Soil moisture

[glabbeek]

For my gardening project I would like to know the moisture level of the grounds.

I found these 1-wire sensors:
http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/pro ... ts_id=1547

http://happyfarming.com/2008/12/23/soil ... re-sensor/

They are 1-wire and could fairly easy be connected to my system.
The downside is that my vegetable garden is about 60 meters for the main house and I don't want lay a cable that long.

Is it possible to use one of the RFXCOM wireless sensors to connect the soil sensor?

Willem-Bram

HS 2.0 / JvCADDX / SKYPE connector / RFXCOM / Moony / Mainlobby

[b_weijenberg]

See http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?T ... sture#4745
The sensors are connected to a DC voltage and will corrode fast I guess. You can try to create a circuit with the NE555 powered by the RFXSensor 1-Wire 5 Volt supply. This voltage is switched and not permanently present to save batteries.

The hobby boards solution needs 12V power and cannot be battery powered. (or you have to use a car battery)

[Lempens]

Ask Heino Peeters about corrode

Once I was at a course he gave, and he told something about, corrosion, and using DC or AC voltage to prevent corrosion.

[Bastiaan]

IN this (Dutch) topic we also discussed this.
http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2495

I am using a Gardena sensor connected to a VIsonic wireless switch. It works perfect.

[glabbeek]

I've seen several ways to do it, but after some reading about the subject Ive decided this is not the way to go for now.
On the Homeseer board is a nice discussion about the subject where the effectiveness of soil moisture sensors is debated.
http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.ph ... ght=sensor
My conclusion for now is that the system will work fine for potted plants, but is not good enough for the garden. For the time being I will stick with calculated ETs (Evapotranspiration) instead of measured ETs.
Willem-Bram


HS 2.0 / JvCADDX / SKYPE connector / RFXCOM / Moony / Mainlobby

[richard naninck]

I want to measure the moistlevel in my garden maybe even at serveral places to determine if I need to water the garden. I already have the wateringsystem thought out and it will be fully controllable by my HA system. I have rain, hygro, temp sensors etc with which I can figure out if I need to water the garden, but a simple sensor in the ground that measures moist a the plants root level would render all the other sensors obsolete in this case.

Does anybody have any suggestions where to look for such a sensor? The sensor must measure moist at a plants root level and be able to (wirelessly?) transmit it's data to my HA system. Interfacing won't be a problem, just didn't spend much time yet looking for such a device..

Thnx

[r_255]

have a look on digital soil tension meter on google for measuring.

[richard naninck]

Additional info gathered by PM's:

http://www.gardena.com/ddoc/GARO/GARO20 ... 88-20_.pdf
http://www.hunterindustries.com/Resourc ... it277w.pdf

[labium]

ask the university of wageningen, holland, they are the world leader scientists for growing plants in the right environment, they must have that kind of stuff to do their work that must be coupled to computers.

labium

[ZRandal]

b_weijenberg said that the sensors will corrode fast. I have seen this firsthand not necessarily with the sensors listed but similar sensors. I believe it is because of the exposed metal and electrical current being run through it. If this is an issue with you, (It was for me because I was constantly replacing my sensors) you might want to consider this soil moisture sensor. I have been using it for three years now, and it hasn't corroded yet. Also, it is extremely low power, so it doesn't require a car battery to run it (like another post said). As far as I can tell, it is fully insulated, and I have been pretty happy with it... If you want to go all out and get information on soil retention levels you might want to consider a tensiometer - which is basically a soil moisture sensor but more advanced. The issue is they can be pretty expensive, so you'd have to be a die hard, avid gardener. Hope this helps!