I used this with some success
[LSE01 -- LoRaWAN Soil Moisture & EC Sensor(https://Dragino LSE01)
Was routing LoRa packets via Helium to MQTT
That is until landscaper tore this piece of equipment into pieces one day. Have not had a chance to replace it.
Just come across a post for the ZigBee sensor in the home assistant Facebook group. Doesn’t seem to have the same fluctuations that we are seeing
https://smarthomescene.com/reviews/tuya-zigbee-plant-soil-sensor-gxm-01-review/
I did order 3 of these but installed only one up till now. This weekend I installed the second one and it seems to be more reliable than the other one. It started with a soil humidity of 39% and is at 35% now without any bouncing. (It did not rain since installing.)
@Giexperience Could it be that there are several batches of this sensor whereby some are deffective?
Best regards
I purchased a Soil Moisture Sensor from https://spruceirrigation.com last year. Bit pricey but readings are stable and accurate. It’s a genuine Zigbee device and joined my existing network without issue. Provides soil moisture and temperature along with battery status. Using it to adjust irrigation times.
As expected, the HHCC sensors that suggested “zigbee2mqtt” support on AliExpress look to be totally normal BLE devices (shipped with firmware 3.3.6). Couldn’t seem to detect any evidence of a Zigbee signal from them, so it doesn’t look like an unannounced hardware or firmware update or anything.
That said, they’re working totally seamlessly with the Xiaomi BLE integration (including battery status - I know there were some issues with that on previous firmware) so I’m happy enough for now!
Hi Silviu. I would like to apologize for my absence and delay in responding to your inquiry. I have investigated the issue of the large power consumption of our device, and I am pleased to inform you that we have identified and resolved the problem.
We discovered that the device was designed to feed back data to the cloud when the value changes, with a feedback threshold of ±5%. However, a flaw in the calculation formula caused the data to become unusually sensitive when humidity levels exceeded 70%. Subtle resistance changes then exceeded 10%, leading to frequent data feedback to the cloud and resulting in high power consumption.
Fortunately, we have fixed this flaw and produced a new batch of devices. If you are interested, I would be happy to provide you with a repaired sample free of charge. Please contact me via email at [email protected], and I will arrange for a sample to be sent to you promptly.
Once again, I apologize for any inconvenience caused and look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Hi brechtvhb.I apologize for any inconvenience caused. After conducting further investigations, we have discovered that the device’s behavior is affected by different soil types rather than the batches. Our laboratory tests have shown that the moisture content of soils usually ranges between 10% and 60%. However, when we tested some new and nutrient-rich fluffy soils we purchased, we found moisture figures that reached up to 80% when dry.
Unfortunately, our equipment becomes unstable when the humidity level goes beyond 70%, due to a flaw in the calculation formula. This flaw causes a difference in performance between devices. However, our engineers have addressed the issue by fixing the flaw, and we have produced a new batch of equipment. If you would like, I can send you a new unit for testing.
We understand that gardening can be challenging, and we appreciate any advice you can offer. Our engineers are working to solve the problem of the device behaving differently in different soils. However, due to the device’s battery-powered nature and low power requirements, this problem may take some time to solve.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Rual
Hi jemenake. I apologize for not responding to your message in a timely manner. I was occupied with work, but I’m here now to address your concerns.
You are correct in saying that the threshold for changes in feedback data is set at 5%. We have investigated the issue of excessive power consumption resulting from the frequent feedback of the device to the cloud, and we have discovered that our calculation formula was flawed. Specifically, changes in data become sensitive at humidity levels greater than 70%, resulting in small changes in humidity above 70% leading to a change in data greater than 5%. This flaw was responsible for the constant feedback data and excessive power consumption. We have rectified this issue, and a new batch of samples has been produced. If you would like, I can send you a new sample for testing purposes. Please contact me at [email protected].
Moreover, we have found that the data of the equipment differs across different types of soils. Different soils exhibit different moisture zones. Our laboratory clay has a moisture range of 10-40%, while my new clay has a humidity range of 60-100%. The humidity range of the pots I have at home is between 20-60%.
These are the issues we have discovered with the equipment so far, and we are working to resolve them. However, we have yet to find a solution as the device requires low power consumption, which poses a significant challenge. We need more time to tackle this issue.
Please let me know if you have any other problems or suggestions. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
I just got a couple of the Spruce ones, and I think they’re awful. I live on the central California coast. You may have heard about all of the rain and flooding here, recently. Three days of constant rain, completely saturated ground, and both sensors barely managed to get up to 9% “humidity”. It has been a day without rain and the sensors are now down to 5% and 6%.
If you can’t even get to 10% when they’re practically submerged, then maybe they shouldn’t be using percent, as that implies a 0-100 scale.
Try to calibrate the sensor. Mine was erratic initially but settled down after calibration. The procedure is down the bottom of the page.
Is this a hardware issue, software issue or both? If it’s software, is the firmware on these devices updateable?
I’ve got the same issue, so far on two of the three sensors that I have. One is behaving normally so far at least.
I read this topic and I wonder which project should I choose and which one integrates with HA / Z2M the best…
@Hedda, have you tested / made DIYRuZ_Flower, Efekta or B-parasite? Any recommendations / insights you could give, please? Thank you in advance! 
I just found this project today:
It looks very nice. I was thinking to do exactly the same. ZigBee, e-ink screen and solar panel were properly working. I just got stuck in getting reliable moisture measurements compared to a professional moisture meter.
It is possible to change the reporting time for Tuya zigbee soil sensor direct from zigbee2mqtt in Home Assistant?
@Giex if you are a representative of the company that engineered this sensor, please consider the above request in a future firmware update.
Every use case is different, so the ideal solution would be to be able to configure the reporting period by the Zigbee coordinator side. There are not so much Tuya-based devices that allow such reporting period configurations, and it would be great if you could add configuration commands in this TS0601 _TZE200_myd45weu device.
For other users - i tried old and new-version Giex devices and they are not worth buying.
Data is poor and battery dies within days.
Has anyone contacted the GiEX representative via email? Any word back from the manufacturer?
I was able to contact them via their Ali Express store. Very helpful, quick responses.
Did it become clear whether GiEX have any control on the firmware, or they are just a reseller / white label like the most of the AliExpress and Amazon sellers?