[Dave]

I download data every couple of months, or as needed. It’s a pain, and I inevitably have overlap of data to clean up.

My current plan allows for 3 month’s data storage (Maker plan), but I notice on the current pricing only 1 month of storage is provided. I’ll get the good news at plan renewal time I’m sure!

I’ll have a look at arduino cloud / alternatives for my next project

 

[Dave]

Hi Neil

I had a go at arduino cloud about a year ago.

For price/configurability I ended up switching to Blynk. I’ve had 5 arduino MKR GSM boards function flawlessly for the past year. I think Blynk is aimed at developers, but there was enough sample code for me to get the board running .

That said, the current arduino pricing looks good.

I’ve also been using these sim cards – 1nce.com.  10 euro for 500Mb with  10 years lifespan.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Dave]

Hi Karl

Have you had a look at maxbotix? Not sure if they do a 150m ranging sensor – could you mount the sensor on a rod and insert that to say 140m or is the fluctuation in level too much?

https://www.maxbotix.com/

This video also presents a range of options, more on the diy side…

 

Dave

 

[Dave]

Thanks for the feedback

Funny you should mention rocket scream, I’ve just had a few red comet esp32s delivered. They promise low power consumption and solar charging for lifepo4. I’m hoping to replace a rather bulky 12V panel and battery system with the red comet and a single cell 26650 lifepo4 (see picture).

Red Comet ESP32

I’ll use the red comet to read simple interrupts from a couple of flow sensors, and a separate MKR1400 will do the communications at 12/hr or daily intervals as you have mentioned. This is all in theory…lets see how it works in practice. One thing I haven’t researched much is power monitoring. I believe due to the flat discharge curve of lifepo4, you need to use a coulomb counter? Another day’s work..

Btw I’m backing a lifepo4 product on kickstarter for home energy harvesting (4.6 kWh) also using lifepo4 batteries. Very similar to enphase by the looks of it. The safety aspect, plus having an EV socket clinched it…

 

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[Dave]

Hi Neil

Thanks for the feedback. So I guess a separate sensor housed in the same box as the mkr1400 would be useful. That’s on the (long) list of improvements!

I’ll post some actual data from the piezometer in the next couple of weeks.

Cheers
Dave

 

 

 

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