A home assistant dashboard showing various attributes of the solar array There are also 3 gauges showing the state of charge of the battery, the solar power and the solar current

A quick update on my allotment solar project

I've got the battery & charger/controller talking to the raspberry pi over Bluetooth & all the data is pushed back to my home assistant via 4g

I've already got the ZigBee sensors working, next step is actuators such as water valves

All the data I create will be available to the allotment users as I like open data 🙂

I've designed a small heater for the battery to keep it at a reasonable temp during the winter, the solar will also give the shed some quality lighting, something that it's missing at the mo

It's been interesting getting it all working, reliably & fail gracefully as well as attempt self repairs

I'd like to add a ir camera as we get lots of wildlife on the plots

Depending on the energy budget it'd be fun to add a birdnet-pi to track what birds are on the allotments

I've connected the allotment system to my home assistant automation system, I'll be able to automate & control things from my phone

I'm going to add a wind anemometer & direction vane along with some rain related sensors, the allotment is open so it'll give great info

The pi runs a system called zigbee2mqtt & has a ZigBee coordinator plugged in

This allows me to use cheap ZigBee devices across the plot to get info such as ground temp, soil humidity etc
It'll also allow me to control devices on the allotment such as ZigBee water valves

My current side quest is remote monitoring on my allotment

I've got solar panels & a battery to install, it'll be used to run a pump to automate watering throughout the summer from the 1000ltr ibc

But I'm going to use a bit of the solar power to run a raspberry pi zero w 2 & a 4g router

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Very much appreciated 👍
I've updated the Zappi firmware & rebooted it. I deleted the charger in the octopus app & added it again

After that it seemed to have worked & charged the car 🙂

But having confirmation from you guys that it's ok your end would be great

Well, so far so good, my messing about with everything seems to have solved the issues..

The car is charging and full power & on octopus cheap rate too 🙂

I'm taking advantage of the unexpected cheap rate by charging the house battery & doing the washing

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If, after all that, it's still not working, then I think it'll be time to talk to @octopus.energy and/or Myenergi

I need reliable home charging, and I'm sure I'll get there in the end 😑

We've had the Zappi EV charger for around 3 years but it's only just started to be used

We got it fitted with the solar & batteries because we always knew we would get an EV, so connectivity issues never materialised, it connected to the home assistant so I thought everything was ok

My next step is getting a bit physical, which is to install an ethernet cat6 cable to the Zappi and bypass the WiFi connection

For that I need to remove the parcel box and switch the Zappi off, but I can't do that until the EV is charged 😑

So far I've removed/readded the Zappi device in the octopus app

Updated the firmware on the Zappi

Restarted the Zappi

Forced boost charging

The octopus app has given me a schedule with a window if charging at 8am, let's see if it works

Morning all..

I was up early, again..

This time 5am

😑

I'm having teething issues with EV charging via @octopus.energy IOG

This is the 2nd day in a row where the intelligent charging has failed

So it's problem solving time..

Another very early day when my brain refuses to let me sleep 😴

Are there any other insomniacs around?

2 days of concussion symptoms isn't fun

Feeling better today, still a little woozy but certainly on the mend

The advice I was given (not by Ai but an actual human physio) was to reduce brain stimulation & reduce the light

That has seemed to have worked 🙂

🙂

My daughter (a trained physio who specialises in stroke and brain injury) said I'm getting to the age where I don't fall down anymore but "have a fall.."

Cheeky witch (but she's true!)

Concussion symptoms aren't nice 😑

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I did not end up at the allotment today..

Instead I spent it in bed, recovering from concussion after being knocked over by our biggest poodle on this morning's dog walk

Meh..😔

Still feeling groggy and dizzy

Has anyone ever heard of a "Memoto Narrative Clip"?

It was a Kickstarter from 2013, a life logging camera that you wore all day

It took a picture every 30 seconds & you could organise the moments into a narrative of your life

I loved it as I have short term memory problems..

A close up picture of the label of a bag La Bolsa coffee from The BlendingRoom coffee roasters in Hull.

It's a new coffee day..

And it's my favourite 😍

Part of my "prepping" is growing food on an allotment

I work with virtual computer based stuff all the time, so touching, building, growing real things is good for my mental health and soul

Having "task/finish" jobs, where I see the end result is so motivating & a dopamine booster 🙂

Lots of pics

One of the last risks I'm looking to mitigate against is water supply and I'm actively looking at large underground water tanks to collect the water from gutters

If everything works out peacefully then everything already in place will mean our retirement will cost very little..

When we sat down to work on the plan as a family back in 2016 we looked at the long term outcomes for the world, we were very pessimistic

It's really sad that every risk we tried to mitigate against has nearly come true 😔

We invested in solar, batteries, ashp, etc

We got an allotment for food production

We made sure we removed as much reliance on fossil fuels, less from a 'green' perspective but from a basic fact that they're volatile to distribution & scarcity by hostile endeavours..

History is your friend 😬

Is anyone else a 'prepper'?

And by that I mean decided the world was a bit scary & getting a bit of control over anything
was important

We started prepping after the Brexit referendum, we decided on a long term plan of food, transport and energy

We wanted to be as independent as possible

Well that's it, we're an all electric household, and perfectly timed too!

The diesel van went last Sunday, a tank full of diesel went up by £15 in a week or so, to about £75

We've replaced it with a Kia pv5 - the equivalent cost of electricity to reach the same fuel tank mileage is about £7

😶

Wondering if a mayor can say this kind of thing and still be re-elected? Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores is still the Mayor of Pontevedra Spain, has been the Mayor since 1999, and has been elected six times. #UrbanTruth #Leadership