this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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Tuya soil sensor integration (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by anticonnor@lemmy.world to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world
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I'm attempting to add a no-name chinese solar wifi soil sensor to my HA server and have a couple questions. I was able to pair the device to the Smart Life app, add the Tuya integration to HA, link my Smart Life account to the HA integration, and recognize the device from that integration.

The device in the Smart Life app shows sensor readings for temperature, moisture, and nutrient levels, but the only sensor reading available in HA is temperature. So I guess I have 2 questions:

  1. How to get HA to recognize the other sensors from this device?
  2. Is there any way directly connect a device like this to HA without linking to a Smart Life account?
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[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

$60! Thats pretty pricy.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010425366864.html

Something like that + a ZigBee antenna should be able to connect directly to HA.

If you were feeling adventurous, you could try open the sensor and flash esphome, but that would damage the weatherproofing, and it has gotten a lot harder to do that with newer tuya stuff.

[–] anticonnor@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I saw devices like the one you posted when I was shopping for this sort of thing, but opted for mine because of the solar power and got it on sale.

If I can't get all of the sensors to show up in HA, I may pop it open and do some tinkering.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The ZigBee stuff generally does quite well battery wise, you might have to replace batteries once a year at most. I have a temp sensor in my hallway that is still claiming 100% battery after 6 months.

The antennas aren't super cheap though.

[–] CameronDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago

If you do tear it down, take photos and submit to electroda, you can get a pen and an SD card for your trouble.

https://www.elektroda.com/rtvforum/topic3950844.html

Also worth looking there to see if someone else has already done it.