Plant Link Intergration

Devices & Integrations
1

Hey Community,

Now that Plant Link is live and kicking… is there anyone out there that integrated it into Smart Things? I know back when this was a kickstarter, this was a planned integration, but I’m having a difficult time finding the procedure on how to connect it. Any help would be great.

Thanks,

2

Last I heard from STs was… “Nope”

3

Looks like there might be a public api now though… More research needed :smile:

4

I wonder if my plant still has a chance to come back to life too. :disappointed_relieved:

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5

There are a few devices floating around.

ST wrote one in 2013, and its very basic. I am working on improving it.

https://graph.api.smartthings.com/ide/device/exampleData/75fe2090-7e25-43a1-a3f8-5c7cbcf7dbac

Oso (PlantLink) wrote a device/connector that sort of works. The problem is that you cannot specify your soil type or plant type, so it doesn’t do much in way of determining if your saturation is actually right for your plant. It also requires queries out to the PlantLink servers.

I wrote a device that sort of hacky HTTP requests to the PlantLink servers and gets you device data about a Link that’s registered on the PlantLink Hub. This works OK but I don’t think ST nor Oso really like it:

@tslage13 – the Oso code had a lot of ST-specific hooks in it.

In any case, I’m going to work on this a bit more because I think the hardware is pretty good.

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6

Yes, I’m excited about these sensors too. The Plantlink API docs are here for the curious:
https://www.mashape.com/danwiding/PlantLink#

7

Is your use case with or without the Plantlink hub? I believe pure ST only connectivity was where things fell apart last year?

8

I am very curious about this as well. Want to buy some, as I am horrible at keeping plants alive, and one or two in the lawn will be a good thing too…

9

Hey @dlee – The first device I wrote exclusively used the PlantLink Hub. My second attempt at this is using a direct ST connection.

Oso did a really nice job of finding out the optimal soil moisture for each plant and soil type. This is proprietary and only available via their API. To make things more complicated, you can only access the optimal moisture levels if you first create a plant instance via their API. So I basically have to pair it with ST, store the plant information, then hit their API when I get a reading. Also, I have to get the plantType and soilType via their API as well.

Its a lot of work but I think it will be worth it in the end. PlantLink has a Connect app that seems to do some of this but since I have the time I’m just going to start from scratch since the plantType and soilType weren’t solved for anyway.

@darrylb – just make sure they don’t stand in any water and that you take them in during the winter! (Also write on them in a big permanent marker so you don’t mix them up). Ultimately, I am going to find a way to pair this with my RainMachine

10

@Kristopher, glad you are going to give it another try. IIRC, things failed if you didn’t also have a Plantlink hub. There was not a way to create a plantlink account if you did not first register a plantlink hub. Would be great to work around that.

I have over 100 types of plants in my property and house. I only want to 2 or 3 plantlinks to notify me when soil levels reach a certain level in certain zones which I set. The idea of one sensor for every plant just seems over the top to me. I hope they focus more on an accessible platform than trying to create configs for a gazillion plant types.

I just want basic reminders based on soil moisture level measurements I set manually in 2 or 3 locations. Sun and humidity can really impact soil moisture and watering frequency needs. Moisture readings with notifications are all you really need to keep the plants healthy, assuming you already know which plants need more water than others.

11

Hey @dlee

That sounds pretty close to my use case too. Maybe I should just focus on the soil type (there’s only about a dozen) and make sure the reading is correct for that soil type.

I have the devices working right now and giving off a reading without an account and directly paired to ST. So we are pretty close already :slight_smile:

Kristopher

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@Kristopher : Standing water? What’s the concern with them in water?

I am in Florida, so can’t say I am concerned about winter :smile:

13

Hi All,

For those of you interested in direct connect of PlantLink to SmartThings, here is a link to the device type code I am using for my devices. Also, I just noticed that Oso Technologies has a sale for 20% off. So you can grab one for $26 which is pretty cheap for a zigbee device. I ordered a handful.

  1. The code base starts with the Device Type published by SmartThings. Thanks @Ben
  2. The PlantLink devices that I received appear to have a different firmware that used new codes for “humidity” in the zigbee transmission. These codes were added.
  3. I fixed a calculation error on the soil moisture.
  4. Rather than make a bunch of assumptions or try to build a database for every plant and soil type, I added the ability to manually calibrate the device. Users can see the manual device reading and set in the Preferences an upper and lower value. I just stick each device in “wet soil” and in “dry soil” and transfer the readings to the preferences.

A note on behavior:
It appears the devices “phone home” about every 15 min with battery and humidity values and their device id. Sometimes a device will blast out multiple messages within a sec. This creates a few issues on the event processing side but the code seems to capture all the messages and a very high percentage results in an “event”.

ToDo: I also plan to add the “Water Sensor” capability which should open up more integration opportunities with existing SmartApps. And of course, I plan to integrate into my Smart Sprinkler project as part of building out a Smarter Lawn.

Cheers

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14

Hey Stan,

That’s awesome! Thank you for updating that device type. I also have been working on an updated device type. Allowing the user to enter the range was very clever.

I talked to the PlantLink founders and they gave me the resistivity calculation. I am working on integrating that into the device now :slight_smile:

Kristopher

15

Anyone have experience with the OSO Device/App? I installed and configured it, only to see my tile stuck in “SYNCING”. :frowning:

16

Hi Darryl,

I have seen that too. That happens with the Oso-branded App if you have not setup the (Connect) app to their backend correctly. Sometimes you have to wipe it out and start over.

Stan and I are working on a direct device that has no (Connect) dependency. We are just cleaning up some of the math where we can!

Kristopher

17

Just read about this, did not even know this existed. So do I need the hub for this or just the plant links?
I assume the sale is over :frowning:

Thanks for posting this!!

18

@swindmiller : No sale… I just bought the base station too. Worse case, I will take it to my mother for use :smile: Only bought 1 link, trying it out now. So far so good.

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19

Thanks @darrylb, so you didnt need the base station for it to work, right?

20

I am currently using the base station. @Kristopher appears to be working on a solution where the SmartThings Hub uses the Links directly.

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