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I am looking to setup a remote Raspberry Pi to monitor water levels in a tank. There is no power supply but Wi-Fi should be ok. 1 reading a day would probably be fine but we could maybe do it every hour. I am wondering what solutions there are out there. I can see a few solutions:

  • Run the Pi directly on solar panels. When there is sun we monitor and report. When the sun goes in the Pi dies, when the sun comes out the Pi boots back up again
  • same as above but with a battery that's charged from solar.
  • Pi is somehow turned on by an external something (maybe a HAT). It measures / reports then shuts down. Solar panels charge a battery.

So I could do with some on advice on issues with a Pi just dying when power drops and some suggestions on how to turn on a pi every hour.

toyota Supra
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Roaders
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  • Any answers would apply to a whole class of devices (not just the Pi). Perhaps home in on a particular solution then see if it applies to the Pi. – joan Aug 21 '22 at 15:52
  • https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/witty-pi-4-mini-realtime-clock-and-power-management-for-raspberry-pi?variant=40171303403603 – CoderMike Aug 21 '22 at 20:17
  • Sorry, but I’m voting to close your question because you've not invested enough effort in it. By that I mean, you've asked an interesting question, but it's so broad that answers will inevitably boil down to opinions. I'd suggest you give this some more thought to decide how *you* want to do it instead of leaving it up to us. All of the options you listed are feasible, so think it over, make some decisions & edit your question. – Seamus Aug 22 '22 at 05:37
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    Consider using a Arduino (ESP8266/ESP32) instead, it is more suitable for your use case – MatsK Aug 22 '22 at 05:51
  • There are a lot of Q&A here that are similar to yours. This one may give you some ideas, and this one has some fundamentals that may be useful. – Seamus Aug 22 '22 at 06:05

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This might be useful to you: https://core-electronics.com.au/makerverse-nano-power-timer.html

The Makerverse™ Nano Power Timer cycles power to your project periodically, extending battery life. The timer will run continuously, consuming a (really tiny!) 35nA, before turning your project on after the set interval. Once your project has completed whatever it needs to do (eg. read sensors, log data), your controller can signal to the timer that it is DONE. The timer will remove power and wait for the next interval. Intervals from just a few seconds, to a couple of hours are easy to set with the six-position DIP switch and the most useful intervals can be selected with just one switch - refer to the labels on the back of the timer. Switch positions can be combined to create more granular intervals if necessary. For maximum flexibility, you can even customise the interval by soldering a resistor into the location marked USER. A full breakdown of switch combinations, and how to select a custom-time resistor is provided in the guide. Connecting to the Nano Power Timer is easy - a JST PH connector is available for directly connecting to lithium cells or AA/AAA Battery packs; other functions are broken out on the standard 0.1" breakout.

They also make one specifically for a raspberrypi nano: https://core-electronics.com.au/makerverse-nano-power-timer-hat-for-raspberry-pi-pico.html

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