# rbaron/b-parasite

🌱💧 An open source DIY soil moisture sensor

Repository: https://github.com/rbaron/b-parasite
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/b-parasite
Language: C
License Family: other
Topics: ble, nrf52, sensor, bluetooth-low-energy, iot, soil-moisture, soil-moisture-sensor
Last push: 2026-05-23T13:28:49+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 76/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 83, release rhythm 53, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2030, "days_push": 102, "days_rel": 102, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2432, forks 184 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:51.170415+00:00)

## What it is
An open source DIY soil moisture sensor with ambient temperature, humidity, and light sensing, built on nRF52840/nRF52833 hardware and powered by a CR2032 coin cell. The repository hosts open hardware designs plus firmware samples that broadcast sensor readings over BLE (Home Assistant/BTHome compatible) or Zigbee.

## Use cases
- monitor houseplant soil moisture wirelessly
- build a DIY BLE soil moisture sensor
- integrate plant sensors with Home Assistant
- measure ambient temperature and humidity with a coin cell sensor
- calibrate a capacitive soil moisture sensor
- experiment with Zigbee on nRF52

## When to choose
- you want an open source, open hardware plant monitoring sensor
- you need multi-year battery life from a coin cell
- you use Home Assistant with BLE or Zigbee integrations
- you want to learn nRF52 embedded development

## When to avoid
- you need a ready-made commercial product rather than a DIY PCB you assemble and flash
- you need Wi-Fi or cloud connectivity instead of BLE/Zigbee
- you require a formal software license for the code

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: iot, embedded, sdk
- domain: iot, embedded-systems, hardware
- platform: embedded, iot
- tags: soil-moisture-sensor, ble, nrf52, zigbee, open-hardware, firmware, home-assistant, bthome, cr2032, diy-electronics

## Member repositories
- rbaron/b-parasite (main) score 76

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:51.170415+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:31:17.011763+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rbaron/b-parasite (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:51.170415+00:00, sha 02b839cdb2ec)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.