<![CDATA[Introduction: Temperature monitoring is critical in hydroponic cultivation because it influences nutrient solubility, dissolved oxygen, and root uptake, yet low-cost digital sensors commonly used in Internet of Things (IoT) systems may experience accuracy degradation during long-term deployment. This study develops a low-cost IoT monitoring platform for nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponics and characterizes temperature-sensor drift under continuous operating conditions. Method: The system employed two redundant temperature sensors in the nutrient channel and one ambient sensor, with measurements timestamped, filtered, stored locally at the edge, and visualized through a cloud dashboard. Temperature data were recorded hourly for 40 days, producing 960 observations per sensor. Drift was evaluated from the deviation between the primary and redundant channel sensors using mean absolute error, maximum absolute deviation, standard deviation, drift onset, and estimated drift rate. Results and Discussion: The primary sensor showed a mean absolute deviation of 0.82 °C over the full monitoring period and a maximum deviation of 1.47 °C. Sensor agreement remained close during the first 10 days but diverged after approximately day 12, with late-period MAE increasing to 1.18 °C and an estimated drift rate of about 0.04 °C/day. Conclusion: Long-term drift in low-cost temperature sensors can materially affect hydroponic monitoring accuracy, and redundant sensing provides a practical baseline for future adaptive edge-based calibration methods.]]>
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