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Some sort of ''soil testing'' instrument. I want to make another.

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Posted by albert_135 (My Page) on
Mon, Feb 28, 11 at 16:16

Decades ago I bought a box of junk that had a ''soil testing'' instrument. It had a copper colored electrode and a silver colored electrode and a little plastic box with a gauge. I've no clue as to what it supposed to do.

But it was good for testing the moisture level in the soil of potted plants. Stick the electrodes in the soil and the gauge moved to crudely indicate the amount of moisture in the soil.

I got shipped out. The junk was tossed and time passed.

Now I am wondering if I could make another with some copper and aluminum and a multimeter?

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RE: Some sort of ''soil testing'' instrument. I want to make anot

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Albert,

It sounds like you are describing a "soil moisture meter" alright. Some also have a switch to read soil pH & ambient light, and they don't even require batteries. For soil measurements, they use dissimilar metals in the probes and measure the electrical potential between them - very small levels of voltage/current.

While you could experiment depending on the lowest range of your meter, you probably have to do a large sampling of measurements and create some sort of reference chart to interpret the results.

Considering you can buy these soil moisture meters from home-improvement stores in the garden department, for $5-10, I'd be more inclined to buy one!

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