From 0c0e86444129618b816f91ceb006109653bc05f7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: smallsolar Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2025 07:00:39 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] added image of tower and powerbank --- README.md | 10 +++++++++- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index b39dc47..de23014 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ To build a solar powered aeroponics vertical tower to grow vegetables, using 3D * The vertical tower has a resevoir as a base, a small pump is used to pump water (+nutritents) up the central column and then the water cascades down inside coating the netcups and roots of the growing plants. * The control and power come from a outdoor solar power bank that sits next to the tower, it relays data to the home network. +Tower and Powerbank + ## Outdoor Solar Power Bank ### Components @@ -22,8 +24,14 @@ To build a solar powered aeroponics vertical tower to grow vegetables, using 3D Solar Power Bank - ## Software +## Hardware + * The 12v 50W solar panel was from eBay, it has been positioned to sit on top of the power bank box to help keep the rain off the box (as it isn't particularly waterproof) but also due to the position of the device near to our house angling the panel to optimise the sunlight isn't actually helpful, instead just sitting flat means it gets enough sun throughout the day. + * The Victron SmartSolar Charger was chosen as its high quality, has an excellent app, I already use Victron products but also it has a serial interface and more recently its been possible to intercept and decode the BLE packets to get the internal data. (Its worth the extra cost). + * The ESP32 was chosen as it is easy to program and also has WiFi and BLE. + +## Software * The ESP32 acts as the main controller, it is powered via stepdown converter from the main 12v output from the SmartSolar charger and controls a mosfet which can turn the water pump on and off. * It also uses bluetooth receiver to intercept the BLE packets broadcast from the SmartSolar charger, decodes them and then forwards them via WiFi to my home network to be displayed on my grafana dashboard. + * Measures the ESP32 temperature and also sends this data to grafana (not working currently) Grafana Dashboard \ No newline at end of file