Moisture sensors for my Bonsai

[Fodder]

Hi All,

I have recently moved and then built a new area to display my bonsai right outside my kitchen window.
This looks great from the inside of the house and is good for the bonsai.
The problem is due to its location it has very limited access to water and feed, hence looking at open sprinkler.

So my plan is to use open sprinkler as a watering system for the display bonsai and for some other areas that are for resting the bonsai and eventually a hot house etc.
But for the moment my main question is: i plan on having 5 display bonsai in my new area, and as i said the access is poor at best.
So i would like to fit each with a moisture sensor and there own sprinkler head (most likely concealed some place out of sight) and be able to water each plant only when the moisture sensor reaches a low point. (hopefully not dry!)

so would Open sprinkler be able to do this?
to start:
5 separate valves. (easy from what i have read)
5 separate moisture sensors

expand to:
2 or 3 more separate zones, just with rain sensor control and a single value to flow to all the plants in that area.

As i use several other RPi i would like to use the RPi for this project, but i am open to change if needed.

Chris

[Ray]

What type of moisture sensors do you plan to use? If it’s analog, it will be hard to fit 5 because the ADC on OSPi can only fit 4 input channels. If they are digital sensors then it should be no problem as there are more than 5 spare digital pins available.

[Fodder]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I am happy to use any type of moisture sensor that will work with the system if I can get the result listed above.

I have been doing a bit of reading and obversly I only need a single rain sensor and the link to underground weather.

So a couple of questions:
could you point me at a the moisture sensor that you were referring to?

And would the senario I described above be able to be done with the RPi version of open sprinkler? Or would I be better to go the actual open sprinkler version.

I would like to know how expandable this system is, as I would end up having to put the lawn sprinklers on the system as the Minster for War and Finance (wife) would expect it could do it.
So I would have to add to the senario above with the lawn sprinklers. (Single valve maybe two)

Thanks

[Fodder]

Is this the type of digital sensor your were referring too?
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13322

Also i guess i have answered my own question regarding the expand ability of the system, it can go out to 64zones (valves)

so the last question i guess for the moment would be
For the multiple Digital Soil Meters i described about would i be better to go the RPi version or the OS version of Open Sprinkler?

Chris

[Ray]

This sensor that SparkFun sells is an analog sensor — I think there are digital versions, which are basically the same probe but combined with an op-amp and potentiometer to trigger a digital output when the soil moisture level reaches a certain threshold (set by the potentiometer). Like this one:
https://www.tindie.com/products/mmm999/soil-hygrometer-humidity-detection-sensor/?pt=full_prod_search
On Amazon you can get a pack of 5 for less than 10 bucks:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=soil+moisture+sensor

If you search on tindie.com, you can find more choices, including this I2C soil moisture sensor:
https://www.tindie.com/products/miceuz/i2c-soil-moisture-sensor/?pt=full_prod_search
or even a wireless one:
https://www.tindie.com/products/AprilBrother/esp-soil-moisture-sensor-rev-21/?pt=full_prod_search

The I2C would allow you to connect multiple sensors on the same I2C bus (as long as you can give each sensor a different I2C address, which I assume it can be done since sensor is based on a microcontroller that can be re-programmed). The WiFi version is probably even more convenient as there is no wiring involved (although battery usage can be a big issue).

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