Garden Thermometer

General Gardening
1

Edit: The manufacturer changed the wireless range since I bought the thermometer from 300ft (unchanged in spite of going through walls) to 75ft (which is reduced to 20ft if the signal has to go through walls). In light of this reduction in quality, people should try @FarmGirl-Z6A 's suggestions instead. Thanks, Tia!!

My system is on its second season in a stupidly humid environment, and still going strong. I have one probe hanging in an exposed area and the other probe under the lights and coverings I use to protect my fig trees from winter injury. The display is in my kitchen. This allows me to know how well the winter protection is working in real time without going outside. It also enables me to take action when temps under that covering get too high and risk awakening the trees prematurely.

4 Likes
2

Thanks for sharing! How’s battery life on the sensor?

I’m using a Bluetooth-based sensor Amazon.com: Inkbird Wireless Thermometer Humidity and Temperature Monitor, IBS-TH2 Freezer Thermometer Bluetooth Temperature Sensor Smart, with APP for Android and iOS (Temperature and Humidity Sensor) : Appliances and I’m not happy with it’s battery life - have to recharge a single AAA battery like every two weeks, not good. Changing settings to a less frequent reading interval doesn’t help either.

1 Like
3

Sorry to hear you’re dissatisfied with the Inkbird. There’s a more expensive version of the same thing also on Amazon. I’d be curious about how the battery is on that one.

For mine, the batteries lasted the whole winter last year, then died in April. I just replaced them yesterday and it’s working great.

1 Like
4

We have been happy with both of these products:

1 Like
5

Santa Claus sent me a new old-stock Acu-Rite backyard weather station with indoor console. I had to specify one with a USB PC connection on the indoor component, which it seems nobody makes anymore. Everything on the market nowadays is WiFi enabled to call home to the manufacturer’s Web site. These products are built with an Internet connection in lieu of providing any PC software. However, I run my own Linux software. It’s a Free and Open Source (FOSS) package called WeeWX — hence the need for a direct PC-type connection.

There are add-on modules for WeeWX that can be configured to block the new-style weather stations’ access to the Internet at the LAN and redirect traffic to the WeeWX app. Documentation for a variety of techniques is sketched out here, but I’m afraid you have to know what you’re doing to understand it all, and I do not.

2 Likes
6

Good point. I picked Inkbird product with Bluetooth interface only for the same reason. Famous casino hack was done through aquarium thermometer, go figure :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

1 Like