Soil Moisture Sensor Disconnects

fbane

I see a lot of posts of people having this issue, but I see no mention of support being given out by Third Reality.
Has anyone got one of these soil moisture sensors to work and stop disconnecting?

I am running the latest Home Assistant and my sensor is firmware 26 and has a LQI of of 123. Almost every day or second day I am having to remove the battery and re-install because it just drops connection and won’t reconnect.

Other zigbee devices in my home have zero issues and have been connected for months. I have sent an email to their support to see what they say, but my return window is the 15th so if no solution can be found in the next few days I’ll be sending it back.

Also this sensor is goofy and it shouldn’t be reporting “humidity” as “moisture”

So if you’ve found a way to keep it connected without it disconnecting or have any ideas let me know.

fbane

Received word back from Third Reality and they noted that they have 2 newer versions. My current version is 1.6 and they have a 1.6-P and a engineering sample as 1.7.

They said the new version has better RF signal, but as I’ve had a lot of bad luck with the one I have and return is up soon, I’ll be returning the one I have and maybe try again later.

If Third Reality is willing to work with with me in some sense to test a device I’ll update this thread.

soil_enthusiast

fbane

How did you contact them? Can you share the full exchange?
Do you know if the improved versions are available for sale already?

Like a lot of users, I’ve had the sensors for a day and some of them already stopped reporting. I’m really frustrated because:

at first, they work fine
some of them, even further away, are still fine
I have plenty of other sensors in the area which never drop
Z2M shows LQIs above 110 for all the soil sensors, which seems quite reasonable?

manyfaces

I live on a 1-acre lot and have 12 of the Moisture sensors deployed in our orchard and several other locations on the property monitoring a Walnut tree and some Plumeria. The documentation and reading a lot of posts about the short range aspect of the moisture sensors I bult a plan as follows:

I purchased 4 Third Reality Outlets for repeaters in the system along with the 12 Moisture sensors. I placed the outlet/repeaters in three locations with extension cords placed in a way they are not tripping hazards. All sensors are within 15-20 feet from either the main Hubitat Hub or one of the Third Reality Zigbee outlets/repeaters.

All Devices are reporting in regular intervals configured on the Hubitat. I can also force poll the devices and get back instant readings. Noting that if values are not changing that much I get at least the battery or temperature data on each forced poll.

In addition to the short polling period set to 5 minutes, I also jacked the Zigbee power output from the Hubitat default setting of 8 to 16. This seems to ensure all repeaters are connected continuously.

I am not seeing any disconnects and have been running this way for a week now. All battery levels appear to be stable. I do recommend using high quality AA batteries as the supplied ones seem to be not as good.

I have not updated the firmware on the devices and all devices report through the Hubitat show Firmware version:
1407-D3AF-00000026

So so far so good. Based on the posts I see in this forum, I would recommend keeping the distance low between the sensors and hubs / repeaters.

fbane

manyfaces

I am using a aeotec range extender and the distance from it to the moisture sense is less than 10 feet and it disconnects all the time.

The problem with these devices is that there are multiple versions and firmwares running around and you never know what version you will get until you order.

The one I bought off Amazon is a v1.6 model with FW 26 and it has nothing but issues and based off other posts in this thread forum I’m not the only one.

manyfaces

fbane

I don’t have any experience with the range extender you are using. I kept with the manufacturers line of repeaters to stay away from incompatibilities between venders. It would appear I have the SW version the same as you do and I am stable. I did lose one of the moisture sensors. It died within an hour of pairing and deployment and never worked again.

I have been running on a C8 Hubitat for about a year now and all the latest updates to its software has been supporting Third Reality devices, which I am very happy to see the effort.

What is the make and model of your main hub? Do the sensors work withing the range of it? Or do you have the disconnection issues even at that level? Can you change power output levels? and can you set the polling inteval and do force polling?

When I would pair and deploy each sensor it was always in my office where the main hub resides then walk out to the orchard where the trees are located along with the repeaters. I can watch the Devices first bond to the main hub then transfer communications to the repeaters in the Zigbee Network map. Kind of cool actually.

It would be nice to try and determine if it is some sort of compatibility issue.

Lets hope the newer software version of the Moisture sensor solves your issues. At least my experience is demonstrating some stability for others to contemplate.

manyfaces

I just read up on Home Assistant a little. what hardware are you running this on? This then connects to your Aeotec Range Extender that runs the Zigbee protocol? I am new to the opensource Home assistant software. Never heard of it till today reading your post. Does it have a good support base? Thanks!

Masetto

I installed 2 of these a few weeks ago through Z2M. The two stopped working simultaneously tonight, just a few hours after adding 2 Sonoff TRV valves in the same area. I wonder if it’s a coincidence or not, i.e. could these sensors be sensitive to interference?

fbane

soil_enthusiast I sent an email through support and I actually need to follow up with them.

They said the 1.6-P versions are on their storefront so if you order from Amazon or elsewhere you may get the 1.6 version. You can see the version of device printed on the circuit board.

soil_enthusiast

Mine are indeed v1.6:

@jiang do you know when Amazon EU will start shipping the 1.6-P version (mine were sold by
ThirdReality-EU but dispatched by Amazon so I assume they have a lot of stock)?
Could you please tell us what changes compared to the 1.6 version? If the new version fixes the range/frequent disconnections, I’d like to swap ASAP.

fbane

soil_enthusiast Yup and I would possibly order from their storefront but if I had any issues with them returning wouldn’t be worth it because shipping back is expensive for me.