• Connect Vin Red Wire to the power supply, 3-5V is fine. Use the same voltage that the microcontroller logic is based off of. For most Arduino's, that is 5V. If you have 3.3V logic, use 3V
  • Connect GND Black Wire to common power/data ground
  • Connect the SCL Green Wire pin to the I2C clock SCL pin on your Arduino. On an UNO & '328 based Arduino, this is also known as A5, on a Mega it is also known as digital 21 and on a Leonardo/Micro, digital 3
  • Connect the SDA White Wire pin to the I2C data SDA pin on your Arduino. On an UNO & '328 based Arduino, this is also known as A4, on a Mega it is also known as digital 20 and on a Leonardo/Micro, digital 2

Install Adafruit_seesaw library

To begin reading sensor data, you will need to install the Adafruit_seesaw library (code on our github repository). It is available from the Arduino library manager so we recommend using that.

From the IDE open up the library manager...

Search for Adafruit seesaw, and click Install

Now from within the IDE, open up the Adafruit seesaw Soil Sensor Example sketch:

Open up the serial console at 115200 baud to see the temperature and capacitive reading

Try touching the body of the sensor to make the 'moisture' measurement go up. In soil, you'll see this range from about 300 to 500, but make sure to test it by placing in a pot of soil and looking at the serial console to get an idea of what the range is. Note that it does depend on how packed/loose the soil is!

The temperature reading is only on the chip itself. It's not terribly precise but it is within a few degrees. Good for getting a basic sense of how the temperature is moving around the house

This guide was first published on Nov 21, 2018. It was last updated on Mar 27, 2024.

This page (Arduino Test) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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