pricelesstoolkit/droplet

ALL-IN-ONE Irrigation and monitoring system for ESPHome and Home Assistant.

droplet's Issues

Soil senor update interval

Would it be possible to reduce the interval so that home assistant is not overloaded with reading s. Maybe an averaged reading every few seconds is better. Or even every minute would be more than good enough

Hardware that's verified to work

I just setup my Droplet (second one is on the way). I bought the moisture sensors that were linked in the README. I've compared them to the ones that were available through pricelesstoolkit.com - HW-390 20210603. They're the same.

From what I've read, there's so much stuff around these moisture sensors - different chips, different components, missing timers and resistors. Mine should be "fine" but it's mostly not working.

Calibrated voltage range in the OS (0.99V to 2.5V) is never seen. I've overriden the sensor so it logs the raw voltage it sees and it's in the 0.7V-0.8V range. Fully submersed in water and in dry air - no change (stays at 0.75V +/- 0.03V). When in fully dry soil it increases to almost 0.9V. But the values jump around all the time (+/- 0.05V). The range is narrow. Tried attenuation set to auto as well.

Are there any sensors that are fully verified and that are known to work correctly with Droplet? Or is it a hit and miss until I found some that are working?

Thanks a lot!

pillow not found for fonts

Hello Im having first steps, and for some reason, I cant build esphome through CLI on my Windows Im getting an error:
Failed config

font: [source .\droplet.yml:56]

Please update your pillow installation to at least 4.0.x. (pip install -U pillow).

• file: arial.ttf
  id: font1
  size: 8

I have already installed pillow package with version
Name: Pillow
Version: 10.1.0

Do i need to downgrade to exact 4.0 version or? Do you know maybe?

Thanks

Short vs Long button press

Current behavior: When you press and hold the top button, droplet_button_short_press comes on, then droplet_button_long_press comes on.

This makes it difficult to have different automations for short and long presses, since the short press will trigger any time you long press.

Instead, droplet_button_short_press should only come on when the button is released quickly.

Thoughts?

Publish schematics

Hello, I'm impressed by this project, it also addresses a lot of the questions I have around custom PCB design (such as integrating a custom ESP32 module). I think the schematics would be a terrific learning material. Is there any chance that you could publish them as well?

What kind of pump do you recommend?

Hi, since there is a shortage of pump on your website, which water pump do you recommend?
Regards

Water source

Hi,

I’m very interested in this project and I’m just waiting for restocking to help support it as well.

I’m wondering what’s the expected water source? A water bucket? I’d like to have this connected directly to a faucet but it would need some kind of pressure control. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the tips!

Instructions missing for removing the JP to JP jumper for it to actually flash

I finally got all the parts and components and try to flash the Droplet.

I followed the flashing instructions, but only after removing the preinstalled jumper from JP to JP, was it able to flash.

What is this jumper doing and should I reinstall it ?

3D files for ptinting the case

Hello,
I received the main board, while external board I am assembling right now.
Can you please upload also 3D case for extender and main board?

Thanks

A couple questions

I'll put these here since the discussion section is not activated for this repo.

1. How do you keep a pump on in home assistant? On the droplet I can hold the pump button, but in HA the pump only stays on for a second or less.

2. Would you consider a bulk watering routine? I have my droplet feeding a seedling trays with 50 plants each. I would like to water them by waiting for the moisture level to get down to a certain point, then trigger the pump for xx seconds to feed the entire tray. If I only do multiple short bursts of water, the plants closest to the droplet tube get all the water.

Right now I plan to set the "desired moisture level" to 0% to disable the automatic pumping from droplet. Then in HA I will set an automation that will trigger when moisture gets below xx%, run the pump for xx seconds (probably 30 to start), wait xxx seconds, then check moisture levels again.

It could be nice to have two watering modes, immediate and bulk:

Immediate mode: Current behavior, when moisture drops below set point, pump runs in short bursts until moisture is above set point. User inputs for each zone:

• desired moisture level

Bulk Mode: When moisture drops below set point, pump runs for xx seconds, then waits for a few minutes, then repeats until moisture is above a target level
User Inputs for each zone:

• Trigger moisture level
• pump duration
• Target Moisture level

Thoughts? I'm really enjoying this device, thank you for making it!

Can't flash via usb-uart

Hi,

I lost the encryption key for esphome when I lost the previous HA config. The droplet gets reconized on the new install but I can't give it access to integrate without this key so I'm trying to flash a new config but I'm having trouble with getting it recognized on my w11 desktop.

I'm using a usb to ttl adapter, tried moving the jumper on 3,3v and 5,v and only connecting:

txd-rxd
rxd-txd
gnd-gnd
vdd-to nothing

and then I followed your guide to manual reflash, with and without external power to the board but it allways fails to open and connect

any tips? thank you

What cable for Soil Sensors

Hi! I just got my droplet set up, and it is excellent! Very cool.

What cables do you use for extending the connection to the soil sensors? I don't know what the plug is called, so I don't know what to search for.

Thanks!