Simple 3 Wire Hookup
Reverse Polarity Protection
Rugged and Waterproof Case
Blade will Never Corrode
Ignores Salts in Soil
Fast Response Time
Slender Blade wont Hurt Roots
Rugged and Waterproof VH400 Soil Moistures for Professionals
Water is the most precious resource on our planet. Measure it, control it, and conserve it, with our VH400 soil moisture sensor.
The VH400 is an professional electronic soil moisture sensor. It is so sensitive, that it can measure the moisture in your hands when you touch its blade.
Made of durable ABS plastic, and fiberglass, our VH400 moisture sensor is absolutely water proof and rugged, ready for the most challenging application that you can throw at it. It can be buried at any depth in the ground, or be inserted above ground, or into the soil of your potted plants.
Most other sensors, especially conductivity or resistance based sensors are ineffective, because salts and fertilizers found in soil bias their readings. The VH400 moisture sensor uses superior transmission line techniques as does (TDR) to measure the water moisture in any soil regardless of soil salinity.
Unlike resistive or conductivity sensors, our probes do not use exposed metal to make measurements. They will never corrode, or need to be recalibrated.
Imagine your doctor giving you a shot with a syringe used for elephants. Ouch! Your plants are no different, and they will thank you for not using giant probes to take soil moisture measurements.
We designed the blade of the sensor to be as slender as possible. It can be inserted into soil and pots with minimal disturbance to the vital root systems of your plants. We have yet to find another moisture sensor with a thinner blade.
The VH400 sensors are extremely fast. The output response is instantaneous with changes to water moisture. When you pour water on a plant, you will see the change in moisture in real time. This rapid response time allows you to walk around, and spot check the moisture of different soils and plants, by quickly sliding in the blade, and taking a measurement. We offer a handheld moisture meter with the VH400 sensor for this purpose.
The VH400 will easily interface to any decent data logger, or microcontroller. Customers have connected it to Arduino boards, electron particle IO boards, and a slew of common microcontrollers. The output ranges from 0 to 3V so any system that can read a voltage can interface to it. For evaluation use a common volt meter to read its output, and determine the soil moisture level.
Our sensor design anticipates every problem you might encounter. We've added reverse polarity protection to the 3 wire interface. If by chance you connect the three wires from the cable in the incorrect order to power, signal and ground, that's okay. The probe will not be damaged.
We provide modular building blocks that you need to create your soil moisture application. With these building blocks, you can create systems that will monitor soil moisture, and automatically control watering.
For recording data, we carry simple low-cost data loggers, which can read up to 8 sensors. Waterproof wall mountable displays allow you to see your sensor data, near its source.
For remote viewing of data, we provide a WiFi Data Logger, which will read up to 4 sensors, and store data in the cloud. This Sensor Hub lets you remotely view your sensor data on your phone's web browser. You can even receive text messages, and email alerts.
We've partnered with the sensor cloud site - VegeCloud.com which will graph, store, and manage your water level sensor data.
We are passionate about helping you saving water, and money. We offer several solutions for your sprinkler systems.
Some sprinkler systems use contact closure rain sensors. These can be replaced with a combination of a VH400 sensor with a contact closure relay board. When the soil is wet, the relay contacts will close, simulating the result of a rain sensor. This is more accurate than a rain sensor, because you care about the soil moisture, and not whether it has rained.
If your sprinkler has no sensor input, use our Sprinkler Relay Boards. These connect between the wires of your sprinkler timer, and your valves. When the clock turns on a particular zone, the Sprinkler Relay Board blocks the signal to the valve, if the soil is already wet. It also turns off the valve mid-cycle as the moisture sensor reaches the desired moisture level.
Water is expensive. We have found that people over water by as much as 200%. Think about your savings, if you could cut your water bill in half. Our customers find that our products pay for themselves in as little as one month.
The VH400 is very low power. It draws only 12mA when activated. For low power battery applications, the VH400 can be powered briefly before reading, and then shut down, to conserve battery power.
Not only does the VH400 measure soil moisture, but it can be used as a water level sensor. One side of the blade has ruled markings every 10mm for this purpose. As the sensor blade is dipped into water the voltage output will raise proportionally.
Our sensors come in standard cable lengths of 2 meters, 5 meters and 10 meters. See the ordering table below.
Ordering is easy and low risk. Since we build our own products at our factory, all of our products are in stock. When you place your order from our website, it will ship same day from our factory, and you'll have it in your hands in just a couple of days. We ship to nearly EVERY COUNTRY in the world.
If you aren't amazed and delighted by your new VH400 soil moisture sensor, return it for a refund within 30 days.
VH400 Soil Moisture Sensor Monitoring Beat Plants
Tim's Corner
The following data is a real time graph of the soil moisture of our office plant from VegeCloud.com. You can see in the picture that we use a VH400 connected to a VegeHub.
My wife gave this to me when I started Vegetronix back in 2008, and told me that it was a metaphor for our love - if it ever died it was over for us. Luckily for me, but unlike my marriage, it can go long stretches with virtually no care.
We ship to nearly EVERY COUNTRY on the planet, directly to you from our factory.
99% of orders ship same day.
| BUY NOW FROM OUR WEBSITE STORE | |||
| Part Number | Description | Price | Purchase |
| VH400-2M | Soil Moisture Sensor - 2 meter cable | Buy Now | |
| VH400-5M | Soil Moisture Sensor - 5 meter cable | Buy Now | |
| VH400-10M | Soil Moisture Sensor - 10 meter cable | Buy Now | |
Contact us for pricing information.
VH400 - Soil Moisture Sensor Probe
The quickest way to evaluate if the VH400 series is right for you is to also order some of our sensor relay boards. The relay boards accept input from a single sensor and control a solid state or mechanical relay. The relay contacts can be configured to close when wet, or open when wet. The dry/wet threshold is easily set by an an on board variable resistor, which can be tuned with a small screwdriver. With our relay boards, within minutes you'll be using your VH400 soil moisture probe to control, valves, alarms or home automation systems.
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VH400 Sensor |
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| Power consumption | < 13mA |
| Supply Voltage | 3.5V to 20 VDC. |
| Dimensions | See drawing below. |
| Power on to Output stable | 400 ms |
| Output Impedance | 10K ohms |
| Operational Temperature | -40ºC to 85ºC |
| Accuracy at 25°C | 2% |
| Output | 0 to 3V related to moisture content |
| Shell Color | Red |
| Voltage Output Curves | Curves, Piecewise linear equations |
| Certifications | CE Declaration of Conformity |
VH400 Soil Moisture sensor Drawing
| Bare | Ground |
| Red | POWER: 3.5V to 20 VDC. |
| Black | OUT: (0 to 3V related to moisture content.) |
See our Soil Moisture Sensor Probe Technical Literature for reference designs and information on how to use the soil moisture probe in larger systems.
The best way to get started is to purchase a few low cost soil moisture sensor probes and try them out in your application.
The Techno Gardener gives a basic tutorial on soil moisture,explaining capillary action, gravitational water, water holding capacity, field capacity, plant available water, and wilting point for plants.
The Techno Gardener shows you how to wire up a Vegetronix soil moisture sensor to a digital multimeter.
The Techno Gardener demonstrates how a Vegetronix soil moisture sensor can be used as a water level sensor.
The Techno Gardener shows you how a Vegetronix soil moisture sensor can also be used to detect the moisture in your hands. It blows away gypsum block sensors with it's instantaneous moisture readings.