-sensor-mineral-transparency/
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@NeverDie said:
Interesting project. To what degree, if any, has corrosion been a problem after you switched to soldered connections? Obviously the operating environment (near the ground outdoors) can be intrinsically humid.
I have not checked how the sensor look like now, but I have only run it for 6 months. I have always used soldered connections.
Also, can someone please post a larger photo of how the sensor is attached at the base?
@flopp
Perfect! Thanks a bunch. I like it. Very clever.I think you were wise to cover the insulated wire with the silicon. Despite the appearance of being waterproof, I've noticed that regular wire insulation isn't waterproof/vaporproof, and regular wires used outdoors don't survive well (especially "copper" wires from China, which tend to have a high iron content and thus literally rust their way to failure). I don't know that silicon is sufficient, but if it isn't it might at least slow down the degradation process. It takes some effort to put these things together, so plainly you want them to last as long as possible.
Nice work!
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@flopp
Perfect! Thanks a bunch. I like it. Very clever.I think you were wise to cover the insulated wire with the silicon. Despite the appearance of being waterproof, I've noticed that regular wire insulation isn't waterproof/vaporproof, and regular wires used outdoors don't survive well (especially "copper" wires from China, which tend to have a high iron content and thus literally rust their way to failure). I don't know that silicon is sufficient, but if it isn't it might at least slow down the degradation process. It takes some effort to put these things together, so plainly you want them to last as long as possible.
Nice work!
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WARNING!!!
I opened one of my items which didn't worked since many weeks ago.
I putted it on a table and should just open the stuff when I saw some brown water coming out from the pole.
My first guess was that it was water mixed with mud but the smell was strange. It can be that the battery has leaked.If you will build this item please seal the battery to 100%. I just put the battery in the pole but unfortunately water came in and what I think destroyed the battery!
Be careful
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@flopp is your code should work with new version of gateway 2.1.1?
Just maked using this tutorial my gateway https://www.mysensors.org/build/raspberry and I'm getting nothing in debug...pi@raspberrypi:~/MySensors $ sudo ./bin/mysgw -d mysgw: Starting gateway... mysgw: Protocol version - 2.1.1 mysgw: MCO:BGN:INIT GW,CP=RNNG---,VER=2.1.1 mysgw: TSM:INIT mysgw: TSF:WUR:MS=0 mysgw: !TSM:INIT:TSP FAIL mysgw: TSM:FAIL:CNT=1 mysgw: TSM:FAIL:PDT mysgw: TSM:FAIL:RE-INITIn node I used your newest code for gw2.0 - is this because version mismatch or something different in my setup?
Could you update your code to work with new version? -
@flopp is your code should work with new version of gateway 2.1.1?
Just maked using this tutorial my gateway https://www.mysensors.org/build/raspberry and I'm getting nothing in debug...pi@raspberrypi:~/MySensors $ sudo ./bin/mysgw -d mysgw: Starting gateway... mysgw: Protocol version - 2.1.1 mysgw: MCO:BGN:INIT GW,CP=RNNG---,VER=2.1.1 mysgw: TSM:INIT mysgw: TSF:WUR:MS=0 mysgw: !TSM:INIT:TSP FAIL mysgw: TSM:FAIL:CNT=1 mysgw: TSM:FAIL:PDT mysgw: TSM:FAIL:RE-INITIn node I used your newest code for gw2.0 - is this because version mismatch or something different in my setup?
Could you update your code to work with new version? -
@Huczas
I don't use 2.1, yet. I only use 1.5.1.
I don't have any knowledge of 2.x, so I cannot update the code, sorry -
Hello All,
Wondering if any one of the successful implenters would be able to share their soil moisture graphs,both for a day and over months.. -
Charge memory is a thing of the past, lithium batteries don't have it (if I understood what you meant).
@gohan said in Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor:
Charge memory is a thing of the past, lithium batteries don't have it (if I understood what you meant).
Except that, if I'm not mistaken, he's presently re-using the NiCd's that came with the original solar garden light.
[Edit: correction: I think maybe (?) he switched to Nimh. I didn't think those had a memory problem. Do they? ]
[Edit2: Maybe he'll "upgrade" to a supercap. :) A soil moisture meter would be a good application for one. ]
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Hi,
I started building this great idea of solar powered soil moisture sensor. Not integrated yet in a solar light as above, but still on my desk.
I tested the sensor in salted water and I get a report of 78% moisture : based on your experience, is it normal ? Then I pushed the sensor in a very humid plant pot and read 71%. I would have expected mroe differenc ecompared to salted water.
So, would you advise to caliber ? I guess I could modify the calculation formula in the script..Precisely, is it possible with Mysensor technology and Domoticz to push to a sensor a new setting (for instance to caliber using Domoticz each different sensor) ?
And another question.. Is it possible to ask Domoticz to show the result of moisure reading in the Weather or Measures category rather than in the Temperature menu ?
br,
Ricorico94
