Topic: Your experiences with WH51 Soil Sensor

[ramblinche81]

I just hope I find a way to automatically trigger the Rachio 3's when the the moisture goes down to my limits similar to what another person here was able to do with their Rainmachine.

 

If your water controller supports ifttt you can do it.

Set up an email alert re moisture sensor with an email msg generated. Note specific keywords in msg.  You might have to set up dummy email address as an effective logic filter.

Probe1 alert goes to probe1alert@gmail.com
Probe2 alert goes to etc

Set up ifttt logic for the inbound email keywords to trigger watering system activation.

If probe1alert email contains xxx and probe2 alert contains yyy and zzz then this action....

[e92M3]

I just hope I find a way to automatically trigger the Rachio 3's when the the moisture goes down to my limits similar to what another person here was able to do with their Rainmachine.

 

If your water controller supports ifttt you can do it.

Set up an email alert re moisture sensor with an email msg generated. Note specific keywords in msg.  You might have to set up dummy email address as an effective logic filter.

Probe1 alert goes to probe1alert@gmail.com
Probe2 alert goes to etc

Set up ifttt logic for the inbound email keywords to trigger watering system activation.

If probe1alert email contains xxx and probe2 alert contains yyy and zzz then this action....

Yes, it does IFTTT, but can't make it work even with the help of Rachio support. Will revisit again.

[ramblinche81]

My success with ifttt is get each step to work separately. I had to make dummy rules to test triggers then reconfigure with desired elements and content.  I wanted a thermostat outdoor sensor temp to trigger a outlet for greenhouse heater.

Can you create an email rule that says if this email then zone or system on ? Then can you send a dummy msg to trigger. If  you can get that part going rest is easy.

The rachio support forum show weather underground links in use

https://community.rachio.com/t/adding-wunderground-station-to-rachio-with-gen-2/13619/17

Good luck

[e92M3]

@ramblinche81

Thanks for the advice, but WU doesn't do soil moisture sensors so that's a no-go.

Though somebody from a different forum recently guided me on how to do it using Zapier free-version (with ecowitt.net + IFTTT). Have been testing it on one site (I will end up with this set-up on three different properties in the end) for the past four days and currently have outdoor temp and four soil moisture triggers. So far so good; Rachio receives and performs the commands set within seconds after ecowitt.net sends the triggers.

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Apparently, I can also use Meteobridge and forgo going through Zapier, but I did not want to add another go-between hardware (it will be a bit expensive for me since I will eventually be needing three) if I can help it.

[Autofill]

Would any of you ever leave (or ever have left) the soil moisture sensors in the ground when it's winter outside? i.e. when the temperature is below 0 oC for months at a time? I realize the reading will stay the same if it's all frozen, or even read 0%. What is the material probe made out of?

[e92M3]

Since it’s my first winter using these sensors, i don’t plan on leaving them out once the colder weather comes in. Will be pulling them just before the first predicted first frost.

 It’s not that i don’t trust these surviving the weather, it’s just that i have no use for them (lawn and garden) during those times.

 

[ramblinche81]

Would any of you ever leave (or ever have left) the soil moisture sensors in the ground when it's winter outside? i.e. when the temperature is below 0 oC for months at a time? I realize the reading will stay the same if it's all frozen, or even read 0%. What is the material probe made out of?

Below freezing the phenomena is called sublimation. Ice crystals vaporize with zero or minimal liquid state. It is really diffusivity from a high concentration zone to low concentration. Cold dry air more likely to show sublimation than high humidity wet air.  I think the sensor is an indirect measure. The sensor saturates in rain and as soil moisture reduces, water diffuses from wet ceramic material to less wet soil.  All these diffusion are less temp driven and more relative saturation driven.

That is why air-conditioning is a good de humidifier, below dew point water condenses out of vapor.

The sensor electronics probably suffer as battery deteriorates due to cold. I will find out soon enough.

[Mandrake]

I left a couple of my soil sensors outside in large tubs through winter without issue last year and they are still fine now.
Was not a particularly harsh winter with little frost and no snow but still very wet.

[davidefa]

I have a couple of WH51 in the garden soil, I have the following readings variation:
230 AD ( after heavy prolonged rain )
156 AD ( soil quite dry )
No readings outside this ( limited ) range.
I understand that this is soil dependant, but what are your reading extremes?

[Mandrake]

I dont recognise the units you are using but the sensor I have in a flower bed outside has gone from 100% moisture after a very wet period in winter to zero during a long dry period.
We are currently experiencing a very cool and damp spring and its reading 44% today.

[Rover1822]

Those are the calibration values and readings (under Soil calibration in WS View).
They are an arbitrary unit as far as I know. But are the units used for calibration. Other words, you adjust the AD values, not the % , when calibrating the sensor.

I don't calibrate mine, as I have yet to have a need.

I did , at the start of this season, create a homogenous mix of soil in a bucket , wet. Then stuck my sensors ( into it to see how they differed from each other.
The bucket I used is actually a home made strainer with a bunch of holes in the bottom, I let it sit with sensors for a week to monitor how they measured relative to each other while the soil dried out. For the 8 I had max differential of 3%, which I can live with. Hence I did not go further with calibrating as I only need to know they are reading relative to each other and I have a grasp on the soil moisture.

All 8 are now in pots on my deck with tomatoes, peppers, other stuff.

[wxfan]

Sorry I don't mean to hijack the conversation, please suggest if this needs a new thread.

Does the WH51 resist in a flooded soil? I see it's rated IP66 which means "Powerful water jets" but I would like to measure moisture in a soil that gets flooded in heavy rain, it might get 3-4 cm of still water.

Will the WH51 resist this or should I remove it?

[Rover1822]

If the water rises higher than the probe (like the green part gets submerged), you do run a likely risk of water infiltration.

In the past I have reported on water ingress into the battery compartment, others into other areas.

I would not place this where it will get submerged above the pobe

[wxfan]

If the water rises higher than the probe (like the green part gets submerged), you do run a likely risk of water infiltration.

In the past I have reported on water ingress into the battery compartment, others into other areas.

I would not place this where it will get submerged above the pobe

thank you for the suggestion, that is what I thought. Are there soil sensors that resist flooding?

[olicat]

Hi!

You may use the WH51L instead.

Oliver

[Rover1822]

Sadly, that also has a much higher cost

[wxfan]

wow that is a nice option, but yes the price means that I will not be able to buy a bunch of them.