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[hunnimonstr]

hello all, and thanks for a useful and helpful forum.

the project that brought me to python is the interface to some cheap Chinese bluetooth plant pot sensors which i hope will trigger small pumps to water the patio plants.  i usually plant beans to climb up the fence facing NW-ish which catches the long afternoon and evening summer sun, but in pots as thats also the hard pathway up the garden.. and watering pots is easier than digging up pathways, when it works..  and with 6m or so of Big pots thats a lot of trudging back n forth with watering cans. Its rare the beans survive my mismanagement ;)  

So far ive tested out all the components, the psu can power all the pumps and the controlling p-zeroW board, and as i intend to control the pumps sequentially not concurrently that should all work out ok.

Im using an 8x relay board which i have tested without any loads plugged into the Pi board using the 5v pin to the relay boards VCC pin
and successfully switching the relays with the 3.3v supplied by the gpio pins..

And Thanks to some helpful pointers in here i now have a basic sensor query and logging script running every 30 minutes.

Currently the logic im intending to apply to watering is:

    if mlevel < 30 :                                # testing for less than 30% moisture
        if (ltime + testtime ) < time.time():
            wrec = [time.time()]
            GPIO.output(iopin, ON)  # turn on pump1
            time.sleep(15)
            GPIO.output(iopin, OFF)  # turn off pump1
        else 
           # raise warning!! email? MQTT??  
               
    return wrec

fwiw ltime is derived from the last modified date of the file containing the watering record generated by the action.

thing is the sensors also provide a number of other readings which other than log i have no idea how to find useful ;)

temperature, ©
light level, (0- 1100)
conductivity of the soil which will indicate fertilizer strength, (100- ??)
and Battery level (%) this one i do know how to deal with.. eventually ;)


But so far i have proved the concepts viable -ish

there is one problem.. but i think i may have a solution, the sensors only plunge 3-4 inches into the soil, and even in my 10 " rim test pot the soil can sit quite moist just below the sensors range.

the sensors are SS caps, so i hope i can solder on some SS tube to extend their depth and range.. i intend to use a hot air soldering station flux and solder paste when i can borrow the kit.. meanwhile i can refine the code..
if i kill a sensor i will try a mechanical connection but that wont be as reliable as a thin solder point electrically.

and if that fails i can cut a slot in the plastic patio pots to slide the sensor in 1/2 way down ;)