The MINI version is the smallest sensor, its height is 12.7 cm. There is a CR2032 battery. The STANDART version is 14 cm high, there is a CR2450 or cr 2477 battery, the MAX version is the same as the STANDART, but has digital sensors for temperature, soil moisture and illumination. The PRO version differs from the STANDART version by the height of the case, since it uses AAA batteries, and there are also two more versions with screens on electronic ink. The 1.02-inch screen version(eFLOWER) has the same size as the STANDART version, the 2.13-inch screen version(eFLOWER PRO) has the same size as the PRO version.
From the latest news about these projects, it can be noted that I started switching to cases printed using MJF technology. For projects with electronic ink screens, control via z2m (color inversion, time synchronization) is being tested. Getting the time from z2m, displaying the date, day of the week on the screen has already been added to projects, z2m converters will be updated soon.
It is not possible to insert more than 2 links, it is unclear when a forum participant is no longer considered a new user. …
…Links to project repositories on github can be found in the description. I also forgot to write about one news - in the standard version, the transmission of air temperature will be removed, because it is read by the chip and is quite inaccurate. The firmware does not need to be updated, since the z2m converter for this sensor variant will be changed.
@smartboxchannel upgrading to a modern multi-protocol chips like the CC2652/CC1352 from Texas Instruments or the EFRMG21/EFRMG22/EFRMG24 from Silicon Labs would also allow you to add an optional firmware for the new Matter over Thread standard that is going to be very hyped this year.
Both CC2652/CC1352 and EFRMG21/EFRMG22/EFRMG24 support both Zigbee 3.0 and OpenThread firmware however not at the same time, so hardware is same but need two separate firmware images.
I think over a transition period in the upcoming years many/most IoT hardware manufacturers will be releasing both Zigbee 3.0 and Matter over Thread variants of their battery-powered IoT sensor products.
As mentioned by @cdaoust above. You can assume that Tindie and most other international online marketplaces as well as many global stores will aim to block all Russian sellers and keep blocking them in protest until the currently ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has been resolved → Russian invasion of Ukraine - Wikipedia (political discussion about reasons why will probably too off-topic here).
I have ~48 of the miflora sensors, I think in the last 4+ years I have had exactly one of them die. I use a custom esp32 ble component to forward the ble beacon information to Home Assistant.
I own 1 spruce soil sensor. The only advantage that this sensor has is that it doesn’t get hoovered up by the lawn mower when my wife mows the lawn.
The miflora are the superior sensors. They are a bit more accurate for soil moisture level and they can give you a good estimate for applying fertilizer ( the Plant Lovelace doesn’t a basic job of highlighting the plants needs ). Before you accept the answer about fertilizer level, you should have a basic understanding of how the measurement works ( i.e. if you are using it for a potted plant, there has to be enough soil for the measurement to work, and the soil needs to not be dry as well ).
So far the version 5 of the miflora sensors appears have the same accuracy as the version 4; the version 5 does beacon its battery report.
The miflora devices are water resistant. The spruce device? I have found moisture around the battery the two times I have opened it.
I am amazed how Mi Flora sensor is water-resistant, I have three outside monitoring two potted citrus trees and one tomato plant in rainy Northern Ireland. I also had a Zigbee water valve from Lidl, and it died in early autumn due to water leak. Not even one MiFlora stopped working. The only thing that bothers me is battery life, and this is why I would like to see a Zigbee version as good as that one with long battery life similar to aqara range.
I am a bit surprised how the market is so saturated with other products (i.e. motion, window, temp sensors) but not so many plant sensors, specifically with Zigbee. Oh, the Zigbee…
The Miflora sensors have reasonable battery life if you just read data from them via passive BLE, no active scans or reads. I am on the latest firmware for all green/white models, which no longer provides battery information in the beacon.
Passing reading the state from the sensor will significantly extend the life of the battery. Don’t even open up the “Flower Care” app unless you need to update firmware. The “Flower Care” app burns through the battery pretty quickly.
Battery life for me is > 1 year, and maybe 2 years in a couple of cases. ( Events which wake the sensors drain the batteries, but some events “are what they are”.)
With regards to reading battery state, I have a custom ESP32 component based on the excellent, and much appreciated, work done by the Github user myhomeiot. My modification to his work changes how the disconnect from the device works ( I believe there is a problem with leaked resources around an error state in the code used for BLE reads… I also suspect from Espressif documentation that the closing of devices when you are reading from more then three devices has to be managed in a different way ). My latest changes have been running on ESP for the last few weeks without any issues, so I believe they should be stable.
I often wonder if reading the battery’s state is worth the return in the end. If the device stops beaconing data then it is normally time to replace the battery ( sometimes the devices needs to be reset, aka pop the battery out and put it back in… I think there is a bug the devices hit from time to time as they store their local state information; I base this comment on having used the devices built in history in the past ).
About half of my Miflora devices are missing their orange gasket; they just keep working. I have had Miflora devices that have survived being accidentally submerged in water which had fertilizer levels that were harmful to plant life.
The one thing I have noticed about their design, as compared to some other sensors I have looked at, is the water will drain from the device if they become wet. The Spruce devices have a nice gasket, but once water gets in one, it has no place to go.
I designed my own sensors a decade ago, one of the bigger problems they had was corrosion build up.
There was a French company that made “Flower power” devices which would also rust and die after a couple of years. I feel like they were the first company to make devices which could help with determining fertilizer level for plants ( at a reasonable cost ).
Hi, I prepared a CC2652 version with light(BH1750), soil moisutre, env temp and humidity(SHT30) and EC(soil fertilization)
preparing firmware for CC2652 is not an easy task because a lot of bugs in TI SDK and RF matching(IC against module for smaller dimensions)
With CR2032 battery - 2 months and still 100%, with my calculations it should work for at least 2 years.
I’m testing a lot of time, soldering by myself, but the chip shortage is huge
What is the currently best working solution that is available for purchase?
I checked the thread and the Russian manufacturer is blocked. Other than that I can’t find any good solution.
where can i buy the sensors?
