Tip: Integrate Xiaomi Mi Flora Plant Sensor

[Admin]

Thanks to the integrated Bluetooth function of the Raspberry Pi (a Bluetooth USB dongle is required for older models), certain Bluetooth sensors can now also be integrated. One of them is the “Xiaomi Mi Flora Plant Sensor”, which is available in stores for around 25-30 EUR.

The sensor has 4 interesting values: soil moisture, temperature, brightness and conductivity, the latter being the soil nutrient content.

The project we need for this is here:

https://github.com/ThomDietrich/miflora-mqtt-daemon

In principle you can proceed exactly as in the instructions. In OpenSprinkler you simply set up an MQTT sensor and link it to the topic “miflora/<sensor name>”, where <sensor name> is the name that you entered in the config.ini.

Another note: Bluetooth scanning with “sudo hcitool lescan” didn’t work for me because the hcitool has probably already been discontinued. Instead, “sudo bluetoothctl scan le” should work.

[Thomas Thaler]

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus Rev 1.3, BCM2835, Revisiona020d3, Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 64bit

The specified command “Instead should be “sudo bluetoothctl scan le” ” is not correct.
To search for Bluetooth you can either use “sudo bluetoothctl scan on” or “sudo hcitool lescan”. Worked for me with both commands.

[Thomas Thaler]

In OpenSprinkler you simply set up an MQTT sensor and link it to the topic “miflora/<sensor name>”,

I was hoping that after configuring the MQTT broker settings, somewhere in the OSPI UI there would be a way to integrate the MiFlora sensor set up above into the OS. Unfortunately, I didn't find any entries about this and I couldn't find any instructions anywhere that explain how to integrate MQTT sensor data into the OS and make it visible and usable in the UI.

The sonsor is successfully recognized by the miflora-mqtt-daemon.

python3 /opt/miflora-mqtt-daemon/miflora-mqtt-daemon.py
Xiaomi Mi Flora Plant Sensor MQTT Client/Daemon
Source: https://github.com/ThomDietrich/miflora-mqtt-daemon
[2024-05-10 10:57:41] Connecting to MQTT broker…
[2024-05-10 10:57:41] MQTT connection established
Adding sensor to device list and testing connection...
Name:          “TEST”
Internal name: “TEST”
Device name: “Flower care”
MAC address: 5C:85:7E:12:D2:27
Firmware:      3.3.6
[2024-05-10 10:57:44] Initial connection to Mi Flora sensor “TEST” (5C:85:7E:12:D2:27) successful
[2024-05-10 10:57:44] Announcing Mi Flora devices to MQTT broker for auto-discovery …
[2024-05-10 10:57:44] Retrieving data from sensor “TEST” …
[2024-05-10 10:57:45] Result: {“light”: 1042, “temperature”: 22.9, “moisture”: 0, “conductivity”: 0, “battery”: 100}
[2024-05-10 10:57:45] Publishing to MQTT topic “miflora/TEST”
[2024-05-10 10:57:45] Sleeping (300 seconds) …

Thanks for the feedback, as I now have the sensors and would like to integrate them into OSPI
Best regards
Thomas

[Admin]

Hello,

The whole thing does NOT work with the original software, but only with the extended OpenSprinklerShop software.

https://OpenSprinklerShop.de/2023/09/06/neue-ospi-software-mit-analog-sensor-api/

And only with the “OpenSprinklerASB” app

[Author]

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