WanderSoil — Comprehensive Spec v1.0
Canonical product spec. For SOP artifact set see _MANIFEST.md. For the running decision log see DECISIONS.md.
Product: WanderSoil (solar-charged outdoor garden probe — moisture, temperature, EC, light) SKU: single SKU WV-SOIL-STD ($79 Standard retail; $69 Founding; $49 Nonprofit) Category: WV-SOIL (outdoor soil + ambient sensor; LoRa community mesh primary) Primary protocol: LoRa 915 MHz (US) / 868 MHz (EU) point-to-point + community mesh; BLE 5.0 commissioning; opt-in WiFi for direct OpenWeatherMap / WeatherKit / Home Assistant Date: 2026-04-24 Revision: v1.0-candidate
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1. Product premise
What it is: the outdoor garden stake that knows the soil. A slim, beautiful, solar-powered probe that lives in a garden bed and reports moisture, soil temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), ambient light, and barometric pressure to the household and (opt-in) to a community soil-aggregation map.
Why it exists: the consumer soil-sensor category is dominated by:
- Cheap throwaway plastic stakes (Xiaomi Mi Flora $20-40; 1-year battery; no mesh; cloud-required)
- Industrial single-purpose probes (Vegetronix $100-200; DC-powered; no display; integrator product)
- Garden-system-locked sensors (Gardena $129+; locked to Gardena gateway; subscription pressure)
- Weather-station bundles (Ecowitt WH51 $30; multipoint but monochrome data; weather-first)
None of them ship with:
- Solar harvest (not a coin cell that dies in 12 months)
- LoRa community mesh (not WiFi-locked to a single home network)
- Identity-stripped data export (not tied to a vendor cloud account)
- 7-year parts + open STL + Ambassador assembly + 60/30/10 Community Pool
- Cross-product irrigation triggers (WanderGarden) without a vendor-lock gateway
- Apple WeatherKit + OpenWeatherMap garden-contribution one-way export
- Premium industrial-design language matched to an indoor-product family (cream + saffron)
WanderSoil fills every one of those gaps at $79 — within $20 of the Mi Flora category average, with vastly more durable hardware + open ecosystem.
Distinguish from siblings:
- WanderBreath — indoor premium-shelf air monitor; mains-powered cylinder; Matter-over-WiFi
- WanderAway Trail — emergency beacon + LoRa + GNSS; personal carry; subscription-free LoRa baseline
- WanderGarden — sprinkler / valve / irrigation controller (companion product; WanderSoil is the trigger source)
- WanderStation — community-mesh hub + outdoor weather aggregator (companion product; WanderSoil contributes data)
- WanderSoil — the dedicated outdoor garden stake, single SKU, solar + LoRa mesh, no mains, no Matter, no display
Who it serves (audience-explicit, per Standard 3):
- Home gardeners growing food + flowers who want soil truth
- Apartment-balcony container-gardeners (LoRa range supports apartment-to-community-mesh telemetry)
- HAVEN safehouse + community-garden deployments (bulk Mission Partner pricing; food-sovereignty programs)
- Trans-clinic / DV-shelter gardens (growing food + therapeutic gardening; same Mission Partner pricing)
- Permaculture + market-gardener prosumers (3-10 stakes per plot; LoRa mesh aggregates)
- WanderGarden owners who want soil-driven irrigation triggers (Mode 3)
- Apple WeatherKit / OpenWeatherMap data contributors who want anonymized hyperlocal soil reports
- Anyone who has bought a Mi Flora and watched the battery die in 9 months
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2. Architecture — single SKU
2.1 WanderSoil (`WV-SOIL-STD`) — $79 retail
Form factor: slim vertical garden stake, ~250 mm tall × ~28 mm OD. Three slim stainless steel capacitive moisture probes at the bottom; cream-anodized aluminum cylindrical body in the middle; integrated solar panel cell on top; saffron LED ring just below solar; saffron pinstripe upper bezel.
- MCU: Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8 (16 MB flash + 8 MB PSRAM) — shared with WanderBreath + WanderAir Monitor; mature ESPHome + LoRa drivers
- PMIC + power: TI BQ25180 single-cell USB-C / solar charger (shared with WanderAway Lite/Trail) + TI TPS65086100 multi-rail PMIC for 3.3 V / 1.8 V rails (shared platform)
- LoRa radio: Semtech SX1262 (industry-standard; shared with WanderAway, Meshtastic-compatible)
- Solar panel: Maxeon C60 5 W monocrystalline IBC cell (shared with WanderAway Ultra) under sapphire-glass cover (Swiss Jewel Co; ~5 W peak in direct sun, harvest target ~1.2-1.8 W under typical 4 h-direct-sun day)
- Battery: Li-ion 18650 single-cell, Samsung INR18650-30Q (3000 mAh, 15 A continuous; shared with WanderAway), user-replaceable T10-Torx access panel
- Capacitive moisture probes (×3): stainless-steel capacitive sensing pads, 304 SS body, ~3 mm OD, ~150 mm insertion depth, 120° spaced for soil-volume-averaged moisture; capacitive (NOT resistive — resistive probes corrode within months in EC-rich soil)
- Soil temperature: Maxim DS18B20 1-Wire digital sensor (industry-standard; ±0.5 °C accuracy; thermal-paste mounted to one of the probe SS bodies for soil-temp read at root depth)
- EC (electrical conductivity / soil salinity / nutrient proxy): custom EC head — two stainless electrodes (3.16 mm spacing) driven with AC excitation; reports µS/cm (linear up to 5000 µS/cm; useful range 0-3000 µS/cm for typical home garden soil)
- Ambient light: Vishay VEML7700 ambient light sensor (lux + UV index proxy; mounted under sapphire window; tells the user "this corner of the bed gets full sun" vs "shaded")
- Soil temp + ambient temp + RH + pressure: Bosch BMP390 barometric (shared with WanderAway) — air pressure + ambient air temp at the stake's solar-cap level
- Connectivity: LoRa 915 MHz (US) / 868 MHz (EU) primary + BLE 5.0 commissioning + opt-in WiFi 4 (2.4 GHz) for direct OpenWeatherMap / WeatherKit / HA upload
- Status indicator: saffron LED ring of 6× Cree CLM3C-AKA single LEDs in a ring (ring rather than strip — visible at multiple angles; daylight-readable at typical garden viewing distances)
- Input: single tactile button (Omron B3F or equivalent) under T10-removable cap; short-press wakes display+report; long-press toggles "garden tour mode" (LED ring shows current moisture as fill-percentage); 10-sec hold = factory reset
- Chassis: 5052 aluminum cylindrical body, type II anodize, matte cream — same finish family as WanderBreath. Saffron pinstripe upper bezel (anodized contrast band). Sapphire-glass solar cover (~28 mm OD disc). Stainless probes via 316L SS welded base joints. Gore PMV-001 pressure-equalization vent. Silicone Shore 70A face O-ring at probe-base interface + aluminum-body interface. Overmolded TPE cable-gland bumper at probe entry.
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3. Three-mode operation principle enforcement
Per _STANDALONE-AND-PLATFORM-INTEGRATION.md. WanderSoil supports all three modes simultaneously per [rule: dual-mode].
Mode 1 — Standalone (no other purchases, no internet, no phone)
- Solar + LoRa point-to-point only. Plant the stake in the dirt; press the button; it joins any in-range LoRa mesh (Meshtastic-compatible) or runs solo
- Saffron LED ring displays:
- Solid (saffron, 1 LED) = healthy moisture
- Pulse (saffron, 1 LED) = approaching dry threshold
- Blink (saffron, 1 LED) = dry (irrigation suggested)
- Ring fill (long-press) = moisture as fill-percentage (1-6 LEDs lit = 0-100%)
- Rapid blink (saffron, all 6 LEDs) = sensor fault (probe corrosion or firmware fault)
- No phone required. No cloud. No account. The stake works as a passive moisture indicator forever.
- 6-month ring buffer on 16 MB flash; user can plug into a computer over USB-C (under T10 cap) and read CSV directly (Standard 4 transparency)
- LoRa peer-to-peer: stake-to-stake telemetry (a 2-stake garden's stakes can report to each other and average their data) without any hub
- Button: short-press wakes display+report; long-press = garden tour mode (ring fill); 10-sec hold = factory reset
Mode 2 — Industry-integrated (Matter-via-bridge / HA / Apple WeatherKit / OpenWeatherMap)
- Matter (via WanderStation hub bridge): WanderSoil itself does NOT speak Matter natively (Matter-over-Thread on a solar-LoRa device is overkill); WanderStation hub re-publishes WanderSoil readings as Matter
RelativeHumiditySoilMeasurement (custom cluster pending Matter 1.4 outdoor) for Apple Home / Google Home / Alexa. Decision rationale in DECISIONS D-04.
- Home Assistant (first-class via ESPHome upstream
wandersoil component): auto-discovery via mDNS when WiFi mode is enabled OR via WanderStation MQTT when LoRa-only
- Apple WeatherKit garden contribution (opt-in, post-2027-Q1 partnership): one-way anonymized soil-moisture + soil-temp + ambient lux export to WeatherKit's regional aggregation; contributes to "garden conditions" hyperlocal data
- OpenWeatherMap soil-aggregation (opt-in): one-way anonymized export to OWM's experimental soil-data feed (similar to PurpleAir's PM2.5 community contribution model)
- Direct WiFi Mode (opt-in): if user has WiFi available at the garden, WanderSoil can speak directly to OpenWeatherMap / HA without WanderStation; LoRa stays on as backup
- Setup time: <2 min via BLE pairing in WanderVerse app; LoRa community-mesh discovery automatic
Mode 3 — WanderVerse-native (with WanderGarden + WanderStation)
- WanderSoil + WanderGarden sprinkler/valve: when soil moisture < user-set threshold (default 25% volumetric water content for clay-soil planters; tuned per soil profile), WanderSoil emits a LoRa event; WanderStation routes to WanderGarden; WanderGarden runs sprinkler / drip / valve cycle for user-set duration. Latency target: <60 sec from threshold cross to sprinkler activation.
- WanderSoil + WanderStation community mesh: opt-in anonymized contribution to neighborhood soil-aggregation map. Useful for community gardens, regional drought tracking, hyperlocal climate analytics.
- WanderSoil + WanderBand (gardening user): if user is wearing WanderBand and is in the garden + soil is dry + ambient lux is bright, WanderBand surfaces "your tomatoes are thirsty — water on your way out?" — Mode 3 cross-product delight.
- WanderSoil + WanderRouter / WanderStation HVAC pollen integration: ambient lux + barometric trends contribute to WanderRouter outdoor-sensor fusion (when WanderRouter is computing wildfire / pollen / outdoor-AQI).
- HAVEN community-garden deployment: bulk-config preset; WanderStation aggregates 20-50 stakes for a community-garden program; food-sovereignty data contribution.
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4. Feature matrix summary
| Feature | WanderSoil |
|---|
| Capacitive moisture (×3 probes, 120°) | yes |
| Soil temperature (DS18B20, root-depth) | yes |
| Soil electrical conductivity (EC, µS/cm) | yes |
| Ambient light (Vishay VEML7700, lux) | yes |
| Ambient temp + barometric pressure (BMP390) | yes |
| Solar harvest (Maxeon C60 5 W under sapphire) | yes |
| 18650 user-replaceable Li-ion (Samsung 30Q) | yes |
| LoRa 915/868 MHz primary | yes |
| BLE 5.0 commissioning | yes |
| WiFi 4 (opt-in, direct OpenWeatherMap / HA / WeatherKit) | yes |
| Saffron LED status ring (6× Cree CLM3C-AKA) | yes |
| Tactile button under T10 cap | yes |
| Matter (via WanderStation bridge) | yes |
| Home Assistant native (ESPHome upstream) | yes |
| Apple WeatherKit garden contribution (opt-in) | yes |
| OpenWeatherMap soil-aggregation (opt-in) | yes |
| WanderGarden sprinkler trigger (Mode 3) | yes |
| WanderStation community mesh (Mode 3) | yes |
| 6-month ring buffer | yes |
| User-chosen cloud backup (anonymized) | yes |
| Identity-aware-by-omission | yes |
| 7-year parts + firmware | yes (probes are wear items — see §8) |
| Open STL chassis + probe-mount frame (CC-BY-SA) | yes |
| Ambassador-assembled | yes |
| 60/30/10 Community Pool | yes |
| 2-year recommended probe-recalibration cadence | yes |
| IP67 rating (probe section IP68 by burial design) | yes |
| UV-stable enclosure (ASTM G155 1000h validated at DVT) | yes |
| -20 °C to +60 °C operation | yes |
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5. Identity-aware-by-omission — enforcement
This is a Platform Standard 3 line, kept proportionate to the product surface.
Never-present capabilities in WanderSoil:
- Cameras (zero — RGB or IR)
- Microphones
- Presence sensors (no PIR, no radar, no mmWave, no ToF — that is WanderSense's job; WanderSoil doesn't even know whether the gardener is present)
- Gait analysis
- Biometric ID of any kind
- Cellular trackable IMEI
- BLE advertising that identifies the household (post-commissioning, BLE goes silent unless user actively pairs)
Data that leaves the unit:
- Soil readings (moisture %, soil temp °C, EC µS/cm, ambient lux, ambient temp °C, baro pressure hPa)
- Device self-diagnostics (firmware version, sensor health, signal strength, battery SoC, solar harvest rate)
- Anonymized when optional cloud sync / WeatherKit / OpenWeatherMap is enabled — no household ID, no precise coordinates beyond city-level grid (rounded to 0.5° = ~50 km cells)
Data that NEVER leaves the unit:
- Anything that could identify the household
- Precise GPS coordinates of the stake (opt-in WeatherKit / OWM contributions are quantized to 0.5° city-grid)
- Patterns inferable as occupancy (none exist on a soil sensor — but firmware quantizes report cadence to coarsest-acceptable resolution as a defense-in-depth measure)
Anonymized cloud export — the canonical guarantee:
"If you opt into cloud backup, your data goes to your storage of choice (iCloud / Google Drive / Dropbox / Nextcloud / self-hosted S3). When community soil-aggregation is enabled (also opt-in), only city-level aggregated readings leave the device. The household ID is never linked to a reading."
Identity-aware relevance — minimal: WanderSoil is an outdoor garden device with low survivor-relevance. The "identity-aware default thresholds" that matter on indoor IAQ + dating + comms products do not have an analog on a soil sensor. Honored briefly per [rule: identity-aware] via:
- Encrypted LoRa packets (no plaintext household ID over mesh)
- Opt-in WeatherKit / OWM contributions (default off)
- Survivor / DV / hostile-state user: same defaults; no extra warning needed (a soil sensor in the dirt doesn't expose anything)
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6. Pricing + margin (detail in `BOM-platform.csv`)
Target FOB costs + retail (1k-unit volume)
| SKU | FOB landed | Assembly (Ambassador) | Full FOB | Founding | Standard | Nonprofit |
|---|
| WanderSoil | $26.10 | $2.50 (12 min) | $28.60 | $69 | $79 | $49 |
Margins at Standard retail: ~64%. Healthy — single SKU + shared platform components + low-NRE form factor delivers strong unit economics.
60/30/10 enforcement: gross margin allocates per Community Pool spec. Example Std: $79 retail → $50.40 gross → 60% Ambassador wages portion ($1.50 per unit hourly direct + benefits/training overhead amortized) + 10% PrideFund ($0.25 per unit) + 30% Community Pool ($15.10 per unit). See BOM-platform.csv for full breakdown.
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7. Configurability / modularity (see `CONFIGURATOR.md` full matrix)
Per-order axes:
- Pinstripe color: saffron default; community-printed CC-BY-SA bezel rings for advanced order
- Probe set: standard (3 probes) default; Pro probe upgrade (titanium probes for long-term EC-rich soil — $29) optional add-on (NOT a separate SKU; same WanderSoil with upgraded probe head)
- Mounting: garden-stake default (push-into-soil); planter-pot bracket add-on (for container gardens; $9); raised-bed clamp add-on ($14)
- Ambassador signature: standard card / Lux glyph etched aluminum ($49)
- Custom engraving on aluminum body: name or quote ($29)
- Extended warranty: 1-year base / 3-year extended ($24)
- WanderAssist subscription: optional $9/mo (free lifetime for Founding Members)
- HAVEN community-garden bulk preset: opt-in for Mission Partners
Upgrade paths:
- Probe replacement (wear item): user-DIY swap via T10-removable probe head; $19 spare probe kit; 5-min DIY
- 2-yr probe recalibration: send-back service ($25 + shipping); Ambassador uses bench-cal fixture for capacitive + EC drift
- 18650 cell swap: user-DIY via T10 cap; $9 spare cell; 2-min DIY
- Solar window scratch repair: send-back ($25 + sapphire window cost)
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8. Assembly + service
- All units Ambassador-assembled per WanderVerse Standard 1
- Ambassador signature card in every unit (QR to Ambassador's page)
- Lux glyph etched aluminum option — $49 add-on at order
- 7-year parts for structural components (chassis, PCB, MCU, LoRa radio, solar panel, sapphire window, battery holder, base, sealing system)
- Wear items NOT in 7-year: capacitive moisture probes (2-yr recalibration recommended; 5-yr replacement typical in EC-rich soil); EC electrodes (corrosion-prone in salty soil; replacement kit available); 18650 cell (5-yr typical capacity threshold for solar-charge cycling)
- Send-back repair: 5-7 business days typical turnaround; $25 service fee out-of-warranty
- DIY-friendly: all fasteners T10 Torx (not Pentalobe); chassis open-STL; published schematics; probe head modular
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9. Timeline
| SKU | EVT | DVT | PVT / first customer ship |
|---|
| WanderSoil | 2027-Q1 | 2027-Q2 | **2027-Q3** |
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10. Why this product wins
1. Solar harvest — outlives Mi Flora 5× over (5-yr typical 18650 vs 9-12-month coin cell death) 2. LoRa community mesh — works without WiFi at the garden; ties into WanderStation neighborhood mesh 3. Three capacitive probes (not resistive) — corrosion-resistant; multi-axis soil sampling; EC-soil-friendly 4. EC sensor head — most consumer soil sensors skip nutrients; WanderSoil reports salinity/nutrient proxy 5. Identity-stripped data export — Apple WeatherKit + OpenWeatherMap contributions are anonymized; no Gardena cloud lock-in 6. Premium industrial design + ID coherence — cream + saffron family with WanderBreath; not a cheap plastic stake 7. Cross-product irrigation triggers (Mode 3) — WanderSoil → WanderGarden sprinkler integration is built-in, not IFTTT-glued 8. 7-year parts + open STL + Ambassador-assembled + 60/30/10 — repair + supported-employment + community pool 9. No subscription paywall — cloud is opt-in; LoRa baseline forever 10. Single SKU — focus discipline. No Lite/Pro/Ultra sprawl; one beautiful stake at $79.
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Canonical spec. All 10 SOP stages processed. Engineering handoff-ready.