Would you mind sharing your esphome configuration? I would like to get battery life information
It seems that the “pink” version of this does Zigbee and everything the OP asked for. Does anyone have experience with it?
No that is wrong information, it does not use Zigbee at all, as all those including the pink one only support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). I guess the reseller just means that the pink version has firmware that is also compatible out-of-the-box with the ”Tuya Zigbee Gateway” (also known as “Tuya Smart Wi-Fi Zigbee Gateway”) which is what will confuse sellers and buyers since that Tuya gateway/hub/bridge also supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as well, but to be clear, is still only Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) that is used when that Tuya gateway communicates with any Xiaomi MiFlora (HHCC) device.
6 Likes
Would the new bluetooth support in HASS open the door for an integration with the pink version?
Off-topic but yes, I think all “HHCC” (“Flower Care”) versions inc.“Xiaomi Mi Flora” sensors are already supported via the “Xiaomi BLE” integration(?), it, in turn, use the new Bluetooth integration in Home Assistant. See those integrations documentations and the news blog-post (again off-topic since not Zigbee):
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/xiaomi_ble/
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/xiaomi_ble/#plant-sensor-flower-care–miflora-hhccjcy01
Update! Pink-colored sensor (e.i. the Tuya version) is not yet supported in the Xiaomi BLE integraion but they plan on adding it, read → https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/pull/24365
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/bluetooth
That was even specifically mentioned in Home Assistant 2022.8 release news on the official blog page:
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2022/08/03/release-20228/
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2022/08/03/release-20228/#first-class-bluetooth-support
"The screenshot below shows that the Bluetooth integration is set up, and it discovered a new device. In this case, it discovered a Mi Flora Flower care sensor device.
A good example is the SwitchBot integration. It has been updated to support the new Bluetooth integration, and because of that, is now a push-based integration providing a much more stable experience.
This release adds five integrations built on this: SensorPush, Govee, INKBIRD, Moat, and Xiaomi BLE. The latter also provides support for the reasonably popular Mi Flora plant sensors.
Suppose you are using the Home Assistant OS on a Raspberry Pi 3 or 4, or are using a supported Bluetooth adapter. In that case, the Bluetooth integration will work out of the box for new installations and is automatically discovered on existing setups."
The pink version " HHCCJCY10" will only work with the ble_monitor for now,
[New Sensor]: Flower Care HHCCJCY10 BT 5.0 model · Issue #809 · custom-components/ble_monitor · GitHub
“It looks like it doesn’t use the Xiaomi MiBeacon protocol, but its own format.”
1 Like
Did anybody tested this setup with an zigbee
Chip / modded software?
I am also looking for a plant sensor, which communicates via zigbee.
BLE is not a option for me, and WiFi have the battery issues…
Not yet as far as I know, see the feature request → https://github.com/rbaron/b-parasite/issues/56
Note that the “b-parasite” variant designed to use nRF52840 is based Ebyte E73-2G4M08S1C radio module which is a IEEE 802.15.4 radio, so that means that it could be re-flashed with Zigbee firmware image (or a Thread/OpenThread firmware image) instead a developer built and compile a custom Zigbee firmware for it.
Hi all, I have developed some code for the B-Parasite that works with Zigbee. I have tested it with Zigbee2MQTT and it works great. However, the battery reporting does not work yet, but that is something I will fix in the near future.
The b-parasite hardware does not have a factory reset button which might not be ideal. That is why I am also developing my own hardware that is designed for Zigbee. If there is enough interest I’am willing to order a larger batch and sell them. So please let me know if your are interested.
16 Likes
Sounds exciting!
Filled out the form.
1 Like
Stan, I’m happy to jump on this bandwagon so to speak for some HW kits, as long as it will work with ZHA as well.
To clarify, is ZHA into HA supported or can it be ?
See ZHA docs
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#knowing-which-devices-are-supported
and
https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha/#zha-exception-and-deviation-handling
Summery; device might need a “quirk” in the ZHA Device Handlers library if don’t follow the standards:
https://github.com/zigpy/zha-device-handlers/
https://github.com/zigpy/zha-device-handlers/blob/dev/README.md
I have not tested it with ZHA yet, but that is definitely something I am going to do soon
2 Likes
Wow @stanvn great news. I’m happy to say I will buy your sensors as soon as they are available. Thanks!
Maybe consider crowdsourcing the product via Crowd Supply or IndieGoGo to gauge the interest in order to get a better idea on how many to manufacture? Alternatively, just sell via Tindie on-demand?
For me, most important things to think of are price, battery life, build quality, aesthetics (for WAF).
Regarding battery life, consider designing board for CR2477 or CR2450 battery instead of CR2032?
- CR2477 is 24 x 7.7 mm in size and usually has about 1000 mAh of capacity on average.
- CR2450 is 24 x 5.0 mm in size and usually has about 550 mAh of capacity on average.
- CR2032 is only 20 x 3.2 mm (coin cell size) but only has 200 mAh average capacity.
Alternative universal solder pads supporting fitting battery-clips/battery-holders/battery-retainers for either CR2477, CR2450, or CR2032?
I think that it might be possible to find a cleverly designed battery-clip/battery-holder/battery-retainer for CR2477 that could even be able to hold either a CR2477 or a CR2450 or even two CR2032 batteries stacked on top of each other, or what do you think?
Example:
MYOUNG MY-2477-02 (Mfr. Part # MY-2477-02 LCSC Part # C2979175)
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/Battery-Connectors_MYOUNG-MY-2477-02_C2979175.html
MYOUNG MY-2477-01 (Mfr. Part # MY-2477-01 LCSC Part # C2979173)
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/Battery-Connectors_MYOUNG-MY-2477-01_C2979173.html
MYOUNG MY-2450-01 (Mfr. Part # MY-2450-01 LCSC Part # C964845)
https://lcsc.com/product-detail/Battery-Connectors_MYOUNG-MY-2450-01_C964845.html
Reference:
https://jeelabs.org/2015/07/29/could-a-coin-cell-be-enough/index.html
PS: I personally hate to replace batteries so really looking to get a large battery capacity and a long time between replacements.
1 Like
Thanks for the suggestions! Crowdsourcing might indeed be a good idea I will look into that.
For the battery I am still thinking of using a CR2032 because even with this small capacity it can still last for one to two years on a single battery. Furthermore they are cheap and you can buy them basically anywhere. This does not mean that I won’t consider other batteries, but for now the CR2032 is still the best and cheapest option.
In my opinion two years of battery life is plenty, but I always like to hear other opinions.
1 Like
I disagree. While having to change batteries around once a year is no real bother if you only have a few battery powered devices it is really a pain of a chore when have loads of battery powered devices, and most people have several plants/flowers so would want many of these types of plant watering sensors in addition to any other types of battery powered devices that they already have.
FYI, CR2450 and CR2477 are also relativly inexpensive and commonly available almost everywhere today as well, and a 10-pack of either CR2450 or CR2477 costs less than $10 US-dollar now so please do not let price per battery play a major role in your decision, see these examples:
https://www.google.com/search?q=CR2450&tbm=shop
https://www.google.com/search?q=CR2477&tbm=shop
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=CR2450
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=CR2477
https://www.amazon.de/s?k=CR2450
https://www.amazon.de/s?k=CR2477
PS: I personally hate to replace batteries so really looking to get a large battery capacity and a long time between replacements, so larger battery capabity is a premium that I gladly pay extra for the added value.
2 Likes
+1 for CR2032 for the much better availability (where I live at least).
A choice of cell holder by multiple PCB pads for other sizes fixes the issue anyway.
I’d be interested too