LoRaWAN® 7-in-1 Soil Sensor

A soil probe that measures seven properties — moisture, temperature, electrical conductivity, pH and the nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium — and a long-range radio that sends them over LoRaWAN® to a gateway kilometres away. The MacSync LSS X5 is Macnman's: a stainless-steel probe in the root zone and a battery or solar transmitter above it, with threshold alerts on every parameter.

From the datasheet: soil moisture 0–100% VWC at ±5% and 0.1% resolution; soil temperature −45 to +115 °C at ±0.5 °C; EC 0–10,000 µS/cm at ±3% of full scale; pH 3–9 at ±0.3; nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium 0–1,999 mg/kg each at ±2% of full scale and 1 mg/kg resolution, as a trend estimation. Salinity is followed through the EC reading.

It cannot replace a soil test, and the datasheet does not claim it can: it calls the N, P, K readings a trend estimation. Independent tests of this probe class (University of Bologna, Horticulturae 2026; ETASR 2026) found the outputs follow the soil's electrical response rather than individual nutrients. They are reliable for direction — did the fertigation dose arrive, which way are nutrients moving between lab tests, which block differs — and should be anchored once per field against a lab sample. Keep the laboratory test for the season's fertiliser plan and never set a dose from the sensor alone.

Electrically. The stainless-steel electrodes measure the soil's electrical response — moisture, conductivity and pH — and the N, P, K values are estimated from that response; the datasheet does not describe a separate nutrient chemistry, and no 7-in-1 probe on the market measures the ions selectively. That is the reason the figures are a trend: they move with the fertiliser and salt in the root zone, which is useful, but they are not an assay of each nutrient.

The probe reports bulk EC: the conductivity of the soil, water and air mixture around the electrodes, in µS/cm. Pore-water EC, the salinity of the water the roots actually see, is higher and is what a lab reports on a saturated paste or extract. Bulk EC rises and falls with moisture as well as with salt, so read EC alongside the moisture value from the same probe: a jump in EC with no change in moisture is fertiliser or salt arriving.

No. That is the probe's soil-temperature measurement range from the datasheet. The transmitter above ground operates from −40 to +80 °C, which covers every Indian field; the probe in the ground sees a much narrower band in practice.

The datasheet specifies the MacSync LSS X5 for soil only; there is no liquid specification for the probe. For water EC and pH, Macnman makes LoRaWAN water EC and pH sensors with datasheets on the documentation site; for a nutrient solution, ask support before ordering.

The datasheet publishes the probe's measurement specifications; it does not publish a field validation study, and this page does not claim one. The honest route is the one we recommend to every buyer: a pilot of a few probes on your own blocks, with a lab sample from each probe's spot at commissioning and at the end of the season. We help set that up and are glad to publish the results with a partner institution.

At least one per zone — one irrigation valve zone, polyhouse bed group or trial treatment — placed in the representative part of the block, and two where the block is known to vary; a second probe at a lower depth shows whether water is passing the roots. University extension guidance on soil sensors makes the same point: install within the effective rooting depth and use more than one location per management zone to capture variability.

The LSS X2 is a capacitive probe that measures moisture and temperature only and states ±3% in the dry range (0–53% VWC) and ±5% above; the LSS X5's electrode probe states ±5% across the range and adds EC, pH and the NPK trend. If irrigation timing is the only question, the X2 is the better instrument for it; if fertigation, salinity and pH matter from the same spot, the X5 answers all of them from one probe.

Kilometres, depending on terrain, canopy and antenna height. The sensor transmits at 23 dBm with −137 dBm sensitivity on LoRaWAN®; a MacLink Gen-2 gateway on a farm building typically covers the fields, orchards and plantation sections around it. The coverage calculator on this site gives a first estimate and the Maya app's Ping test confirms each spot before the probe is buried.

The 19 Ah battery variant is rated about 2 years at 5-minute reports, 4 years at 15-minute reports and 7 or more years at hourly reports (datasheet estimates). The solar variant pairs a 20 W panel with an 8,000 mAh rechargeable battery and is recharged daily, for sites that want a reading every few minutes indefinitely. Battery level is sent in every uplink.

Open sun and fast reporting point to the solar variant (8820); shade, tree canopy, polyhouse posts or hourly reporting point to the 19 Ah battery variant (8821), which runs for years without attention. Under canopy a panel cannot charge, so plantations usually take the battery variant and put the gateway on the factory roof.

In the active root zone: around 15 cm for most row crops and vegetables, 30 to 60 cm for orchards and plantations, and about 5 cm to the side of a drip emitter so the probe sees the wetted bulb rather than the emitter. Push the probe into undisturbed soil and firm the soil back so no air gap sits against the electrodes. A second probe at a lower depth shows whether water is passing the roots.

One per management unit is the usual start: one per irrigation valve zone, polyhouse bed group or trial treatment, placed in the representative part of the block rather than at its edge. A pilot of a few probes on the blocks that behave differently settles the count before the rest is ordered. Send us the block list and we size it.

Yes. The probe uses corrosion-resistant stainless-steel electrodes and reads in clay, black cotton, red, sandy, saline and wet soils and in cocopeat. Heavy clay and high-organic soils are where a lab comparison matters most for the pH and nutrient estimates; in saline ground the EC reading is itself the thing to watch, and a rising EC trend is the early warning.

Not by itself: the sensor measures and reports. Automation comes from a controller on the same network. A MacSet LX1 LoRaWAN controller switches a pump or a valve on the threshold the platform sends it, and the MacTalk variant of the LSS X5 talks device to device to a MacSet with no gateway on site.

Let it settle for 10 to 14 days after installation, then take a laboratory sample from the probe's spot and note the offset for pH and the N, P, K estimates for that field; repeat each season. The datasheet does not publish a field calibration procedure beyond the stated accuracies, so the comparison against a lab sample is how the estimates are anchored to your soil.

Threshold alerts on soil moisture, EC, pH, salinity and NPK: set a low and a high limit per parameter and the sensor reports the moment a reading crosses one, instead of waiting for the next interval. Reporting can be periodic, event-based or hybrid; sampling is configurable from 1 minute to 24 hours.

Yes. The LSS X5 joins any LoRaWAN® v1.0.4 network server — ChirpStack, The Things Network, Orbiwise, Netmore, MQTT platforms or a private LNS — by OTAA with pre-loaded keys, and the readings reach your farm platform or dashboard over MQTT or HTTPS. There is no mandatory Macnman cloud and no subscription.

IN865 for India, plus RU864, EU868, US915, AU915, KR920 and AS923, set when ordering. LoRaWAN in India uses the delicensed 865–867 MHz band, so a farm or a campus runs its own gateway without a spectrum licence; the device is WPC compliant and RoHS conforming.

The sensor needs a gateway within range; the gateway needs a backhaul, which is usually one SIM or the farm's broadband, not one per sensor. ChirpStack can run on the gateway itself, so readings and thresholds keep working on site when the backhaul drops and sync when it returns.

The probe and the seven readings are the same. The Wi-Fi version joins the 2.4 or 5 GHz network already in a polyhouse, nursery or campus and needs no gateway, but reaches about 100 m from an access point. The LoRaWAN version needs a gateway and reaches kilometres, which is what fields, orchards and plantations need. The Wi-Fi model is on its own page.

A soil NPK sensor reports the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium estimate (and usually temperature) only; a 7-in-1 adds moisture, EC and pH from the same probe. Since the NPK figures are a trend on either, the 7-in-1 is the more useful instrument: EC and moisture are the readings that explain what the NPK trend is doing. Macnman makes both; the NPK-only LSS X1 has its datasheet on the documentation site.

A complete sensor: the probe, the LoRaWAN transmitter, the battery or solar supply and the IP65 enclosure are one unit, configured from a phone. Bare 7-in-1 probes sold on RS485 need a logger, a power supply, an enclosure and code before they report anything; if you already have such a probe, the MacSync RS485 to LoRaWAN converter reads it.

Open the soil to root depth, push the probe into undisturbed soil and firm the soil back; mount the transmitter on a pole or a wall with the supplied clip and screws. Pair over Bluetooth with the Maya app to set the intervals, the alert limits and the LoRaWAN class, run a Ping to confirm the gateway, and the device joins by OTAA. No laptop, no cable, no trench.

Yes, with the optional IP68 cable extender listed in the datasheet's box contents, for a transmitter that must stand clear of machinery, flooding or the polyhouse film. State the distance when ordering.

The probe's stainless-steel electrodes are made to stay buried through irrigation, fertigation and salt; the transmitter is IP65 with an IP67 option and rated from −40 to +80 °C. Mount the transmitter above the flood line; the probe can stay in saturated soil.

The seven readings — moisture, temperature, EC, pH, N, P, K — with the battery level, in an AES-128 encrypted LoRaWAN® uplink, periodic or on a threshold event. Decoding is documented with the product; tell us your network server and we send the decoder for it.

The data is yours. The sensor sends to your own network server and from there to the farm platform, irrigation controller or dashboard you choose, over MQTT or HTTPS. Macnman supplies the hardware, the documentation and the decoder, not a mandatory cloud.

Yes. The probe goes into the bed, the grow bag or the pot at root depth and the transmitter mounts on a post. In a polyhouse an indoor Setu X1 gateway or the farm's MacLink covers the structures; where Wi-Fi already reaches every bed, the Wi-Fi 7-in-1 is the simpler system.

Yes, and it is a common use: one probe per treatment at the same depth, reporting every 15 minutes, gives an unbroken seven-parameter record for the season that exports from the network server as CSV or JSON. The BLE variant is used for spot readings and training.

Yes, with the MacTalk variants (8822 solar, 8823 battery). They talk device to device to a MacSet controller, which runs the rule locally — open the valve below a moisture threshold, close it above — with no gateway, server or internet on site.

The MacSync LSS X5 sensor with its probe, a mounting clip, mounting screws, the user manual and the warranty card. The IP68 cable extender and a power adapter are optional accessories ordered separately; the solar variant ships with its 20 W panel.

Yes. The MacSync LSS X5 is designed and manufactured in Pune, Maharashtra. It is WPC compliant for the IN865 band and conforms to RoHS; the datasheet states both.

The list of blocks with crop and irrigation method, which readings you will act on (moisture only, or EC, pH and nutrients as well), sun or shade at each point and the reporting interval you want, whether a LoRaWAN gateway and network server already exist, and the platform the data should reach. With that we confirm the variants, the count and the gateway position.

Yes, and it is the recommended way in: a few LSS X5 probes on the blocks that behave differently, one gateway, your own network server, for a season's irrigation cycle. The pilot kit on this site is that set; the rest of the farm joins the same gateway afterwards.