This setup is currently at 9 days on solar+battery.
ESP recorded voltage hasn't dropped below the maximum it can read - 4.09V. Today I noticed that the charging module was showing "fully charged" so it looks like the two panels are providing enough power during the day to top up the battery to full. Might actually last forever if I want it to.
Full charging with just the large panel, but there's been a lot of sun today so it's probably not a surprise. Time to try just running on the small panel.
Small panel looks like it isn't sufficient to keep the battery topped up. It has dropped below the 4.09V max voltage and over the last two nights has had a new low value so it's gradually getting lower over each night.
Connected up to the LED in the receiver unit which is now hooked up to an optoisolator which acts as a button/switch triggering the ESP8266 to do some stuff.
That stuff is currently tell my server to stick an entry in a database to record when there's a press.
And also telling my notification light to do something (currently flash).
The delay between the button press and the notification flashing is way too long.
In the time it takes to go off, any couriers ringing your bell will have already filled in a "sorry we missed you" card and moved on to their next stop!
Totally rewrote the code - a bit more responsive now
Gone from the ESP8266 requesting the info from the server (every ~500ms, so it was probably hammering the server which isn't great), to the ESP8266 acting as a web server and the request being sent to it when required.
I've (probably) completed my PCB design now. Pretty happy with it. Changed it so many times from when I first designed it.
Those TQFP and 0805 SMDs are tiny. Gonna be fun soldering them. I ordered some parts just to make sure it all fits and tried soldering a SMD resistor and LED. It was a bit of a mess but it actually worked. Need more practise with them.
At first glance, I thought that pic was a chair with a desk and a huge ball pit area in front of it. You should design it as a chair and desk, but reimagine the ball pit as a gladiator tournament area.