Louis

Hi Jeff,

It's great to see that there are some standard being put into motion, both locally managed and with global connections!

It looks like the NEFKE is in development but how would I go about finding out the specifications so I could potentially export my data in that format? Are they still being developed? Will the exporting be periodic data-dumps or will the system be setup for dynamic data sharing?

This is something that I'm trying to position Apitronics to help with. Since many farms will have identical sensors deployed, the sensor specifications will be open of course, and the location will be paired with all the data being gathered, I think it could be a great component to the platform being proposed.

I would love to be part of this discussion and to hear what the research needs are. I will have my own practical uses for the data (primarily building physical models for simulations and automation) but I would love to know how to make the datasets more accessible to others.

The code is broken currently...?

I wonder if there is a kind of balance that can be had. I think a traditional licensing model could end up being more trouble than its worth. Companies like Apple spend more on legal fees than R&D!

One solution is that the developer try to maintain an online storefront, but to outsource actual production and fulfillment as much as possible. Perhaps this means a one month lead-time for these types of mechanical projects.

Granted that it takes more involvement than licensing, but it gives the developer a stronger "brand-name" helping them compete against possible knock-offs. It benefits the developer too because they have direct customer contact and feedback this way. Its certainly money well spent compared to legal fees.

Work could then still be released open-source, but periodically allowing the developer to arrange parternships for distribution. Openness for physical tools is less of a catalyst for parallel development since they have more barriers than that of software. Generating an identical build to someone else's is exceedingly difficult. On the other hand, providing kits so that co-developers can exist may be a revenue stream in itself.

So you're doing:
Panel -(1)-> 12V Battery -(2)-> 115V AC -(3)-> Appliances

Seems like you have (2) and (3) pretty well figured out. The inverter is definitely right I take it the bucket and base both have standard outlets for 115-120V AC.

I would wonder about (1) on the input side (the output to the battery makes sense). Specifically, what are the min and max voltage panel inputs it expects? Have you selected a panel that matches that?

Now that all the voltages line up, I would think about watts/current (remember, Watts = Current * Voltage). How often does the heater and pad need to be on? How many watts do they consume when they are on?

Given your charger, you can only draw 5W from the solar panels, regardless of voltage. If you always had 5W from solar panels and always had your appliances on, you would need to make sure you only drew 5W, not the 400W maximum that it is rated for.

But your panels aren't always on and I doubt your appliances draw THAT much current, so do the calculation of how much sun you can expect and how much current you will be drawing. You will probably want a timer so that you can switch the appliances on and off.

Also, just a thought, have you looked at solar water heaters? You might get away with more that way. The reason is, all this conversion of electricity gives you an efficiency drops. It's too bad that most appliances need 120V AC because they end up rectifying it and using DC locally. It would be nice to regulate the 12V DC another DC level rather than going DC-AC-DC.

That's a relief!

An Arduino could definitely be used to do something along these lines. The trick is figuring out how to sense the depth of your tank. Here's one of the first google results I came across which uses pressure sensors.

Then you have to find a way to get the 5V Arduino to actuate your pumps... Relays and such will probably be needed.

Sounds like you wouldn't require an SMS alarm system so you could make a cheaper and more simple system fairly easily. If you wanted to add an alarm though, following the Fido tutorial related to the phone may help.

If you don't know much about Arduinos or electronics, don't worry - it's easy to get started. Adafruit has a great learning system.

Sounds intriguing! I would love to hear about it. Is any documentation still up?

Hi Andy,

This sounds very interesting to me. I'm currently developing a general purpose long-range, weather-proofed, sensing and automation board. The communication options will include Zigbee (local wireless protocol, longer range, lower bandwith than WiFi) and 3G. The idea is to have real-time monitoring as well as user-determined logic (if sensor A reads above threshold X, do action 1) and schedules.

I would love to hear about this application and any others you may think up. Initially, I was actually thinking more along the lines of your post below which talks about the motorized flaps.

--Louis

Thanks for the feedback, Josh! I've fixed up the tool page to try to make things more clear. Here is the section that I think is relevant to your question:

Download the libraries above and unzip them. There should be three individual folders, each containing at least two files, one with a .h suffix and one with a .cpp suffix. Open your Arduino sketchbook folder. If there is already a folder there called libraries, place the library folder in there. If not, create a folder called libraries in the sketchbook folder, and drop the library folder in there. Then re-start the Arduino programming environment, and you should see your new library in the Sketch > Import Library menu.

Once your libraries are properly installed, you should have access to all the relevant code from your Arduino IDE. Please let me know if that *doesn't* clear things up - I'd like to do everything I can to make it easier for folks to build these things!

But turn-around does eliminate the need for synchronization at least...

Synchronization won't be too bad since distance will be easier to calculate (even without GPS) since both sides have good & identical clocks. Actually, it would be neat to do this without GPS which makes this system entirely relative until you take some global references from GPS!

The datalogging shield from Adafruit includes an integrated circuit that provides a Real-Time Clock (RTC). It gets the current time when you upload code. It will use the coin battery to maintain accurate time when the shield is not getting powered.

If you notice that the time isn't being kept properly, it may be the coin battery that doesn't have a decent contact. I had that problem because I didn't put a significant enough blob on the circuit board. Let me know if you are having any issues and I can help you troubleshoot!

Indeed! Seems like a good design alternative for those that don't have easy cell phone access. I think also warrants a spot in the documentation at least as a note for now. Perhaps somebody will implement it and provide a little tutorial!