Orti: soil moisture sensor
What: a cheap, accurate, open, interoperable, and beautiful soil moisture sensor
Why: other solutions miss at least one of the above features
When: no release date yet, a lot of stuff to get through
How: open-hardware and open-source all the way, working with the garage door open
Orti /'orti/: Italian for kitchen gardens where people grow produce for their own use.
What's inside?
- accurate and affordable: a soil moisture sensor performing in-between research grade and consumer hardware at an affordable price (~20€).
- open and interconnected: an open-hardware design with an open-source mobile app running (natively) on IOS and Android devices together with full support for Zigbee, Thread/Matter and Home Automation.
- carefully designed: a good looking home accessory which looks slick indoor and guarantees water resistance outdoor.
Why another one
Because existing products do not tick all the boxes.
High-Level comparison
| Product | Price (€) | Accuracy | Technology | Power supply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer sensors (Xiaomi, Ecowitt) | 18-30 | moderate | capacitive | Button/AA batteries (replaceable) |
| Research grade (ECH20, SMT-100) | 150-200 | highest | high frequency reflectometry | Wired |
| DIY (B-Parasite) | DIY | moderate | capacitive | Button (replaceable) |
| Maker (PLT-1) | ~20 (+extra) | moderate | capacitive | 18650 (rechargeable + replaceable) |
| Orti | ~20 | high | high frequency reflectometry | 2× AAA (rechargeable + replaceable) |
Feature comparison
| Product | Home Assistant | Zigbee/Matter | Mobile App | Plant DB integration | Ambient temp/humidity | Soil temperature | Irradiation | Outdoor use | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xiaomi MI Flora | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ecowitt WH51 | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| B-Parasite | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PLT-1 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Orti | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
Why are we missing ambient temperature and humidity sensing?
Because these measurements pertain other sensors. Take a balcony with many plants and many soil moisture sensors, one for each pot. In such case we would have a lot of redundant measurements which a single cheap specialized sensor can replace easily. Such measurement is easily integrated in a mobile app visualization, home integration automation and the like.
Why are we missing irradiation sensing?
Because these measurements are rarely reliable and such sensors require specialized encasing design. Irradiation is an important measure to assess plant health but the tradeoff between sensor usefulness and added system complexity is not favorable in this phase.
When can I have one?
A lot of stuff to get through, contributors are welcome!.
For a more detailed view of past, ongoing and future activities see the kanban board.
How does this make sense?
I don't know (yet).
License
Code, hardware and all other artifacts are licensed as open and copyleft.
- software folder: GPLv3 or later
- hardware folder: CERN-OHL-S-2.0
- everything else: CC-BY-SA-4.0
This project is REUSE compliant. Each file contains SPDX
license identifiers, and full license texts are available in the
LICENSES/ directory. License
files are also provided in the project root directory to be correctly displayed in
Github.
This project employs the developer certificate of origin (see DCO) to ensure third-parties don't claim ownership over contributions. DCO is enforced through a 'signed-off-by' section in commit messages, see contributors guide for more information on how to add one to your commit messages.