Moisture Sensor Integration

There’s a bunch of threads on this, but none of quite solve the issue of adding cheap, accurate, and commercially-available soil moisture sensing to Rachio.

This is the ideal way to “close the loop” of the Rachio soil-moisture guesstimation.

Edyn seems like the only available option (via IFTTT), but it’s relatively expensive and the reviews suck (e.g. it reports the same moisture value no matter what). And it doesn’t actually use the moisture value to feedback into the Rachio algorithm.

My plan is to use the $14 Xiaomi plant sensor (sometimes called “Flora” or “Miflora”) to push the data to Rachio (using a $10 Pi Zero W as a Bluetooth to WiFi bridge). Previously, people talked about an API that allows moisture percent to be pushed to Rachio, but I can’t find the details of that API. (I plan on having multiple moisture sensors to measure different zones, so hopefully the API supports that.)

Or, if IFTTT is the only option for Rachio Integration, is there a way for the Rachio to accept the moisture percent in the JSON body of the Webhooks? Currently, the only relevant Rachio slots would be “Start watering time” or “Start a zone” but neither of those accept a moisture level.

(Side note: The “GreenThumb” soil sensor seems like a good alternative sensor if it was more widely available.)

Edit: Found the API here, but I don’t see anything that would allow input of soil moisture percent: https://rachio.readme.io

post by dpryan on Jul 18, 2017

There’s a bunch of threads on this, but none of quite solve the issue of adding cheap, accurate, and commercially-available soil moisture sensing to Rachio.

My plan is to use a $14 Xiaomi plant sensor (sometimes called “Flora” or “Miflora”) to push the data to Rachio (using a $10 Pi Zero W as a Bluetooth to WiFi bridge). Previously, people talked about an API that allows moisture percent to be pushed to Rachio, but I can’t find the details of that API.

If IFTTT is the only option, is there a way for the Rachio to accept the moisture percent in the JSON body of the Webhooks? Currently, the relevant Rachio slots would be “Start watering time” or “Start a zone” but neither of those accept a moisture level.

post by dpryan on Jul 20, 2017

Business idea: Perhaps Rachio could design a “smart” thermostat that never measures temperature. Simply enter the square footage of your house and the BTU output of your furnace and it can use local weather to determine when to turn on/off the furnace by guesstimating the temperature.

post by mckynzee on Jul 20, 2017

This is interesting @dpryan - how do you see this working in comparison to Nest?

PS- I do not believe that we currently allow soil moisture to be changed through the API.

post by dpryan on Jul 20, 2017

@mckynzee - A sprinkler controller without a moisture sensor is like a home thermostat without a temperature sensor. Open-loop control systems suffer from offset errors, sensitivity to disturbances, and a high reliance on accurate input parameters.

It seems like many other people realize the desire for this:

@johnny2678 says “Incorporating actual soil sensors would be nirvana” in this post.

@azdavidr says “Integrating robust soil moisture sensors seems like the holy grail for smart irrigation as they complete a closed-loop system” in this post.

It seems crazy (to me) that Rachio doesn’t allow the input of soil moisture data.

post by plainsane on Jul 20, 2017

It may seem crazy at first, but have you seen how expensive controllers with 20-30 sensors cost?

post by dpryan on Aug 25, 2017

Here’s some interactive data that I collected from the Xiaomi/MiFlora sensors over the past two weeks:

post by robertokc on Oct 25, 2017

I’d give my left arm and right big toe for an Rachio API integration to the EDYN soil sensor.

post by aristobrat on Oct 25, 2017

I was interested in Edyn with all of the recent posts here about it, but it doesn’t seem “available” anywhere…

post by robertokc on Oct 31, 2017

I’ve encouraged Rachio to permit more sensor inputs. The number one selling soil moisture sensor in the residential commercial irrigation industry is the Toro Precision Soil Sensor Kit. Toro brought this over from their golf irrigation division.

post by geonerd on Aug 16, 2018

I am using WirelessTags that work with RF that connects to the web through interface, they are $20 and connect to IFTTT. They are very precise but they stop working soon, 6 months average life.