Solar-powered Raspberry Pi Pico plant watering monitor project

Описание: I've finally achieved my ambition to make a compact, self-sustaining, solar-powered soil moisture monitor using a Raspberry Pi Pico, and here is the full build video - including electronics, construction and coding. All done on a tight budget, I've used inexpensive solar panels from Pimoroni and an Adafruit multi-input charger for my Lipo battery, as well as a Raspberry Pi Pico W, all encased in a small plastic box. Micropython code with the deepsleep can be found here: https://github.com/PaterPracticus/Pla...

NOTE - since posting this video the monitor has been running continuously on solar power alone, but I've noticed that my timings drift very slightly each wake cycle while the Pico boots up and launches the programme. I've now calculated this at 0.814 seconds and taken that off the time in deepsleep.

0:00 Introduction
1:20 Copying the programme from v2.0
3:43 Copying programme onto new Pico W
4:19 Updating code for onboard LED
5:01 Soldering the sensor header
8:04 Wiring the solar panels
9:31 Adapting the plastic case
16:05 Fitting an on/off switch
17:39 Refining the deep sleep code
20:36 Mounting the solar panels
23:57 Testing, testing, testing

Main components:
Raspberry Pi Pico
Adafruit Universal USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger
3.0V 100mA Poycrystalline Solar Cell (Pimoroni)
LiPo battery - 3.7V 500mAh