New Webpage for the Remote Soil Moisture Meter

🔘A "Remote Soil Moisture Meter - RSMM" has been in operation during the summer 😎 months since before this blog began; prior to  📅December 2021.

RSMM deployed in a herb garden - note LoRa antenna & solar panel

The RSMM transmits a soil moisture🚰 measurement every 🕥 hour using "LoRa" * wireless 🗼data technology to a receiver 📻module located conveniently indoors, about 35 metres away.

Several variants of the 📻receiver module were made; in general having either 🛜WiFi or Bluetooth functionality, in addition to LoRa. One of the 🛜WiFi options hosts a webserver, with embedded webpage to display the moisture 📏 measurement. This is accessed from a 📱smart-phone, 💻pc etc, having a browser installed. The original, basic, webpage design from 📅2021 is shown in the image below.

Version 1 webpage displayed on a phone

Recently the webpage has been given an upgrade to v2. The much improved webpage was designed using HTML, CSS & Javascript and has been considerably enhanced compared with v1 with several new features, such as 🛜WiFi signal level 📶indicator, chart 📈of moisture measurements over 🕥12 hours updated in real-time, and a button to pop-up moisture level definitions. The appearance has been revised and modernised with graphics, especially with the background image of the RSMM itself, a browser page tab favicon, and the use of different coloured panels to separate elements. Version 2 ( June 2025 ) is shown for comparison in the image below.

V2 viewed on a pc browser

V2 will be uploaded to the receiver module next time the RSMM is deployed, and is operational.

The latest issue of the 'User Guide' can be downloaded 🔗here.

* 'LoRa' = 'Long Range' 🔲

Meshtastic network using LoRa wireless modules

LoRa WAN ( see 16 March 2022 ) and a point to point LoRa wireless data link have been used previously. This post describes setting up a "Meshtastic" based secure private network comprising 2  nodes again using cheap, low power, LoRa wireless modules, operating on a frequency 868MHz.

Meshtastic allows encrypted text message type communication between nodes ( upto 80 ) in an "off-grid" mesh type network which requires no gateways, infrastructure or internet servers; the underlying technology used is LoRa.

A user-group called SpacerLabs, and 2 nodes named Webmaster ( Wbms ) and Laboratory ( Lbrt ) were created. Node 'Webmaster' uses a TTGO T-Beam board. Node 'Laboratory' uses the same TTGO LoRa32v2 board as on 16 March. Both boards support BlueTooth Low Energy ( BLE ) and have LoRa transceivers; the T-Beam has additionally a Ublox Neo-6M GPS receiver allowing tracking its position.

(L) Node Webmaster [T-Beam], (R) Node Laboratory [LoRa32v2]

The appropriate 'Meshtastic' firmware version was uploaded to each board. Both boards have to be paired with a BlueTooth enabled device, e.g. smartphone or tablet. The 'Meshtastic' app was downloaded and installed on a smartphone.

Although LoRa allows communication between nodes dispersed over a wide area and upto several kilometres apart depending on intervening terrain and antenna type and position, for demonstration purposes the two nodes were positioned just a few centimetres apart. Short text messages were sent from each node using the smartphone. In the above image note the message which was sent to the Laboratory from the Webmaster.

Viewing messages on the Meshtastic app

Currently there is no actual requirement for a Meshtastic based network for a SpacerLabs user-group. It was, however, an interesting exercise finding out about Meshtastic and getting a simple network up and running. Two spare LoRa modules are available and could easily be used to add more nodes to the group, perhaps on different floors or buildings e.g., 'Office' and 'Warehouse'. ( visit https://meshtastic.org for more information ).

 

      

LoRa WAN

A "LoRa" ( Long Range )  wireless data link had already been used in a previous project to collect soil moisture data; but was not joined to a LoRa WAN network, in which nodes ( end-devices e.g. sensors ) are connected to gateways which then connect to the network server where the data from the end-device can be displayed and accessed by other applications for long-term storage and visualisation.

The public "TheThingsNetwork (TTN)" global IoT LoRaWAN network with the "Things Stack Community edition" server were used to test the possibility of connecting a node comprising a TTGO LoRa32v2 development board, before designing future projects with sensors. Only a short text message was to be sent; "TTGOLoRa32v2 node test".

The message was successfully received by a gateway 6kms away and forwarded to the server.

The upper image shows the experimental node in a temporary location by a window. The lower image is a partial screen capture of the live data on the server console.

 

TTGO LoRa32v2 node successfully joined TTN

Live data from the TTGO LoRa32 node on the Things Stack server

 

For more information on TheThingsNetwork visit https://thethingsnetwork.org

IoT = Internet of Things