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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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HA compatible sensors for a terrarium? (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm in the process of building a custom terrarium that will eventually house a leopard gecko. I'm looking for some small, inexpensive devices to monitor temperature and humidity in the tank via Home Assistant so I can set up some alerts. Any recommendations?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I feel like your best bet is ESPHome and the ESP family of devices. Last time I checked you could get the parts for a project like this off Amazon (with spare parts) for under 20$.

https://esphome.io/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

I agree if your diy an esp32 and a dht11 could easily handle those duties.

I use one with 2 DHT11s and two DS18B20s to monitor my HVAC temps.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't any off the shelf temperature+humidity sensor work? I use Sonoff and Aqara ones with Sonoff Zigbee coordinator and Zigbee2MQTT, both are somewhere around 15€ a pop, integrate painlessly and do the job. Aqara is a bit smaller and has air pressure sensor, too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I agree with this, unless you paticularly want to do it yourself. You could even get a couple for redundancy for und

Sonoff SNZ02 for a small coin cell device, or Tuya if you want to use AAAs. (Tuya ones are a little cheaper too)

Edit: A bonus one if you also want a screen in the tank: Sonoff SNZB-02D.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you have a Bluetooth proxy setup you can get Switchbot devices pretty cheap. They have an outdoor temp/humidity sensor for ~$15. I bought a pack of 3 for $36.

Bluetooth proxy can easily be setup with esphome and a ~$10 esp32

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Agreed, switchbot has been working for a while great in my hermit crab terrarium

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Not sure what temp and humidity levels a terrarium is expected to have, but Shelly makes a good device for monitoring both - https://www.shelly.com/en/products/shop/shelly-h-and-t-white.
Or one with a screen (still smart) - https://www.shelly.com/en-us/products/shop/shelly-h-and-t-gen3-1/
We use the latter in our bedroom which triggers the power outlet to a humidifier if it gets too dry when we're sick.

[–] echutaa 2 points 10 months ago

I have some sensors on a hognose enclosure and I can say for sure stay away from INKBIRD stuff. It integrates poorly and fails on loss of internet connection.

I don’t have a good solution for the heatmats yet but I’m looking into integrating an aquarium controller I have laying around to manage that.

For hygrometers there are a ton, but you’re going to want to look for low power and probably zigbee. the majority of the sensors I’ve tried have been an annoyance to manage batteries but the zigbee ones seem better.