Without any proper rubber seals at all I doubt it could an IP rating of anything better than IP51/IP52/IP53 or IP61/IP62/IP63, meaning that it could at best deal with water dripping and spaying but not more than that.
That is a shame, I was thinking that these could replace the MiFlora devices I currently use on my balcony. They do survive outdoors, and some of them are regularly “drowned” when I pour water into the pot.
In another listing there is some images of it used without the cover:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007443398328.html?
I think this is probably how I will use it.
I bought one of these, it pairs with ZHA but sadly the read-out does not seem to work. It’s recognised as a TS0222 by _TZ3000_t9qqxn70
Example:
Any pointers on how I can help to debug/improve support would be welcome!
There is an open issue to add this device for Z2M. Not sure about ZHA
This is the external converter:
[New device support]: Soil sensor _TZE284_aao3yzhs · Issue #23455 · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · GitHub
Has now been merged to 19.73.0:
If it pairs but ZHA do not expose all expected attributes as entities in Home Assistant then that mean someone need to code a custom ZHA Device Handler (a.k.a. quirk) for it, so if it looks like that then suggest you submit a device feature request as a new issue to the ZHA Device Handlers repository (a.k.a. the zha-quirks library) and hope that developers there can help out.
Once there is a custom quirk available for it from someone then you have to add it manually to ZHA locally until/unless they merge and include it with a bumped zha-quirks package. For more info about that see here:
Just ordered two of these, will add to zha once I get them if someone else doesn’t beat me to it.
Ha ha I bought it with “ZigBee” but got the … Bluetooth version . As far as I know I have been trapped by this fake offer. But at least it works well in Bluetooth 
As I said previously, I use some without the blue rubber cap, as I have no risk to splash them with my drop watering.
Well that’s concerning, guess we will see which version I get. Trying to get away from BLE, it always crashes the pi.
I am beginning my search for a Zigbee soil sensor and was wondering if anybody had any recent feedback on these devices.
I have been looking at the Fyta Beam as well but want something out rated so I can use it everywhere.
Please read the whole thread above (or at least all the later posts that have been posted very recently).
But to summerize up to this point; the very latest Zigbee soil sensor from Tuya that been discussed for the last week or so does look promising but as it is brand new product/model there is not yet any proof or trusted reviews on how well it will work in the long run, though it does seem to be made for indoor use only, (and as it is new there are not yet a working custom quirk ZHA Device Handler for it that help expose all its attributes as entities via the ZHA integration). Thus you either have to just give it a chance have to wait to see if that new model or others in the future can be proven to be reliable or not and if it can work ok outdoors as it comes out-of-the-box is or with some modifications to better waterproof the battery and electronics.
As such there is unfortunate are still no other ”known good” ready-made commercial Zigbee soil moisure sensor products that are also relativly inexpensive, however if cost is no hinderence then the best perfoming outdoor one is Spruce Soil Moisture Sensor Gen 3 by Plaid Systems but that one is very expensive as well as quite large in size however it is made for the outdoors.
Otherwise if you are willing to make it yourself or buy DIY model made by community members then the b-parasite project with Zigbee firmware is an awesome DIY open-source hardware project:
PS: There also used to be a Russian making and selling different propitiatory and closed-source model variants of the open-source DIYRuZ Soil Moisture Sensor, it was called EFEKTALAB but is not sold anymore:
FYI, someone has submitted a device support request to the ZHA Device Handlers (quirks) project as the ZHA integration does not expose any attributes as entities to Home Assistant without a quirk as it is now which is needed for most/all Tuya products because they do not fully follow the standard Zigbee specifications:
Sorry Hedda am I missing something? You have linked to the same one that I originally posted? I am awaiting delivery for it and will post some results once setup. I received my solar rain sensor today which is also not supported yet so I’ve been able to practice using an external converter
Yes that _TZE284_aao3yzhs (TZE284_aao3yzhs) is the same as you posted, I was only linking/referencing to the new device support request which has been ported to the ZHA Device Handlers (zha-quirks) repository on GitHub as a custom HA Device Handler (quirk) will be needed for it in the ZHA integration so that ZHA integration users and developers can post follow that → [Device Support Request] Plant Monitor SGS01Z · Issue #3305 · zigpy/zha-device-handlers · GitHub
FYI, someone has submitted a device support request to the ZHA Device Handlers (quirks) project as the ZHA integration does not expose any attributes as entities to Home Assistant without a quirk as it is now which is needed for most/all Tuya products because they do not fully follow the standard Zigbee specifications:
I tried switching from Xiaomi BLE soil sensors to the Tuya TS0601_soil Zigbee soil sensors. I wanted to rely only on Zigbee devices, but these TS0601_soil sensors are crap!
After pairing, they don’t send any update/readings. A few of them report randomly every few hours, but those values are completely off.
When they’re not in the soil, they show 0%. When I put them in the soil, they show 97-100%. That can’t be right, as the soil is dry. And the value does not move from that reading.
I’ve heard about some batches of TS0601_soil draining the battery, but not about them not reporting values or giving wrong ones.
Should I just throw these away?
Also, do you know if the new TZE284_aao3yzhs are any better?
Does anyone have the _TZE284_aao3yzhs joined to the app? I got mine in today and have a working quirk but have one cluster left that I’m trying to figure out what it does. Looked at the Zigbee2MQTT version, and they didn’t handle it, so may not be anything. Figured it was worth asking.
I have been testing two of the _TZE284_aao3yzhs sensors for the last day. They seem to report in about every thirty minutes. Response to soil moisture change is rapid, see the update in less than a minute. As far as accuracy, who knows, on the counter they read 0% in a glass of water they read 100%. In dryish plants I’m seeing 4-10%, so that all seems believable.
Sounds promising.
Could you share the link where you bought them?
Here’s the link, make sure you select the Zigbee version, the default is Bluetooth. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807257083576.html
Thanks, ordered!
