b-parasite DIY soil moisture sensor gets ZigBee and Zigbee2MQTT support

Did you remember a b-parasite project? It now has a ZigBee firmware sample you can integrate into Home Assistant through Zigbee2MQTT!

Usually, smart soil moisture sensors use BLE or even WiFi for data transfer. But we want ZigBee, right? Why we want it is a topic for a separate post, but the main reason is that the smallest battery in the ZigBee device can last years!

Nevertheless, Smart Home enthusiasts continue hunting for any ZigBee plant health sensors commercial solution. And looks like for the time of this writing, we have only one option that is ready to be used out of the box – Spruce Spoil Moisture Sensors by Plaid Systems. And, oops, it is out of stock.

Of course, we are talking about the sensors that could be used at home in a small plant pot that will look nice and don’t turn your flower into a borg. And also integrates with Home Assistant.

There are still some non-ZigBee sensors that are nice looking and do not require a separate power socket. BLE-based Xiaomi MiFlora, for example, or ESP32-based LilyGO TTGO HiGrow. But we still want ZigBee, right?

b-parasite was a popular open-source BLE project with a complete guide to parts ordering and assembling. It is now could be flashed with ZigBee firmware.

A new branch has appeared in the b-parasite GitHub repository, called zigbee-sample. As it is stated in a README, it is an “experimental/educational basic Zigbee sample”, but it is still supported by ZigBee2MQTT and reports illuminance, temperature, humidity, and soil moisture. Additional information can be found in a separate README file and the assembling guide is available in a repository wiki.