About an acre…
The miflora or xiaomi flower care seem to only work about a couple of meters away…
Ideally i’d like to have less wifi devices connected but a bunch of cheaper sensors (hopefully like this one) reporting back to a rf hub for example.
Lora seems like a way to go, but I wouldn’t know how to get a soil sensor to send info via lora…
Thanks
Looks like someone may have come across it already.
Looks similar: https://www.dreamgreenhouse.com/projects/2016/433/index.php
Is it supported by RTL_433?
From the page linked above, and this PR on rtl_433 it looks like it. (in the comments).
I had good success with rtl_433 using a super cheap DVB USB dongle to receive 433mhz sensor readings.
BTW that pull request states these will support only 3 addresses, so limited to 3 devices.
25m for mi flora from my measurements (with direct view between mi flora and ESP32 with OMG):
Here is a post that can interest you:
If you want to be sure of the range I will definetly go for a LORA solution.
You can combine an MQTT gateway based on ESP32 and a node based on a moteino or equivalent.
Nevertheless it is a solution that will require more DIY work compared to basic 433mhz protocols.
Wow this is really great info thanks guys!
“25m for mi flora from my measurements (with direct view between mi flora and ESP32 with OMG):” Seriously? (full disclosure, i’m using Esphome at the moment, maybe I will get better range with OMG?)
I’m going to try and build a custom rf 433 soil sensor based on your sketches; do you have any wiring diagrams?
I’d love to get the LORA working, is anyone building LORA soil sensors?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
I don’t know, I didn’t tried ESPhome 
It is a complex and long path but here they are:
You should use this sensor:
And not this one:
Not in my side but I would be interested , if I had to do it I would use a moteino with a lora module, and the sensor pointed above (the first one).
For the gateway I would go with an ESP32 with LORA module embedded.
If you have time to invest on a DIY build I advise you to go for the LORA path and not the basic 433mhz one.
Why would you suggest LORA over 433mhz?
Allright, I’ll give LORA a shot then.
Yep, those are the probes that I have, so I will try this.
I also have 2 TTGO LORA boards (the ones outlined in the OMG instructions), while I was able to flash the board with the OMG firmware, serial output showed that the board was rebooting every few seconds or so (I don’t remember exactly, i’ll try again when i’m back in front of my computer). I was hoping that I could make one the “gateway”, the other one the “sender” that would be attached to a bunch of (capacitive) wired soil sensors. I even looked at the i2c sensor offered by adafruit (https://www.adafruit.com/product/4026) alas it seems only 2 can be on one bus (not enough addresses it seems).
Problem is I have no idea how to get data from a sensor, to a board that can send the data via LORA to the gateway. So i’m in over my head, but i like tinkering, so let me know if you’ve got some pointers and i’ll give it a go!
Thanks in advance.
Thanks Nick,
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like there’s a recipe for a Lora capacative moisture sensor there…
If you compare 2 nodes, one with 433mhz basic protocol and one with lora modulation with the same power you will get a far better range with Lora. By design lora is a LPWAN technology (low power wide area network)
Strange, we can dig into that if needed
Here is the principle:
Lora node with moisture sensor (moteino, ultra mini pro or other low power board)
|| lora
V
LoratoMQTT gateway based on ESP32 and connected by wifi
|| wifi - mqtt
V
Home Assistant
The moteino will be loaded with an arduino program like this one for example
The ESP32 with a LORAtoMQTT program.
Looks like Lora is definitely the way to go then.
Yeah I had a really hard time getting OMG working, but it looks like it’s finally connected and stable.
However, I’m not getting the 25m that you’re able to get 
going to do more tests…
I’m gonna give Lora a try
Thanks!
Could you indicate which board you are using ?
I m interested on having back your difficulties so as to improve it.
This one:
I got the 25m with this board for info.
Awesome i’ll try it.
Thanks!
I am interested to know what sort of battery life you get from those esp32 lora boards?
Here is some feedback on that :
Note that in the architecture proposed before, the esp32 board is used as a gateway with continuous power. For the nodes the envisaged solution is a moteino or equivalent on a battery (not an esp32 board)