Moisture sensor for my garden

[hobbes487]

I am relatively new to 1-Wire and want to expand on the simple network that I currently have. I picked this up as it was the cheapest option I could find to get started: http://www.dhgate.com/usb9097-1-wire-series-1-wire-minilan-thermometer/p-ff8080812b521512012b55c3416d2c3b.html

I want to add a moisture sensor so I can monitor when I need to water my garden. What are my options as far as hardware and what kind of requirements do I need to consider? I am comfortable with DIY solutions so doing some tinkering is ok. Obviously, the cheaper the better as long as it works.

Thanks for any insight into this.

 

[pete_c]

Been testing one of those from China. Works well. Kind of a one off design. Its using a USB to com port interface and comes off as a 9097 com port device as seen by the 1-wire diagnostics utility. The only issue I had was installing the drivers for the com portion of the USB side of things. It wasn't really much of an issue though. I did notice though that the 1-wire diagnostics / programs only go to comm port 15. I am into the 20's now on my com ports.

I cut a cable and installed 4 combo humdity/Temperature sensors; all work fine. So a leaf sensor / soil moisture sensor (that gypsum type should work just fine). It plays well with two other 9097's and 3 Temp0X sensors connected to my server with XAP (using 1-wire XAP and Temp0x XAP).

I purchased mine from DHGate. Its around the same price as the 1-wire 9097 RS-232 device except it comes with two temperature probes.

The pics show the device/hardware; the hybrid USB/Serial 1-Wire link is the "USB-Serial CH340 (COM2)".

 

[hobbes487]

Thanks for the reply. Its good to hear that someone else has tried that 1-wire receiver too and you have been able to add additional sensor to it.

My main question is what exactly do I need for a moisture sensor as far as hardware? Is this all I need: http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1547

...or do I need some kind of board like this: http://www.hobby-boards.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=70

...and how would I wire this up to my existing network?

 

[pete_c]

I have the moisture meter board and a leaf sensor. I never installed it though. I'm not even sure what box its sitting in today.

It looks to be in a redesign state today (HB).

Having a number of different 1-wire devices over the years I noticed that certain ones didn't play well with other ones. IE: so moved my combo sensors over to the 9097 you mentioned and one Temp08. Another Temp08 only has a lightning sensor and AAG weather instrument (with some temperature sensors), another one has the barometer (along with the temperature sensors) and another one the Rain guage (with some temperature sensors) and the other two 9097's have more combo and temperature sensors on them. And originally ran the 1-wire network in a "star" fashion such that each sensor has its own runs.

Reading some about the soil moisture sensor years ago and why I am not using it was something relating to getting a baseline to work with as moisture in the soil varies tremendously around the county.

Today I am using only one of the old light sensors outside (second one on the roof quit working after about a month) and calculating a number which pretty much matches the UV number that I see from NOAA.

I am using a calculated number (soil moisture) based on weather and real data but not the soil moisture called evapotranspiration.

Evapotranspiration