Tuya QT-07S is a soil humidity and temperature sensor that allows you to monitor the state of the plants and grass in your garden and take appropriate measures such as watering when necessary.
Why is the QT-07S Zigbee plant sensor have this price?
The QT-07S Zigbee soil moisture sensor measures soil temperature and humidity and communicates its measurements as well as its battery level via Zigbee wireless technology to a compatible hub.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Tuya irrigation sensors
Advantages
- Measures soil temperature and humidity: Thanks to this smart sensor, you have a real-time and over time monitoring of the humidity and temperature of the soil in your garden.
- Compatibility: The Rehent soil humidity sensor is compatible with Tuya Smart Life home automation hubs (Lidl, Nous, Moes etc), Jeedom and Home Assistant (with Zigbee2MQTT).
- Price: The price of this smart floor sensor is attractive.
Disadvantages
- You need a Zigbee hub: Since this floor sensor transmits its measurements with Zigbee technology, you have to use a compatible Zigbee hub.
- Battery operated: It would be interesting to be able to recharge a battery instead of having to use batteries with this sensor.
Guide to moisture sensors for irrigation
If you want to have an automatic watering sensor you can use Tuya QT-07S soil moisture sensors.
Additionally, you can use an irrigation controller such as Woox R7060 or Saswell with a Zigbee hub from Tuya (Lidl, Moes, Nous etc), Home Assistant or Jeedom.
To gain in comfort, reduce water consumption and optimise your garden, there are very interesting solutions such as an intelligent irrigation controller that allows automatic activation and deactivation of irrigation according to defined criteria.
These criteria can be hourly, but if we only have this criterion, then it will water automatically even if the soil is wet, e.g. after rain in your garden.
Although having a smart irrigation controller can be a first step in optimising the irrigation of your garden, as we have seen in other content on this channel, being able to measure soil moisture and temperature is an additional step to further improve irrigation.
For this, there is a very interesting device which is a smart soil moisture and temperature meter that we are going to discover today.
How does this Zigbee soil moisture and temperature meter work?
To begin with, as the name suggests, this meter measures the temperature and moisture level of the soil in real time.
Your measurements will be transmitted with Zigbee wireless technology to a compatible home automation hub and you will have a history of these measurements over time, which is interesting for creating different irrigation automations.
It has three 304 austenitic stainless steel bars with good corrosion resistance and hardness.
These rods come with protective caps on the ends that you must remove to insert them into the soil in your garden.
It is powered by two AA batteries, which are not included, and the battery life is theoretically one year.
Of course, being IP67, you can leave this Zigbee meter in the garden day and night.
This meter operates in environments between -20 to +60°C with an accuracy of plus or minus 1°C and a response time of 60 seconds.
At the level of humidity measurement, from 0 to 50% humidity, it has an accuracy of plus or minus 3% and from 50 to 100% humidity measurement, it has an accuracy of plus or minus 5%.
Its size is 18 cm x 4.5 cm and the stainless steel sensors measure 6 cm.
This device is not entirely unobtrusive given its size and is not aesthetically appealing, so take these criteria into account.
According to the manufacturer, this meter can be used in different environments such as various garden sites or plantations to provide a comprehensive care of flowers and plants.
And we have as examples of use environments: farm, greenhouse, nursery, garden lawn, potted plant and garden horticulture.
Two users who are integrating smart devices in their homes, as we are seeing in different contents, have also opted for these Zigbee soil moisture and temperature meters in their gardens.
One has a Zigbee irrigation controller from Saswell which, in addition to being able to activate or deactivate irrigation from your computer or phone, also measures water consumption, which is an interesting detail for some users.
And he has Zigbee meters both in his tomato fields and directly on his lawn.
Another user has a Zigbee irrigation controller from Woox, which in this case only allows activation and deactivation of irrigation from his computer or phone, but is more economical in terms of price. And he has installed these Zigbee meters to optimise his garden irrigation to take care of his lawn, strawberries and plants.
These irrigation controllers, like the soil moisture and temperature meter, are compatible with the Tuya ecosystem and the Smart Life app. In other words, you can buy a Tuya Zigbee hub like one in the Lidl shop or any other from other brands if you want a simple solution even if you are dependent on an Internet connection to control your devices.
And also, these devices are compatible with Zigbee2MQTT which you can use in both Jeedom and Home Assistant.
We have seen in other contents how to install Zigbee2MQTT, one of the most complete solutions to have a unified smart home with Zigbee technology.
How to link and use the Zigbee meter with a home automation hub?
Now that we have seen the details of this Zigbee meter, let’s find out how to link it to a home automation hub.
First, unscrew the bracket and put two AA batteries into the Zigbee meter and close the bracket.
To link this meter, you must put your home automation hub in association mode.
At this point, if you have the batteries in, press the button on the meter for a few seconds until the LED flashes.
Here is the result if you use a Tuya hub and the Smart Life application.
You have an attractive interface where you can see the temperature and humidity measurements in real time.
And you can create watering routines if you have an irrigation controller linked to this application and thanks to these measures.
You can also see the battery level of the meter.
If you use a Home Assistant or Jeedom hub with the Zigbee2MQTT platform, here is the result.
You have access to the same temperature and humidity information and you can see the battery level of the meter.
You can also calibrate the device if necessary.
Once linked to your Zigbee home automation hub, you can insert the stainless steel bars of this meter into the ground.
Over time, you will have a history of the measurements, which allows you to keep track of the conditions in your environment and, of course, the magic of a smart home is to be able to create automations such as watering according to these measurements.
You can define to water every day at a precise time and only if the soil moisture level is lower than a percentage you have defined or not to water if the soil moisture level is higher than a percentage you have defined.
You can also define automations according to floor temperature measurements.
And if you want to optimise your irrigation even more, the users of these smart homes also take into account the weather conditions for their automations.
One of the users also has an additional Netatmo smart rain gauge to know in real time when it rains in his garden, which is another interesting piece of information for watering his garden.
Technical characteristics of QT-07S irrigation sensor
- Wireless technology: Zigbee
- Humidity measuring range: 0 to 100%.
- Humidity accuracy: ±3% (0 to 50%), ±5% (50 to 100%)
- Temperature measuring range: -20°C to 60°C
- Temperature accuracy: 1°C
- Application response time: 60 seconds
- Power supply: Requires 2 AA batteries (not included)
- Dimensions: 120x180x46.5mm
- Probe length: 60mm
- Protection rating: IP67
