Is there a trick to joining the Geix soil sensors to HA? I was able to join two of them to my HA setup, but no entities. Just the RSSI and LQI data. I tried excluding and reincluding one, but got the same result? Do I have to bring them under the management of the Tuya integration, somehow?
Different device (see the string starting “by _TZE200…”)
That’s a little perplexing, since I followed the Aliexpress link mentioned in this thread by samuelthng earlier in this thread…
It also looks identical to the picture they posted. It also looks identical to the one that mikejclark reports having bought from AliExpress.
It also looks identical (including the model number on the sticker) in the photo posted by schilea.
So, I’m having a little difficulty believing that I bought a device different from the one other people in this thread have purchased. Besides, it clearly is a Zigbee device (because it was able to pair to my Zigbee network and report link-quality metrics) and it’s clearly a soil sensor (because it says “Soil Sensor” on the label and has prongs on it).
Nobody else has had this happen with their Giex unit?
It may well be the same hardware, but those strings are provided by the firmware, so you have different firmware. We could argue until the cows come home about whether that makes it a different device. But it is quite likely to behave differently.
Is the writing in top grey or black?
Report with the device signature in a new device support request issues to the ZHA Device Handlers repository on GitHub. See the ZHA integration documentation on how to add support for devices with missing featuress.
Since people are already having success with this device (and because this is probably just a newer firmware that addresses the issues that people have been reporting here), I figured that it might be as simple of a process of just adding this particular device signature to the zigpy code that already supports the older ones.
Sure enough, one of the maintainers of the code added my device’s signature to ts0601_sensor.py 4 days ago: https://github.com/zigpy/zha-device-handlers/blob/9c985b47907b85c59c3c4fe2a9d3c46f0b507db1/zhaquirks/tuya/ts0601_sensor.py
So… next question is: how long does it usually take for the upstream changes in zigpy to be available in HA? Would it be a hassle to clone the zigpy repo to my HA instance in the meantime?
EDIT: I just noticed that my devices are now displaying soil moisture and temperature! So, I must have picked up the newer zigpy files when I did my HA Core update, last night.
Now if I can just get the sensors (even the two Giex ordered together) to read anything like each other when they’re placed right next to each other. lol. At least the Spruce registered a rise in moisture when my sprinklers were on, last night.
Do you mean the text on the silver-grey sticker? Can you upload a picture of the old and new one? On top (assuming the sensor is sticking in the soil) there’s nothing on mine. Thanks
Same here. Mine were completely blank on the top.
In the meanwhile I have received:
1pcs from an Amazon reseller, purchased on Aug 5 2023
5pcs via another reseller at Aliexpress, purchased on Aug 5 2023
10pcs from GIEX via Aliexpress, purchased on Aug 8 2023
GIEX and the other Aliexpress reseller assured me to send out the latest version
The Amazon reseller had no clue of what I was asking him 
The GIEX sensors are displayed in HA as “_TZE200_myd45weu” manuf. sensor
The other Aliexpress reseller sensors are displayed in HA as “_TZE200_myd45weu” manuf. sensor
The Amazon reseller sensor is displayed in HA as a “_TZE200_ga1maeof” manuf. sensor
The GIEX sensors have a logo on the top, and some instruction text on the side. Both logo and text in gray color.
The other Aliexpress and the Amazon reseller sensors have no logo on the top, and a silver colored sticker on the side. And a different packaging (see pics).
Luckily all pcs of all 3 (re)sellers seem to work fine: When soil moisture changes dramatically (i.e. by watering the plant), the values in Homeassistant do change instantly. During times without watering, the values in HA slowly degrease, sometimes they stay at the same level for hours. The shortest period I could see between changes is 5min. All battery levels stayed mostly at 100 or 90 from the beginning (but they are only in operation a few days so far).
Comparing them to each other while sitting in the same ground, all values are pretty close (max. 10% diff.). Comparing them with another type of soil moisture sensors (Rainpoint), their values are roughly 10 to 20% higher. However - the Rainpoint sensors couldn’t be stuck into the ground to their full extend – so the Rainpoint probes may have been partially exposed to air and sensing more dry on average.
My preliminary conclusion: The issues reported above with excessive power consumption resulting from high frequent feedback of the device seem to be resolved. At least when you are lucky enough to not receive any old stock. Nevertheless only time will tell if they are also working reliable and well.
Thanks @vobele. I hope to hear from you in a month. I was unlucky to get faulty sensor a few months ago. But not giving up if I am sure that new version is fixed 
Currently my faulty one is same version as your: _TZE200_ga1maeof
And what about this sensor. Is from Gardena, a well know company:
It seems it can be integrated in HA:
I see no mention in its specifikation that is uses Zigbee. Do you?
It uses the cloud.
It seems that it uses bluetooth, as it can be paired directly with the smartphone (no gateway required).
The problem is that I am not sure it can be integrated in HA. I found this integration, but it seems that it works through a Gardena gateway (Cloud):
Yes and no, as the product info says it can be paired directly with a smartphone App (no gateway required)
Home Assistant has a Gardena bluetooth integration, but the sensor does not seem listed as supported (yet?)
Those Gardenas look to be almost $90 per sensor.
I moved to using Ecowitt WH51’s
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07JM621R3?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
They’re pretty cheap, and I bought a RTL-SDR supported dongle from AliExpress to get the readings into HA
So far they seem pretty reliable and battery life is no problem.
That’s pretty slick! I actually have a spare RTL-SDR dongle from another project. What kind of range can you get from the receiver? How do you turn the radio signals into HA data? How do you handle multiple sensors reporting on the same frequency?
I use the RTL-SDR addon for HA combined with the MQTT Autodiscovery script (just turn it off when your devices have been imported. GitHub - pbkhrv/rtl_433-hass-addons: Collection of Home Assistant add-ons that use rtl_433
It handles the multiple devices reporting.
So far I’ve not had any problem with range, the dongle is virtually in the middle of the house, and it picks up the rain sensor about 20m away (through a number of insulated internal walls and brick). There are three moisture sensors dotted around the gardens and I have no problems with those either.
Occasionally it even picks up some other 433Mhz weather stations from somewhere nearby (not sure where), but only every now and then. I suspect an upgraded antenna would mean I could just sniff that data, but not fussed just yet as I’d prefer my own station.
This is the MQTT explorer showing the 3x WH51 devices I use
