Posts tagged with "arduino"


  • Solar Panel Project Update - Part 5

    This is the final update in the solar panel project series for now. Hopefully by now you must be quite bored with the updates because I am sure no one is going to build a project that is exactly same as mine. But in case you are following along, you might have picked up some things that you did not know earlier or may be you found somethings that you could have done differently. The reason I am writing is to keep a journal of things. While I fixed most of the issues with my setup, I still had a couple of problem that don’t happen frequently which makes it difficult to debug. In this post I will discuss the problems and my solutions. May be there are better solutions, but these are ones that I could come up with. A reader was lamenting that my posts are too short so I let this post go as long as it needs to be. So enjoy :).

    ...continue reading
  • Collecting Data From Solar Panel Setup

    After having setup the solar panel on our terrace, I wanted some data. Specifically I wanted to know the panel output over the course of the day and how much energy savings we are enjoying. The solar management unit (SMU) gives some details about the instantaneous power output and energy savings. But for some reason I felt the numbers look a bit too optimistic. Moreover I could not get more granular data from it. I guess it has more to do with not invented here syndrome. Either way I decided to hook up some sensors myself to gather all the data I'd like from it.

    ...continue reading
  • Drip Irrigation Control System v2.0 and v3.0

    In one of my previous post, I wrote about my drip irrigation control system. But there were a few problems with it. In the process of rectifying them, I built v2.0 and v3.0 control systems. And to think people were asking if I was getting bored in retirement or if I wanted to get back to work :). Why? I love what I do now and it occupies me completely.

    ...continue reading
  • Drip Irrigation Control System v1.0

    If you have been reading about my organic terrace gardening project in the last few posts, you know that I have setup a drip irrigation system that automatically waters the plants everyday. Tinkering with electronics has always been my passion and this was one of those fun hobby projects that I wanted to do after retirement. Sorry, this post may be a bit too technical (electronics and code), so feel free to skip.

    ...continue reading