smallsolar at solarcene

Admin account for the test #solarpunk mastodon instance solarcene.community. My normal account is @smallsolar

smallsolar at solarcenesolaradmin@solarcene.community
2025-07-03

@frenzybiscuit haha well in the morning if you are interested this is my documentation from last year: git.solarcene.community/smalls

smallsolar at solarcenesolaradmin@solarcene.community
2025-07-03

Just harvested my first #basil from the solarcene server #hydroponics farm - lesson from last year was to harvest more as it encouraged more growth. Not enough to make pesto yet but I've freezed it (I know basil doesn't freeze well but it was fine last year) so a few more weeks and it will be pesto time!

(The solar setup that powers this mastodon server has excess power in the summer so I use this to run lights, fan and water heater to grow basil hydroponically in my garage)

#mastodonBasil

smallsolar at solarcenesolaradmin@solarcene.community
2025-06-28

@frenzybiscuit good point, it is a 12v to 5v converter rated for 4A so could be too much power draw.

I'll start by reducing the usage but if that doesn't work I'll upgrade the regulator

smallsolar at solarcenesolaradmin@solarcene.community
2025-06-28

looking through the gitea server logs looks like the repos I have mirrored seem to be getting errors and corrupted and this might be the issue with maxing out the cpu and the server dying - I've deleted these repos and instead just uploaded the latest source code tar.
Will see if this works.

smallsolar at solarcenesolaradmin@solarcene.community
2025-06-28

Unfortunately the #orangepi I use for the main solarcene server has become a little unreliable (it stops responding on the network), initially it seemed to be a cpu temperature issue as #gitea was maxing out the cores, I've made some changes which I think has helped stop this but it went offline again yesterday, luckily it's easy to remotely reboot it as it's power is already controlled by a relay.

I'll keep digging but apologies if it is offline

#solarInstance

smallsolar at solarcenesolaradmin@solarcene.community
2025-06-22

Dear #fediverse - can I just get a sense check - the solarcene server (and other equipment are in a small brick room inside my garage, in the winter it has a high humidity to the point that if the ambient temperature changes we often get condensation on the walls (and no where for it to go).

I'm in the process of adding a extractor fan, I'm right that I want to pump air out of the room (as that will be humid) rather than push cool air in...

#humidity #electronics #extractorFan #server

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2025-06-19

solarcene.community has got too hot! the last reported CPU temp was 83C and now it isn't responding to ping, luckily I can remotely turn it off and so will try to get it back online asap. Environment temp is 29C - I wonder if something pushed the cpu load up and it just got too hot.

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
Luchuco Cadáverlufertec@mastodon.uy
2024-04-26

@solaradmin woa, great, they were asking for sharing it so it is sure it helps a lot!
And yes, huayra is a nice, beautiful and useful linux distro for schollars and teachers of Argentina (mainly, but can be used for anyone, anywhere), full of freedom and contents/resources to play, use & share

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
Luchuco Cadáverlufertec@mastodon.uy
2024-04-26

@solaradmin here the latest ISO of the huayra linux distro mas.to/@teno/11224327859336169

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2024-03-16

@Serenity I’ve got a second box which I plan to setup next week. I’ve used cottonwool as a starter medium and then some clay balls. I had an interesting trip to a hydroponics shop.

A box with 5 net cups and 5 small seedlings under lights
smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2024-03-16

@Serenity #hydroponics online! I’ll post pictures of the setup in a bit but for the first round it’s 5 #bokchoi plants and I’m using the #Kratky method. The 2 led light strips I’m using add an additional 12W of power (I’m unsure if I’ll need more lights). The lights are controlled by my #nanopi board running #dietpi

Grafana dashboard showing battery voltage at 12.5V and hydroponics lights OnGrafana dashboard showing load power is 22.6W with an uptick in a graph showing when the lights turned on
smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2024-01-28

It’s nice to see some sunshine today. The challenge I’ve got is when it’s cloudy I really need the 4 #solarPanels I have, but when it’s sunny I don’t.
It’s time to start thinking about how I can utilise this extra power.

I probably should invest in a better battery but also perhaps an inverter so I could run an occasional household appliance off the solar.

It’s tricky on a small scale.

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
Sue is Walking the Earth 🌱susankayequinn@wandering.shop
2024-01-27

I tried to pull together a panel (Solarpunk on the Screen) last fall for a Utopia Conference ... then the conference fell apart. 🙁 But one of the screenwriters I tapped for that panel just released this AMAZING short film (6 min) that is EVERYTHING we're trying to collectively do. Please watch and share!

#ClimateCrisis #ClimateSolutions #ClimateProgress

climatealmanac.org/
youtube.com/watch?v=H0CnJNU1E9

The Assignment — The Climate Action Almanac Trailer
smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
Electromagnetic Fieldemf@emfcamp.org
2024-01-21

We're finally ready to announce ticket sale dates for EMF 2024!

* Saturday 3rd February at 14:00 GMT (UTC+0)
* Sunday 11th February at 11:00 GMT
* Tuesday 20th February at 21:00 GMT

Tickets will be on sale at https://www.emfcamp.org/tickets - prices are available there now.

More info: https://blog.emfcamp.org/2024/01/21/emf-2024-ticket-sales/

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2024-01-13

Progress! (Apologies for solarcene popping offline a few times)

I found a step down power supply which I’m now using to power the 8 port switch, it’s mounted to a frame of hexagons. The #orangepi on the right runs solarcene.community. The laptop isn’t on #solar right now and does other projects

Image of a white wall with electronics mounted onto a black plastic frame made of hexagons.
Bottom left is a laptop displaying  htop, above the laptop is a 8 port network switch and it’s new power supply and then on the right is an orangepi sbc. There are various cables around
smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2024-01-11

Managed to finish my second #solar array! It’s pretty much identical to the first one. Means I have 480W in total in panels, while winter has been pretty tough in regards to solar I anticipate summer will be good - might even not need to have both arrays deployed. The design allows them to be folded down for storage (though quite heavy to move)
#SolarPV #solarpanels

4 solar panels in wooden frames sitting on a small wooden deck in a garden. A hedge is behind them .
smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2024-01-09

Time to make 2023 updates to my annual “opinions about solar” thread.

If you like these, you'll like the second edition of my book, Solar Power Finance Without The Jargon.

worldscientific.com/worldscibo

amazon.co.uk/Solar-Power-Finan

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2023-12-28

Can’t find the post that linked me here, but anyway, great article. Thanks original poster, where ever you are. solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023 #solar #solarpunk #diy #permacultue

smallsolar at solarcene boosted:
2023-12-24

@Serenity @solaradmin @solar_bot @The_Sun nice winter weather. Happy holidays!

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