Dusting Off My Plant Moisture Sensor System

This is an update on my garden temperature and moisture logging system that I installed in my previous garden. It was up and running for about a year before I took it down when we were going to move. Some of the weather data it collected can be found here. I used ordinary network cable CAT5 and it worked perfectly well through sun, rain and snow. Part of it was buried 5 cm (2 inch) into the soil. This is the outdoor part of the system:

Below is the Watermark soil moisture sensor plus control electronics. The small plastic freezer bags from the kitchen protected it against the weather:

The Watermark sensor sensor looks like it’s ready for another round of logging. It looks like it’s still in good condition:

Small plastic bags offered protection against the elements:

This is the plastic bag containing the soil temperature sensor, glued onto a aluminum plate. The bag is a bit dirty, but whole:

Amazingly good condition after a year in the ground:

The 1-wire temperature sensor is still in place, glued onto the plate:

The only thing that broke was the plastic cable binder. Strange. It was fixing the two 1-wire Ethernet CAT5 cables on to the aluminum plate:

The next one is the cheap plastic box housing the electronic control circuit for the Watermark sensor. It too has survived without scratches, although the color has changed a bit due to the sun:

The printed circuit board from Hobby-boards is in mint condition! And there’s not even a gasket in the plastic box:

This is the 1-wire air temperature sensor. Also looking good:

Next up is the re-installation of the system in my new garden:

I can’t remember if the Watermark soil moisture sensor should be prepared in some way before being buried in the ground. I have to go read up on that one:

Finally a picture of the newest addition to the system which has not yet been installed:

A rain sensor from Rainwise, that will supplement the soil moisture sensor, to extract even more information about the conditions in the garden.