Navigation

    • Register
    • Login
    • OpenHardware.io
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    1. Home
    2. punter9
    • Profile
    • Following
    • Followers
    • Topics
    • Posts
    • Best
    • Groups

    punter9

    @punter9

    5
    Reputation
    47
    Posts
    699
    Profile views
    0
    Followers
    0
    Following
    Joined Last Online

    punter9 Follow

    Best posts made by punter9

    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      I have a couple soil sensors running with simple bolts in the ground. No two sensors will read the same in the same soil, but that is because they are just a relative setup not an accurate setup. Doing what is recommended above is necessary. Determine what % correlates to watering time on the plants. Once this is done it is set and forget.

      Also, on your batteries
      "The phenomenon itself is very real. If a NiCd battery is repeatedly charged after it has only been partially discharged it will develop a lower voltage and a lower capacity. Fortunately, this effect is reversible by conditioning NiCds."

      So I vote to help your poor cheap lamp batteries out by writing logic into your arduino that varies by battery voltage. You can write it in ranges

      battery > X volts report every Y minutes
      battery > Z volts report every P minutes
      battery > .....etc

      also to keep your battery in good shape you may consider every so many days ( 2 - 5 ) writing logic that says
      every Q days report every 20 seconds (or another interval that will drain battery) until battery voltage = min
      then
      sleep until battery voltage = max

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: This should be a simple one! Water level test (not on constantly)

      @mfalkvidd said:

      thanks! That makes a ton of sense. These forums are awesome, I really appreciate everybody

      posted in Troubleshooting
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      @flopp

      guys seriously this is just yet another reason to write your reporting interval based on battery voltage and time and not on time alone.

      You are using extremely cheap systems with cheap batteries of unknown age that are likely very prone to incur reduced capacity over shorter times and memory from discharge cycles.

      See the posts above. This really is one of the greatest ideas I have seen for monitoring, just needs a tweak

      With these findings I would set a floor voltage around 1-1.1 V for the arduino to go into sleep mode (find your own floor voltage by looking at your sleep discharge rate and length of night time).

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: "Error sending switch command, check device/hardware !"

      Adding a capacitor to the radio is what I needed to do! Made all the difference in the world!

      posted in Troubleshooting
      punter9
      punter9

    Latest posts made by punter9

    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      @flopp

      guys seriously this is just yet another reason to write your reporting interval based on battery voltage and time and not on time alone.

      You are using extremely cheap systems with cheap batteries of unknown age that are likely very prone to incur reduced capacity over shorter times and memory from discharge cycles.

      See the posts above. This really is one of the greatest ideas I have seen for monitoring, just needs a tweak

      With these findings I would set a floor voltage around 1-1.1 V for the arduino to go into sleep mode (find your own floor voltage by looking at your sleep discharge rate and length of night time).

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      I have a couple soil sensors running with simple bolts in the ground. No two sensors will read the same in the same soil, but that is because they are just a relative setup not an accurate setup. Doing what is recommended above is necessary. Determine what % correlates to watering time on the plants. Once this is done it is set and forget.

      Also, on your batteries
      "The phenomenon itself is very real. If a NiCd battery is repeatedly charged after it has only been partially discharged it will develop a lower voltage and a lower capacity. Fortunately, this effect is reversible by conditioning NiCds."

      So I vote to help your poor cheap lamp batteries out by writing logic into your arduino that varies by battery voltage. You can write it in ranges

      battery > X volts report every Y minutes
      battery > Z volts report every P minutes
      battery > .....etc

      also to keep your battery in good shape you may consider every so many days ( 2 - 5 ) writing logic that says
      every Q days report every 20 seconds (or another interval that will drain battery) until battery voltage = min
      then
      sleep until battery voltage = max

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      ha you are on it! caught me editing!

      anyways I love your idea, I can guarantee I am looking for these little lights to be on sale every time I go out. This maxes out the clever scale.

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      @flopp
      sure is, It looks like this sketch already has already picked a set single point sleep time that achieved the discharge gradient being less than the charge gradient looking at the angles on the 7 day graph.

      My question is why wouldn't you write an algorithm for your sleep setting so you don't have to mess with it if you get a cloudy week etc? You have variable charge gradients depending on weather so why not have a simple variable discharge gradient?

      A simple one would be case A - sunny day discharge gradient B- very cloudy day discharge gradient C- emergency charge/top off battery

      you could write an equation based off your existing data but honestly you probably wouldn't get much out of it past the simple set listed above that cover 99% of conditions you will see.

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      side thought

      why not write your sleep setting as a variable on the arduino side that is dependent on battery voltage?

      if v>(full charge) sleep x hours
      if v>(half charge) sleep for y hours
      if v<(close to terminal voltage) sleep for z hours/days

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Solar Powered Soil Moisture Sensor

      this is genious

      posted in My Project
      punter9
      punter9
    • Monitor if an outlet has power - send email

      I have a co-worker who wants to monitor the status of their GFCI outlet that the sump pump is hooked to. Occasionally it will trip when they use their smoker or something and they won't notice until water backs up. What they would like is a simple monitor that would send them an email when there is no power. So I am tossing around some ideas

      • current meter and a light bulb - battery pack for node power (expensive)
      • LED on all the time and light meter taped together (blocking outside light). If value goes to 0 email is sent (cheap but I wonder how reliable)

      They do not currently have a domoticz setup so I would have to get a pi to get this going, adding expense. If anyone has some very simple suggestions I am missing I would really appreciate it!

      posted in General Discussion
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Raspberry Pi Zero $5

      @Zeph

      that has nothing to do with the hardware at all, just a shoddy supply and demand scenario. If they had called me I would have said it is a specialty product for a niche more advanced user than typical and said small quantity too.

      link text

      I am personally very excited because we know that the quality of these products will be very high and consistent, which is very unlike some of my purchases for components on ebay

      posted in General Discussion
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Raspberry Pi Zero $5

      actually the more I look at this the more this really needs to be considered, cost wise it is right there with arduinos by the time you add in ancillary stuff. Reliability would be top notch too

      posted in General Discussion
      punter9
      punter9
    • RE: Raspberry Pi Zero $5

      this would be all kinds of awesome

      posted in General Discussion
      punter9
      punter9