Robust compost monitoring hardware that isn't Bluetooth?

Hardware
1

I am working on a compost monitoring system for our home as a ‘beginner’ project.

Currently, I have an ESP32, a soil moisture sensor, and a DS18B20 temperature sensor.

Things appear to be working well with a real rough first go, but I am running into reliability issues with the soil and temperature sensors in this environment, which I expected. It’s time to look for some more robust sensors.

I was looking at these temperature and soil moisture sensors as they appear to be built more robustly.

My compost bin is not close enough for a Bluetooth connection back to my HA server. I’m also not entirely on board with Bluetooth sensors for this project, as it’s more battery operated things to have to worry about. I’d rather keep it wired.

Any insights for more durable sensors would be greatly appreciated.

2

Do you permanently apply (DC) voltage to the sensors? Specially the moisture sensor may suffer quickly in such a scenario. Without any conformal coating or such you might already be able to prolong the life of your probes significantly by just applying power when taking a measurement. Should be sufficient (depending on the power consumption) to just use a GPIO for that which will be switched on before taking the measurement and off when done :ok_hand:

Here is an example how that could be done :point_down:

Obviously you can power bluetooth devices with wires instead of a battery - just choose the correct voltage. :zap:

If needed a bluetooth proxy nearby could catch the payloads - still I would rather do it directly on a esp to have full control. :muscle: