2022-10-23 21:30:15 +02:00
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# Engineer Log
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## 20221023
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Today I began designing Tillun. I think Ana would enjoy the name. If the thing
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rolls, I'll gift her one.
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Today I have been researching what are my options for the processing unit. I
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think the ESP32 should be the optimal one, but I'm a bit intimidated by jumping
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into that architecture that fast. I've decided it's wiser to stick within the
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Arduino environment for now for two reasons: because I believe this way I'll
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experience a more reasonable learning curve and because I believe that an
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Arduino microcontroller will be more versatile than an ESP32, and I expect to
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be re-using a lot of components from my Tillun experiments for the next
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generations.
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It seems the Arduino Nano is the right tool for the job. As far as I could
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tell, there are just a few differences with the Megaboard I'm using. First, it
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has less CPU power and memory, which shouldn't be a problem since the sketch
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that will run this project will be ridicolously short. Second, it has less pins
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and ports. Not a problem either, since I'll probably only need one or two for
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the moisture sensor.
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The only problem I might face is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of stock
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in the stores I have checked. Amazon has units, but I refuse to buy from them
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unless they are literally the only option in town.
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I also looked a bit into the moisture sensors. I still haven't settled for any
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specific one. It also left me wondering of well can one count on some of these
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sensors being on the market for a long time. It's definetely a design challenge
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if you can't count on that and future alternatives might not work exactly the
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same way or require a different calibration procedure.
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2022-10-24 19:55:27 +02:00
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## 20221024
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I have discovered this germany shop called AZDelivery. It's heaven. They have
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plenty of good stuff, all in stock, free deliveries with a relatively low
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basket value and they offer volume-discounts. It's sad that we don't have such
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a page here in Spain and we get pushed to look for this kind of service
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outside.
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But for now, I have found a guy in my neighbourhood that sells exactly the
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moisture sensors I intend to try. Sometimes fortune smiles on us. I'll get in
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touch with him to get the sensors this week. With that, I can keep on
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experimenting and designing the device.
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2022-10-23 21:30:15 +02:00
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## Open topics
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- How to measure how much power a circuit is consuming.
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- How to measure how long a battery will last.
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- How to measure how much charge is left in a battery.
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