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I'm building a new product for farm monitoring (IoT device that monitors soil moisture and other enviro/climate conditions). I spent a whole lot of time in the

I'm building a new product for farm monitoring (IoT device that monitors soil moisture and other enviro/climate conditions). I spent a whole lot of time in the past few weeks hand-soldering circuit boards using prototype boards (one step up from breadboards), then drove ~10 hours to a remote town to install them on farms and stayed around for a few days to get/keep them working. By doing that I not only ensured they were up and running in good shape, but I learned what it's like to be the person installing and maintaining them. We have an installer in town who made the intro to that customer, but for this new product it was a big learning experience to be there, doing it myself.

boredemployee 3y ago
I'm genuinely curious if you could elaborate a little bit more, thanks. I always thought about a product like that in my area but the "features" you mentioned (soil/climate conditions monitoring) are pretty simple, so I wonder if you're still able of finding a market (fit) for products like that, that "anyone" could build. Are you able to find customers, which I assume is B2B?
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
  Markets exist for just about anything. The hard part is finding them. For example: one of the simplest things I've built this year is a device that reads an input and then turns on an LED and sends a message to a connected app (I didn't write the app) when the input changes state. After I shipped the first one, the customer came back and asked for 10 more and they expect that over time they may need about 100 or so. I can do stuff like this all day long: it's technologically trivial, but world-altering to the people who need it. My main problem is getting people who need these little machines to know how to find me.
  - cdelsolar 3y ago
    Wow.. what kind of an input? I sometimes want to get back into hardware.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
      12V signal from an external device.
gomox 3y ago
If it doesnt work for B2B then you should make one for plants at home (i've been looking for a bluetooth-like "this plant needs watering" thingy for a while and haven't found a good choice).
- aaronax 3y ago
  Ecowitt sensors are well done in my experience and they have a soil sensor product. Works with HomeAssistant too.
- sokoloff 3y ago
  I've been happy with our "North Flower Care" BLE plant monitor. Monitors light (which is not useful IMO for an indoor plant), moisture, temperature, and soil fertility. There's a companion app that can record the data and correlate it with what the plant you've configured finds ideal. I paid $11 for it, which is a lot more reasonable than the current $30, but if it helps a plant you like grow... I don't actively monitor it with an automation, but I recall poking at it with one of the NRF apps and seem to recall that the data format was open enough that you could monitor it outside the official app.
- folmar 3y ago
  Xiami Flora should be good enough and widely supported (Home Assistant and similar). Sends simple BLE packets.
- HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
  The "problem" with that is that typically an item that a business will happily pay $200 for can only be sold to a home customer for $10. Selling consumer items is a good example of things that require scale.
jonny_eh 3y ago
> We have an installer in town who made the into to that customer Excuse me? Could you please rewrite that one?

boredemployee 3y ago

I'm genuinely curious if you could elaborate a little bit more, thanks. I always thought about a product like that in my area but the "features" you mentioned (soil/climate conditions monitoring) are pretty simple, so I wonder if you're still able of finding a market (fit) for products like that, that "anyone" could build. Are you able to find customers, which I assume is B2B?

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
Markets exist for just about anything. The hard part is finding them. For example: one of the simplest things I've built this year is a device that reads an input and then turns on an LED and sends a message to a connected app (I didn't write the app) when the input changes state. After I shipped the first one, the customer came back and asked for 10 more and they expect that over time they may need about 100 or so. I can do stuff like this all day long: it's technologically trivial, but world-altering to the people who need it. My main problem is getting people who need these little machines to know how to find me.
- cdelsolar 3y ago
  Wow.. what kind of an input? I sometimes want to get back into hardware.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
    12V signal from an external device.

gomox 3y ago

If it doesnt work for B2B then you should make one for plants at home (i've been looking for a bluetooth-like "this plant needs watering" thingy for a while and haven't found a good choice).

aaronax 3y ago
Ecowitt sensors are well done in my experience and they have a soil sensor product. Works with HomeAssistant too.
sokoloff 3y ago
I've been happy with our "North Flower Care" BLE plant monitor. Monitors light (which is not useful IMO for an indoor plant), moisture, temperature, and soil fertility. There's a companion app that can record the data and correlate it with what the plant you've configured finds ideal. I paid $11 for it, which is a lot more reasonable than the current $30, but if it helps a plant you like grow... I don't actively monitor it with an automation, but I recall poking at it with one of the NRF apps and seem to recall that the data format was open enough that you could monitor it outside the official app.
folmar 3y ago
Xiami Flora should be good enough and widely supported (Home Assistant and similar). Sends simple BLE packets.
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
The "problem" with that is that typically an item that a business will happily pay $200 for can only be sold to a home customer for $10. Selling consumer items is a good example of things that require scale.

jonny_eh 3y ago

> We have an installer in town who made the into to that customer Excuse me? Could you please rewrite that one?