Connect with Plants: Smart plant sensor FYTA Beam

Daniel

Is your thumb not quite as green as ours either? No problem! The smart plant sensor FYTA Beam lets your plants talk to you.

[ˈfyːta] -phyta: [1] Botany, taxonomy. Sounds like science, and it is. The team of the Berlin-based company FYTA consists of developers, plant and data scientists, and creatives. And from the later founders’ own cry for help to make things better for their home-grown plants, the product FYTA Beam was born. A nifty little Bluetooth sensor that keeps an eye on your plant.

I understand you

Your FYTA Beam Sensor snuggles up to your plant in the pot and monitors soil moisture, nutrient levels, temperature and light levels. And because the sensor and the plant have already gotten to know each other beforehand via the FYTA “dating” app, the FYTA Beam knows exactly what the plant partner likes. If the plant’s needs want to be satisfied, Beam calls you over and informs you what needs to be done so that everyone is well again.

With its huge database of over 1,400 plants, the FYTA app provides real-time and long-term plant-specific analysis, as well as specific action instructions for healthy plant growth and care. Whether for green or flowering plants. Even herbs, as well as vegetables, are recorded in the FYTA database. This way you’ll become a pro and know early on when your loved ones need water, fertilizer, or maybe even a more suitable location. And if your plant does get sick, the FYTA app will help you with that, too. Take a few photos of the plant leaves and the suspicious spots, upload them via Health Check in the app and get valuable help to avoid worse. All this without a subscription!

More technology, more sustainable and more accurate

FYTA Beam Sensor has the dimensions of 56 × 32 mm, for the body molded from recycled plastic, 75 mm is the rod length, which is best suited for a pot height of 10 to 15 cm. The bottom bars are interchangeable and additionally available in different lengths from 3 to 20 cm via the FYTA Shop. The sensor is primarily powered by the built-in solar cell and also has a CR2032 coin cell, so more sustainable up to 2 years. The FYTA Beam can be used from 0 °C to 40 °C and is of course resistant to irrigation water.

The sensor detects soil moisture and salt/fertilizer for the entire volume of soil in the pot. Not just between two points, like most other sensors. When your plants are large or growing, you can replace the bottom rods with appropriately longer rods. The light is measured as the plant perceives it. Not only light/dark, but the entire light spectrum, RGB and infrared. The sensor communicates with your smartphone or hub via energy-saving Bluetooth 5.0.

Connect with Plants

And while I’m mentioning “hub.” Of course, this is not mandatory, because the Beam sensors also talk directly via Bluetooth with your iPhone. However, the hub brings a few advantages that should not be neglected. For example, you can check on how your plants are doing from outside the home and receive notifications if something is wrong. Over-the-air (OTA) firmware updates are received automatically by your sensors. Moreover, the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi hub also provides the possibility to use additional services such as IFTTT and FYTA’s OpenAPI. At the same time, the small hub measures only 30 mm in height and 40 mm in diameter. Power is supplied via a USB-C port.

And while I’m mentioning “OpenAPI”. Plant sensors have been generating a lot of interest in our Apple Home community for a long time. However, they also reach their limits. This is because there are no HomeKit sensors that can do this out of the box. However, Homebridge users know the way to integrate the previous Xiaomi Mi Flower Care sensors from the Far East into the Apple ecosystem via this path. However, since there is no official API, i.e. interface, to reliably capture the values and Bluetooth can also be a challenge with Homebridge, this is extremely tricky at times with the Xiaomi sensors.

The FYTA team is very committed to the “Connect with Plants” theme, as also demonstrated by the open developer interface. The foundation is laid for integration into your smart home, for example to switch on the plant light, activate the humidifier or open the blinds. Thus, there should not be much in the way of a Homebridge plugin. The FYTA team is happy to exchange ideas with interested developers and offers a suitable platform on the Discord server.

Since I started using the FYTA Beam sensors, I also talk to my plants more. If the plant calls me, it first gets an apology, something to drink and a cuddle. This is good for the well-being of the plants and also for my karma. 🥰🌱

After the past exchange with the team around FYTA, we trust in the commitment that the FYTA Beam with its hub will also soon join our Apple HomeKit home thanks to OpenAPI and a Homebridge plugin. This creates exciting automations, so that, for example, the plant lamp is automatically switched, the humidifier is activated or an LED bulb changes color to notify when the soil is too dry.

You can get an FYTA Beam sensor and the hub directly in the online store of the Berlin company for 39.99 EUR each. If you decide on a set that also includes a soil test pH kit, you start at 109.99 EUR for a set of 3. For the sincere plant lovers, there is the set of 5 including pH kit and Wi-Fi Hub for the price of 219.99 EUR, and the set of 10 for 399.99 EUR.