Xiaomi Mi Flora, Flower Care Review, Parrot Flower Power Clone

[bebecillo]

Hey guys, first time poster and longtime reader. I want to share my impressions with the Xiaomi Mi Flora/Flower Care since I could only find shitty reviews from india. (I'm on mobile so I will post in segments)

Product link: Xiaomi Huahuacaocao Flower Care Smart Monitor: full specifications, photo | Xiaomi-Mi.com

I got mine on aliexpress for usd $15 and shipped in two weeks to my country.

 

[bebecillo]

Packaging is elegant and simple. I went with this model over parrot flower power because it's almost 1/4 the price and both use the same database, altough Xiaomi's only has bluetooth so you can't monitor from work or other place unless you have a raspberri or another device as a relay

 

[bebecillo]

The Mi Flora is small and you will barely notice it. The devixe uses a CR2032 (watch) battery that the mfg. Claims to last six months. It has a rubber sealing but Xiaomi says it is not waterproof so probably rain will kill it.

The only downside I had with mine is that the cover is almost impossible to open, even with tweezers and my gf delicate hands. Xiaomi also sells a smart pot with the same technology but the price is almost double.

 

[bebecillo]

This device measures four critical items.

Light: measured realtime in lux and reported on mmol.

Soil Moisture: measured in relative humidity

Fertilizer levels: measured in microsiemens/cm

Temperature: measured in c/f

While this wont measure ph or npk levels electric conductivity is a very useful item and you get most of the data you need for a healthy plant.

Due to regulations cannabis appears with another name on the app but don't worry, it's bud. You link the device trough the app and it will automatically update its firmware and read values. Measurements are in real time with the app and the mi flora keeps a small log that gets uploaded to your phone and xiaomi account everytime you connect to the device.

The care index will tell you how good of a job youre making, but the device insists on telling me light levels are too low, yet light accumulation is beyond recommended levels. I think it's because of my led lights.

Reports will give you daily, weekly or monthly reports of your plant and each day will give you an hourly estimate regarding values.

 

[bebecillo]

Considering it's only usd $15 i would recommend this device to any user that wants a cheap and fun way to measure plant soil, temps and humidity. If you're more tech oriented a plethora of projects use the sensor output with small computers such as raspberry pi to automate different functions and you could have a dripping line to water the plants once the soil is dry and stop at x% or any other fun stuff. The only consideration is that there's a delay of 1-5 minutes regarding soil conductivity and moisture levels when you water or add nutes, so don't rush with water or nutes and go slow and steady.

If anyone has questions i'll happily answer.

 

[helgansven]

Thanks for posting this. I just bought one of these and was not having any luck finding info.

 

[bebecillo]

Anything you need just ask

 

[helgansven]

Anything you need just ask

Thanks, here's a question...

For the first time ever, Im using an LED light. I'm still in veg so am using the "blue/white" setting on the light. Back in the day, we used to bring the HPS right down to within a foot of the tops. Do you do this with your LED? Do you think will that help the light meter reading on the Flower Care app?

 

[bebecillo]

the closer the led to the flora is the better the reading will be, but the light meter isn't calibrated for LED so it's normal you get really low readings, don't worry about it

 

[helgansven]

Thanks again. Good advice!

 

[ShiftyBarks]

Anything you need just ask

Hi under which Name i can find Cannabis sativa in the App? Thx bro

 

[bebecillo]

Sorry for the super late reply, you can find cannabis as Eupatorium Dubium (as a chinese product, they can't use cannabis as a name)