Hello
After installing some smart switches in my house I would like to do next steps toward smart garden.
While I’m not against DIY I would like to base the solution on ready to use components prepared to work outdoor. I know that MiFlora is very popular. And TBH I like its form factor.
Main question I have is about how to ensure connectivity to HA. MiFlora sensors are BLE as far as I know. What I need to use to accomplish their connections to HA network? I don’t know exact BLE range, but I can imagine it would be not enough to any BLE-WIFI sensor connected indoor. Or maybe I’m wrong. Considering people have big gardens, those questions are already answered for sure.
Basically what devices should I look for to connect MiFlora (or other non-wifi sensors) to HA network.
BTW are there any garden sensors powered by solar cells?
Maybe there are some articles offering optimal approach? I would be grateful.
I use MiFlora for my inside plants but I never thought about using them for outside. I would worry about their ability to withstand the outdoors. They aren’t that robust, I have dismantled one to attempt to repair it, small leak in the case will probably destroy them.
When it comes to outside I have resorted to timed irrigation using custom ESPHome irrigation controller that just switches irrigation valves. Then I use time based watering coupled with weather parameters to determine how long to water and when to water. Example, water in the morning for 10 minutes if no rain the previous day and the temperature overnight was higher than 60 degrees. A simple example relative to what my automation are really doing, but you get the point.
If you aren’t into building a solution, there are a few irrigation solutions out there that integrate with Home Assistant.
@ronytomen , thanks for this info about MiFlora. I wasn’t aware that indoor usage is a case.
What should I look for automating outdoor garden then? Looks like optimistic approach, irrigating without measurement might work. Is measurement based irrigation wasteful? If no, what components/systems should I look for? I saw Gardena brand but it’s pretty expensive.
@tom_l I used the Olimex ESP32 board with Ethernet. I got tired of trying to tweak the WiFi and Bluetooth settings to work together but also not miss BLE packets from my sensors. This has been working really well, my only complaint is the amount of updates it now gets from devices per minute. If you have recorder turned on it can increase the amount of state changes for the associated entities.
@maxym I created my own solution with ESPHome, a NodeMCU ESP8266 development board, switches, relays and a 24VAC transformer. This controls Rainbird irrigation values which control my irrigation zones (drip systems).