Peter Jones
@droffgrid
Dad, Energy Scavenger, Electronics, Software, Fabrication. Engineering PhD (Computational Neuroscience) but off-grid nerd in my spare time. The technology around that last bit is what this is all about. #OffGrid
My off-grid setup is currently adding around 40 miles/day once household consumption is accounted for.
Yesterday's solar graph illustrates nicely what happens when clouds clear and the sun actually hits PV solar panels. The cool panels initially produce a high current, but as they quickly warm up their efficiency degrades. 1/2
At the present moment in the SE, according to the met office (and the BBC) it should be bright, unoccluded sunshine.
Now regretting making the prototype the same size as the final product. #fatfingers
When you're off-grid and reliant on stored solar energy, do you install enough PV panels to cope with winter and waste the extra output in summer? Auto-charging an electric car with any surplus makes the car part of the Battery Management System, protecting my meagre 26kWh battery with a 90kWh sink.
WindMonitor v1.0 A Darrieus VAWT mounted to a soil pipe mast on a wheeled IBC base, + long range telemetry and a PTZ camera. Cobbled-together it may be, but it has just completed 6 months' service providing daily wind data in the top field. Next, a version that might actually generate electricity.
Testing out a new 4kW array prior to loading onto a tracking mount. Now I just need to work out a tracking mount.
Fed up with your cheap security camera's buggy, half-arsed software? Can't trust it not to P2P your images around the world? Then buy one for £18, rip out the electronics and replace them with your own. This prototype is plain ESP32-based, but the final design will be an S3 on a custom PCB.
UK series "The IT Crowd" Series 3 (2008) regularly featured one of these stacked in the background :)
Washing machine gave up a few days ago. The BLDC Motor controller was to blame - 20 days and £160 for a full replacement, so decided to repair. Getting the thing out and removing the 3mm conformal coating on both sides of the PCB for diagnosing and H-Bridge replacement made me wish I hadn't.
I've been meaning to get this little lot together in one place for some time now.
Hands down 'Defender' if I was playing at my local arcade, 'Berzerk' if at the seaside :)
I just found one of my original photos of the fingertip. Even in 2017 it was possible to squeeze a MEMS pressure sensor, temperature sensor, microphone, opamp and ADC onto this tiny PCB. Around the outside is wound a nichrome heater. The 'skin' is moulded RTV silicone.
I love it when I can re-purpose an old PCB for a new project. This is a prototype water quality (TDS) sensor. The electronics were originally part of a biomimetic robotic fingertip sensor that I designed nearly a decade ago. It has a nice low-noise op-amp and I2C ADC on it which found use here.
Quick and cheap ESP32 USB programmer made from an old NodeMCU D1 I had kicking around. Just remove the ESP8266 keeping the parts associated with the CH340. Only needs using for the original programming - all updates via OTA.
Examination showed they were attached by a small screw hidden behind a tiny 'R' sticker. I'm glad I looked.
3 years behind the curve, my new Rokid Air AR glasses arrived today (AliExpress £133 excl, although once in the UK they were given to Evri, so obvs lost, found & delayed for a week before they got to me).
7 years later, and the Farm's IoT process controllers get a much needed upgrade.
I had some spare ESP8266s knocking about so to take up even more of my non-existent spare time I decided on making my own tree lights. I know. Why, right?
