Mistakes happen, so i have something to share in regards to the soil sensor in my bucket build.
About 4-5 days ago when i pulled out my soil sensor as i was pulling the plant out to clean the inner tray due to a water issue i caused which there is no point in getting into, i noticed my sensor was corroded and thought that it was strange to be corroded as my other sensors weren't like this one, but proceeded to clean it up with some steel wool and putting it back figuring it was caused by this mix and nutrient fluctuations, and just passed it off, well today when looking at things and thinking about set points and testing between different pots in my other cases then going to the bucket to check, i noticed a quirk with what was being shown or i should say lack of what was being shown, as typically with my programming when you do a manual check the first numbers to show up are a low false number as the sensor hasn't been on long enough to check, and you have to leave it on for a bit to stabilize once you freshly plant the sensor, as it making its connection points through your mix between the two probes.
Well it was giving me the accurate readings right away with no fluctuations with the refreshes, "Bing" the light bulb goes on this sensor has been running with the power fed to it 24/7 thus the corrosion, sure enough that was the case, due to me wiring the vcc of the sensor to a 5v common terminal instead of Digital Output [HASHTAG]#10[/HASHTAG] of my Arduino.
So this is why i built my programming with functions to only have the sensor powered when its in use in order to prevent corrosion and increase longevity.
The picture below included two sensors made of stainless steel, the one on the left has only seen 60days of use powered with 5v 24/7 and was cleaned 4-5 days ago, the one on right has seen over 1.5+ years of use with it only being turned on when in a reading takes place.
If you were running a steel probe or plated like the cheap eBay ones, your sensor would be Gone and you would run into a failed sensor situation which could and has for me in the past resulted in a flooding situation where my plants got killed, which is also the reason why i have some sensor fail safe code built in because of that.
So if your automating your grows with similar soil sensor techniques this is why you need to turn off your sensor between use, as the left side on the left sensor its actually all split and bulged in multiple locations.
for your efforts and the side photo I was asking for. Thanks.
