SAVE THE PLANTS! Monitor your plants with the PLT-1 Plant Sensor from Apollo Automation.

[@rpals5412]

The fact that it is made for Home Assistant is just so awesome 😄. Open source vs enterprise is really being redefined this decade, I feel, and I think it's really healthy for competition and privacy. If enterprises won't adapt, and open source initiatives keep releasing market-ready solutions, enterprises are going to have a hard time.

[@ApolloAutomation]

We absolutely agree! We are still community members and we want what is best for everyone! Best, Justin

[@rpals5412]

@@ApolloAutomation And I wish you the best of luck! And I will for sure buy one of your devices, as soon as the battery version is out :)

[@brianjarvis3367]

Love the fact that it is made for HA. Would love to be able to choose between wifi, zigbee and wifi battery. The location of my plants wrt power points etc could dictate the choice. The fact that you have thought about the longevity of the product by coating the capacitative sensor is a thoughtful initiative. Nice product, please keep developing!

[@daveforrester61]

The plant is a Peace Lilly. They are well known for suffering from water shortage, but immediately recovering once watered. In this plant's instance, it doesn't do the plant any harm. So as long as you water it when you notice it wilting, it'll be fine.

[@EsotericArctos]

I have some Xiaomi BLE plant sensors and honestly, they've been a bit of a life saver for the plants as I tend to get distracted and forget them. I use Open Plantbook and Plant Monitor in HA and they seem to work well. The sensor you featured has a few more features, but the ones I have measure temp, soil conductivity, light and temperature, which I find is mostly all I need. I am not sure if UV measurements indoors are going to be too relevant, but you can never have too many sensors lol. What I like is that it integrates well into Home Assistant and the price looks to be in a similar ball park to the other ones on the market. When the battery version is available that will make it more compelling as using a plug pack does limit where it can be used.

[@ApolloAutomation]

Open Plantbook is amazing and we hope our sensors will bring more support to them! We looked into adding soil conductivity but we found that it can be inaccurate. The UV is nice because it will let you know that sun light is getting to your plant instead of just normal ambient light/LUX (which the LTR390 on the PLT-1 also does). We looked at market comparisons and for what the PLT-1 offers, we felt it has a very competitive price. The battery version should be out in around a month so be on the lookout! Thanks for the great comment! Best, Justin

[@ApolloAutomation]

Another great review, MostlyChris! Thanks for showcaing the PLT-1 and we hope it can help keep your plant alive! Please let us know if there are any questions! Best, Justin

[@BrummBilt]

Is there conformal coating on the edge of the sensor (probe) edge?

[@ApolloAutomation]

Great question! Yes, there is a conformal coating from just above the Apollo line all the way down to the bottom of the stake. Best, Justin

[@AndyBerman]

Great video! I’m expecting mine in the mail today. I don’t see the Piezzo buzzer listed in your Home Assistant though. Any idea why that doesn’t show up in ESPhome?

[@ApolloAutomation]

Thanks for your support! You can play with the piezo buzzer by going to developer tools > actions > choose desired buzzer entity > add RTTL string and press perform action! You can also use it automations by searching for the buzzer entity. We have examples and guides on our Apollo Automation wiki page. I can talk with Trevor about adding a buzzer button in HA so it is easier to play with. Best, Justin

[@PersonXes]

Your link to the wiki of the product doesn't work. The FAQ on the battery life I'd duper vague. Do you know whether it's a year, 3 years, 6 months?.... 4. How long does the battery last in the PLT-1? • Battery life depends on usage and sensor update intervals. Frequent updates will reduce battery life. You can adjust the sleep and wake intervals in the ESPHome configuration to optimize battery usage.

[@ApolloAutomation]

It looks like an old wiki link. We just recently changed to MKDocs from Bookstack, but you can still navigate to the PLT-1 on the new wiki (Products > PLT-1 > FAQ). With 8 hour wake up intervals you can expect around 6 months of battery life. It will vary depending on usage but it could be much longer. It uses an 18650. Best, Justin

[@PersonXes]

@ApolloAutomation thanks a lot justin!

[@waynenocton]

Seems like a super accurate scale could work, maybe even better, would have to estimate which part of the weight is water and which part is growth, but interesting to think about anyway.

[@JasonGlynn]

I just use the water resistant battery powered Xiaomi Bluetooth plant sensor with a separate esp32 running esphome Bluetooth proxy. Battery last 9+ months. Has light, temp and humidity sensors inbuilt

[@lgfs]

Too bad it's Wifi. Making it with Zigbee would have allowed for a miniature, coin-cell-battery powered version. If all my home network (50+ devices) was on wifi, it wouldn't work. I don't understand why a product "made for HA" is wifi, as I was made to believe most people have an "HA+Z2M" type of setup, right?

[@ApolloAutomation]

We are actively looking into Zigbee development and hope to offer sensors with that protocol next year. It depends on your network but we have multiple users (including us) with >=50 WiFidevices without any issues at all and the sensors are very responsive. Made for ESPHome and Works With Home Assistant are protocol agnostic and have badges for each connection method Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter, WiFi etc. I personally only use WiFidevices (Ubiquiti Unifi network) but our other co-founder, Trevor, has a mix of Zigbee, Z-Wave, and WiFi. Please let us know if you have any questions! Best, Justin

[@chris_schenkel]

Sounds like you have a really shitty network.

[@hazardfamilly]

Too expensive, 😢

[@ApolloAutomation]

Sorry to hear! We looked at a lot of other offerings on the market and most are around $30 with less functionality and lock you in to a proprietary app/ecosystem. What price point do you think is best? We are community driven company and appreciate the feedback so we can make better decisions. Best, Justin

[@chris_schenkel]

@@ApolloAutomation Don't feed the trolls.