Gen2 soil sensor insertion depth?

thrawed

So is the gen2 meant to be inserted into the soil up to the cap like the gen1? The way it’s tapered looks like it’s designed that way but on your amazon product page you have mockups showing only the sensor portion in the soil with the tapered portion above. Which to me seems like it wouldn’t be stable at all.

zhechen

thrawed The insertion depth is actually up to you; there is no real standard for this. If you need to measure moisture deeper in the soil, you can insert it deeper. The sensing area is the exposed part of the circuit board — you just need to insert it to the corresponding position. The tapered section above is there because the first-generation sensors often experienced board breakage during insertion; this part is used for reinforcement.

fcastillo

The manual mentions a “Best Line” that should be flushed with the soil, which implies what @thrawed saw in the Amazon page. I’ve also seen people inserting it all the way until the plastic part is flush with the soil (which makes more sense to me).
I wonder if this is translation issue? Maybe the “Best Line” is the minimum the sensor should be inserted into the soil, and if it goes deeper, it’ll be fine. But it could also be the maximum, and inserting it pass that line could affect readings.
I really wish the manual would be more explicit.

Siyo

fcastillo
Hi, the “Best line” is only for the Gen 1 Soil Sensor. And the Gen2 sensor’s sensing area is fixed, so the depth really depends on which layer of soil you want to measure.
We will check and see if the manual and product page need to be modified to be more specific. We really appreciate your advice!