Hello,
This bit of kit looks amazing. Thanks for giving us all access to this!
I have some of these moister sensors I was planing on using in my set up. (Amazon Link). But I am a bit unsure of how I would set these up with this system. They have a digital output as well as an Analog. Has any one had experience with these or similar or could offer some insight?
Thanks
———UPDATE———-
I can confirm Hydro was absolutely right these are pants. Don’t waste your money. This is what mine looked like after just two weeks.
Just uploaded a new video regarding the setup of the automatic irrigation and the soil moisture sensors. Hopefully this might be useful to anybody trying to setup the system.
https://youtu.be/EZM3w_XAwQU
Great thanks so much for the update. Im hoping to test all this out this week.
Just to add some words about the connection and setting:
The automation board has 4 Analog inputs (0-5v) which can be used to connect 4 hygrometers of the type as in picture and other type of analog hygrometers.
In this case the hygrometer has VCC, GND, AO (Analog Output), DO pins. The board have the pins AN0,AN1,AN2,AN3 which are the analog inputs that should be connected to the AO of each sensor.
The VCC should be connected to +5V and the GND to GND.
Some of the boards (the special one :-) ), as in the picture have green screw terminal connectors which can also be used to directly connect a resistive probe.
The sensor values can be used to drive the irrigation, the setting can be found in the autowatering page.
I wrote some instructions in the application page of the website:
https://hydrosysblog.wordpress.com/applications/
In case something is not clear, feel free to post some feedback!
Thanks so much for testing this out. Ive just ordered one of your automation boards to test with. Love this so far!
Made some quick test, seems the sensor is correctly interfacing with MCP3008:
Around 5v when not in water, around 2.20v when in water.
Great thank you! Also are we aloud to adjust the CSS and styling of the web app or will this break the TOS?
yes, the MCP3008 is a Analog Digital Converter (ADC) which enable the Raspberry to read the Analog inputs (0-5v).
If I have time I'll check if I still have this sensor and interface it to the system to see if it provides some meaningful input.
Hi,
I experienced using this type of sensors some years ago, have to say that my experience was not so positive.
This type of resistive sensor is made of a very thin conductive layer, which corrode very fast due to the continuous flow of current in the plates.
The digital output is just ON/OFF and is achieved by comparing the voltage level to a reference, turning the screw can modify the reference voltage.
That said, I forgot if the output (both digital or analog) reached the 5V in such case this cannot be connected directly to the raspberry PI pins as they support up to 3.3v.
In case you have the ADC connected to the raspberry, then It would be possible to connect them to the Analog input of the ADC.
Anyway in case you have the automation board which embeds the ADC, it would be better to use a capacitive sensor, there are some very cheap which are not perfect but way more accurate, here the link: Link