This repo used to live under the open-homeautomation/miflora namespace and was originally created by @open-homeautomation.
This library lets you read sensor data from a Xiaomi Mi Flora plant sensor.
- Latest release download: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/miflora
- Build status: https://github.com/basnijholt/miflora/actions
- Test coverage: https://coveralls.io/github/basnijholt/miflora
It supports reading the different measurements from the sensor
- temperature
- moisture
- conductivity
- brightness
To use this library you will need a Bluetooth Low Energy dongle attached to your computer. You will also need a Xiaomi Mi Flora plant sensor.
As there is unfortunately no universally working Bluetooth Low Energy library for Python, the project currently offers support for two Bluetooth implementations:
- bluepy library
- bluez tools (deprecated, via a wrapper around gatttool)
- pygatt library
To use the bluepy library you have to install it on your machine, in most cases this can be done via:
pip3 install bluepy
Example to use the bluepy backend:
from miflora.miflora_poller import MiFloraPoller
from btlewrap.bluepy import BluepyBackend
poller = MiFloraPoller("some mac address", BluepyBackend)
This is the backend library to be used.
To use the bluez wrapper, you need to install the bluez tools on your machine. No additional python libraries are required. Some distributions moved the gatttool binary to a separate package. Make sure you have this binary available on your machine.
Example to use the bluez/gatttool wrapper:
from miflora.miflora_poller import MiFloraPoller
from btlewrap.gatttool import GatttoolBackend
poller = MiFloraPoller("some mac address", GatttoolBackend)
This backend should only be used, if your platform is not supported by bluepy.
If you have a Blue Giga based device that is supported by pygatt, you have to
install the bluepy library on your machine. In most cases this can be done via:
pip3 install pygatt
Example to use the pygatt backend:
from miflora.miflora_poller import MiFloraPoller
from btlewrap.pygatt import PygattBackend
poller = MiFloraPoller("some mac address", PygattBackend)
miflora depends on the btlewrap library. If you install miflora via PIP btlewrap will automatically be installed. If not, you will have to install btlewrap manually:
pip3 install btlewrap
Users frequently have problems with the communication between their Bluetooth dongle and the sensors. Here are the usual things to try.
While the battery usually lasts about a year indoor, it may also fail for unknown reasons before that. So the first thing to check if the battery is still good: take out the battery, wait 3 secs and put it back in. The light on the sensor should be flashing. If it is not: get a new battery.
The distance between Bluetooth dongle and sensor should be less than 5 meters. Try moving the sensor and dongle closer together and see if that solves the problem. If range is an issue, there are a few proxies/relays via MQTT available:
- Linux
- ESP32
If you're operating your sensors outside, make sure the sensor is protected against rain. The power of the battery is decreasing blow -10Β°C. Sou you might not get readings at that temperature. Also make sure that you have a Bluetooth dongle close by.
The Bluetooth LE communication is not always reliable. There might be outages due to other radio interferences. The standard solution is to try again or poll your sensor more often that you really need it. It's also the hardest issue to analyse and debug.
If you're using a Raspberry Pi, make sure, that you OS is up to date, including the latest kernel and firmware. There are sometimes useful Bluetooth fixes. Also make sure that you have a good power supply (3 A recommended) as this causes sporadic problems in many places.
please have a look at CONTRIBUTING.md
The following shows a selected list of projects using this library:
- https://github.com/ThomDietrich/miflora-mqtt-daemon - An MQTT Client/Daemon for Smart Home solution integration
- https://home-assistant.io/components/sensor.miflora/ - Integration in Home Assistant
- https://github.com/zewelor/bt-mqtt-gateway - A BT to MQTT gateway which support MiFlora sensors other devices
- https://github.com/ChristianKuehnel/plantgateway - A MQTT Client to relay sensor data