ripnetuk

 These ESP devices feature a wireless tech called ESPNow. It basically lets you send a UDP type packet from a ESP to another ESP (by MAC address) up to (i think) 256 bytes, but its low power, since it doesn't need to establish a connection to a Wifi base station. So.... my goal is to create 2 ESPHome components, called something like ProxySensorReveicer and ProxySensorSender. On the battery powered device, you you run ProxySensorSender, and have a config like sensor:     - id mySensor       platform: adc (etc) ProxySensorSender:     -  receiver: 11:22:33:44:55:66     - sensors:         sensor:             proxy_id: battery_voltage             sensor: mySensor then on a grid powered receiver you would have ProxySensorReceiver:     senders:         - mac: 22:33:44:55:66           sleep_period: 10m ...

 Board with battery sensor added

 Experimenting with a pair of solar panels connected in parallel has not yielded fruit. I bought a pair of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B073XKPWY7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details and neither one on its own, nor both in parallel are enough to power up the device in southern UK in January at 3pm... One (or both) do power it if put directly in front of a 1500 lumen floodlight. This one will have to wait until summer...

 

 Google sheets https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19-Kt2w943iOmKBSE3WLt_KgMJZE2o_svyXJnUlgYrjw/edit?usp=sharing Recording time to drop from 4v to 3v (since that covers most of the time and is simple)

 

 

 In the UK there is a ready supply of 3.7v 700maH lithium cells discarded by the roadside after the [popular device] has run out of juice. I want to see how long these things can power a ESP32 for as a simple temperature reader. Then I want to see if I can improve on this... Kit 1. ESP32 Lolin kit from AZDelivery with an in-built lithium charging circuit and connector. https://www.az-delivery.uk/en/products/esp32-lolin-lolin32 2. Dallas waterproof temperature sensor (from ebay) 3. 700maH lithium cell found in the street I connected a simple resistor divider between the battery terminals, and connected the middle to a analog in pin on the ESP32 so I can read the voltage with the device ESPHome is the platform im using for these experiments, along with Homeassistant to read and graph the data Notes 1. The battery polarity on the Lolin board disagrees with both the random ebay connector, and the spare 3.7v cell I bought on ebay. 2. Connecting 4.2v the wrong way causes the magic smoke ...