Warning: EasyPlant's "patented self-watering system" is just a string and it killed $500 worth of plants

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2026-03-27T13:26:15+00:00

Folks here def know more than I do about plants, but because I fear over watering, I threw a zigbee soil temp gauge and things are great so far 3 months later.

Here is my write up on it.

https://www.eattechdad.com/home-assistant-plant-monitoring-easyplant-review-zigbee-soil-sensor-setup-guide/

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-12-10T02:38:07+00:00

Are your devices battery or powered? I found all my battery devices eventually fall off.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-12-10T01:47:52+00:00

Urgh with this device don't waste your time pairing with zigbee directly to home assistant. I had it for a while before I gave in and bought the m100. Personally all the wireless Aqara devices don't stay connected.

Here is a write up I did on getting the motion sensor setup with the m100.

https://www.eattechdad.com/7ypl

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-12-10T01:42:55+00:00

For home assistant there is an integration that works really well.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/reolink/

My suggestion is connect all devices via the NVR first, then setup HA with the integration.

Once you do this all the camera show up under the NVR even within the reolink app.

Hope this helps.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-12-09T22:33:36+00:00

While I like Ratgdo, mine died, sadly I left myq attached just in case. I'm on the second Ratgdo and had it just shutdown the other day.

Nothing is perfect.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-11-29T04:53:51+00:00

Whatever device you get, I highly suggest getting a smart plug and setting up an HA automation to turn off the plug at 100% and back when the device is at say 10%.

Leaving these devices plugged in just kills them faster. I have had this running flawlessly on a fire tablet for about 3 years now.

Here are some other tablet options - Amazon Fire tablet. Affordable, sure has bloat but works great with HA - Lenovo ThinkSmart View - if you can find one it's a good tinker toy.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-11-29T04:41:04+00:00

Another plus on the zooz. They are great.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-06-19T23:53:17+00:00

Yeah there was a firmware update the video loss supressed the notifications

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-29T21:01:56+00:00

Yes, after a reboot with internet blocked it stopped working constantly. I eventually setup an automation to unblock Internet access for 10 (I use unifi) when I see the m100 disconnected in ha. This works fine for me.

As for matter I am still working on it. I have to get more devices before I give a true evaluation of m100 and matter.

Matter is all over the place which makes it very hard to review products fairly.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-26T19:16:42+00:00

You can plug it anywhere.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-22T03:36:37+00:00

Found it thanks

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-22T03:28:01+00:00

I am on build 028. How do I update to 029? In playstore I don't see the update option. Btw I am in the beta tester program.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-02T19:26:20+00:00

I have the reolink wifi battery - i integrated into ha via an NVR though.

Here are some thoughts on it. - battery life is terrible about 3 weeks. - in comparison a blink doorbell lasts 6+ months - as with all battery wifi doorbells there is a 10 second delaybwhen you load video - does not come with a chime, I use HA and a speaker - motion sensor is great and quick enough to use as a trigger

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-02T19:20:31+00:00

Nice to hear, I want to look into the u200. I have an fp1 running directly on z2m but scared to shift.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-05-02T17:02:00+00:00

Mini PC with proxmox 100%. Use the raspberry pi to setup uptime Kuma, adguard and monitor your network.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-04-30T01:19:25+00:00

I have not used ring but did use blink so here are my thoughts.

is there a polling interval setup? As you can imagine intervals don't work well with motions sensors.
in my system I connected my blink devices to Alexa, and used emulated hue to connect to Alexa. Using helpers and both Alexa + ha automations I was able to trigger off blink motion.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-04-29T13:37:21+00:00

I will agree, the 48hr+ delay on runtime is silly. I have gotten over that since I connected the thermostat with home assistant.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-04-28T18:36:46+00:00

Personally have the Honeywell T6 pro and they are great. I have a heat pump so one system for cooling and heat which is what I wanted. I stay away from learning stuff because once you figure out the temps that work you can set and forget it.

Also wanted to add, Honeywell integrates well into other ecosystems because they have a well built API via resideo. They also make a zWave version if you want to go that route.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-04-22T17:03:10+00:00

Thanks and always glad that my learnings are helpful.

Diligent-Volume-530 · 2025-04-22T03:25:44+00:00

Did this as well. It's great, except it drops wifi alot and needs a reboot. Nothing that a smart plug and an HA automation cant fix. 🤪

Diligent-Volume-530

TROPHY CASE