19 Feb 2023

  1. Take equipment to storage.
  2. add my name to the dog show
  3. raise my 2M antenna about 25′
    • How much wire is in the garage?
  4. D Repair radiator on Blue.
  5. Program remote access backup routers for mom.
  6. Drive to FL
    • Install remote access
    • Install MJ Phone
    • Repair VPN
    • Install Home Assistant
    • Bring framed picture from Thanksgiving.
  7. D Repair the brakes on Blue.
  8. Our appt with D Marini. Mar 22nd.
  9. Check temperatures for Pahrump pump house every week.
  10. Two 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from Newark Electronics.
  11. Two more 8GB Raspberry Pi’s are ordered from DigiKey
  12. Floss, banana, Meds and toes.
  13. Register with IRS as an administrator of an estate.
  14. Nancy’s Will, i don’t have a copy but she’s working on it.
  15. Arizona Land
  16. Take wet cell batteries back
  17. Check Mom’s accounts
  18. Fix mom’s printer working
  19. Hire an accountant for the estate taxes.
  20. Hire a lawyer for Arizona.
  21. Run generators

I am still working/improving my solar powered sensor in the back yard. This has been a learning experience; solar panels produce significantly less power than I expected. Streaks of cloudy days have also been longer than I had anticipated. (Like six cloudy days that could not provide 10WH/Day of power from 20W of solar panel.)

The temp sensor is in the PVC pipe and the batteries+charger circuits are in the tub.

I now have a working timer that turns on/off the sensor SBC so that it runs for 1/10th the time. (And 1/10th the power consumption.) Now we’re at 20W of solar, 192WH of battery to support 1.3WH/Day. (20W@5Hr=100WH with full sun)

The first timer was so short that the SBC A/D never arrived at the battery voltage.

9 Minute timer with 100 uF capacitor

To lengthen the “ON” time, I changed to a 220 uF capacitor which also increased the overall time to 19 Minutes.

19 Minute timer, 220 uF

The next challenge was the weather is not sunny and the batteries are depleted so I charged them manually today.

Charged the batteries to 13.5 volts.

The 2x 10W solar panels are providing more power than the sensor is consuming even on a cloudy day. I know that because the voltage is rising, albeit slowly.

Now that the batteries are somewhat charged, the sun can top them off.

Next thing I want to know is current, charted current. The input of these 8266 boards is a 1/3 divider (Since the internal voltages are 3 V)