Soil Moisture, Temperature & EC Sensor EM500-SMTC – Milesight (LoRaWAN)

The Milesight EM500-SMTC measures three soil parameters that directly impact irrigation and crop outcomes: moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity (EC). Moisture shows what’s happening in the root zone (not just what the weather forecast says), temperature affects growth and nutrient uptake, and EC gives practical insight into salinity and fertilizer concentration. Together, these readings help teams move from “watering by schedule” to “watering by condition.”

The sensor is designed for long-term outdoor deployments. The transceiver is IP67-rated, while the probe is IP68-rated and built to handle corrosive soils. In real installations, the probe is buried where measurements matter, while the wireless module can be mounted on a pole, wall, or DIN rail.

Concrete real-world examples:

Smart irrigation in fields and orchards: trigger irrigation based on actual soil moisture thresholds to reduce overwatering and save water.

Greenhouses and tunnels: stabilize crop conditions by aligning watering and fertigation with soil/substrate EC and temperature.

Turf and sports grounds: maintain consistent moisture to reduce dry spots and avoid unnecessary irrigation runs.

Nurseries and container plants: monitor substrate moisture and EC to prevent stress from “too dry” or “too salty.”

Research plots: run repeatable measurement campaigns with on-device storage supporting traceability.

Wireless reporting runs on LoRaWAN (EU868) and supports reliability features like on-device storage (1,000 records), retransmission, and data retrieval, plus threshold alarms and a temperature change alarm. Configuration is quick via NFC, or via USB Type-C and downlink.