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Thanks...

I also bought three of the Imagintronix soil sensors and a base station (at plantcaretools.com).
My first experiences are not good:
The range is very limited: even outside with no walls and glass in between the distance between the sensor and the base station can be max 15 m1 (the manual states range = 100 m1 in open field..)
Also after a while some of the sensors don't give results any more: both "temperature out" and "wet soil %" give "--" in the display of the base station.

And I cannot get the data of the sensors in my Vera controller via RFXcom. RFXcom cannot find the sensors even though I flashed the latest firmware (v78) enabled protocol Lacrosse and put 1 sensor right next to the RCXcom (within 1 m1 distance).

I read in this topic that more people have bought these sensors. What are your experiences with the range and the strange readings sometimes ("--"). And how can I get the sensors connected to the RFXcom?

Same bad experience. Even At 10 meter I can hardly get any signal. Planning to extend de USB somehow to bring them closer. ( Garden inside The house). I have extended all antenna's of the sensors too but it hardly made a difference. Pity since it seemed a nice solution. I have dedicated that single rfxcom receiver to this setup so I expect it to have max reception too.

You can extend the transmit range of the soil sensor.
Remove the coil antenna inside the sensor and replace it by a 17,3cm wire. Drill a small hole in the top of the enclosure for the antenna wire. Make the sensor water tight again with some silicon sealant.

with this solution I have a distance of about 15 meter with 2 walls in between.

Bert, I did that already but no luck, 2/3 of the time, no reception.

466Mhz would it work as good on 433?

Worth the try. I see three options:

Better antenna (already using the older dipool?)
Longer antenna cable to bring the rfxcom closer. As far as I understand, this options is not a good one since extending the cable also looses power.
Bringing the USB device closer to the transmitters. Could be costly.

tuned to 446MHz but 434 will also be possible.

Is it an option to connect the RFXtrx on LAN:
for 1 USB device http://www.conrad.nl/nl/conrad-netwerk- ... 72161.html
for up to 4 USB devices using an additional USB hub: http://www.conrad.nl/nl/conrad-1-poorts ... f=Homepage

Ordered the USB extension. Should also help my VM setup
Thanks Bert. Will report back if a distance of a few meters fixes the issue.
Funny enough channel 1 seems to have better reception compared to the other 2.

Guess the antenna is the only option if you need to reach an outside garden.

As promised: Got the USB server today and got it working in 5 minutes. Reception is is good and all sensors report values. Lets see in the next 24 hours but it all looks great.

Conrad site shows it's not working using win8 !
Any recommendations for that or using Linux (Raspbian)?

It's working here with Win 8.1. I got the version where you can use a hub. Not very clear with model numbers.....
Lost one sensor last night that came back online today. Not even a meter away from the antenna. Only enabled protocol is LAC. Should be optimum, Bert?

Do you require a different version when you want to connect using a usb hub? I noticed using a powered hub the rfxtrx433e disconnects after a short time.

Rene, it seems so. Conrad has one for single USB use and the one I bought (conrad.nl/nl/conrad-1-poorts-met-hub-ne ... f=Homepage )
Still got only one USB poort but it mentioned as being able to support a USB hub.
With my next order I will also try the single USB version.