Anyone familiar with solar powered pumping and irrigation systems? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: electroniclearner820327
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2025, 09:05:53 am
content: Currently I am hauling a 10l container of water from the bottom where there is a natural spring up to my van where there is a gravity fed filter.Now it is hot I am having to do this constantly. Not a huge issue however what is a bigger issue is I am using almost my limit that I can filter through the 8.5 litre filter per day.I am wondering if a simple DC system could aid me in increasing efficiency on this front.Likewise with watering my plants. I get tired of lugging a builder's bucket up the hill constantly to water them with a watering can.Getting a surplus of water for drinking myself is first priority though.Things are so dry at the moment I am not sure how long the natural spring will hold out! It is still managing a little trickle from what I can tell.What kind of gear am I looking at for the above systems?A simple 12v pump and then one of the many water filter systems into a container for drinking, then what about for irrigation?I know the general principle but not sure what parts are used or their correct names for each bit.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 20, 2025, 10:52:56 pm
content: Slightly disappointed to see the reader views haven't yet generated much in replies, as this subject is central to many other similar solar power topics.Here in Ocean View Hawaii first thing I noticed, on the relatives 'compound', is that yes, they have everything supplied by 12 VOLTS. However, when they reach for the little portable electric water pump, I notice a standard 120 vac cord and plug, as many things are done by using a DC to AC inverter. Those are very small these days.It's a bit of humor, to witness these residents: Technology drop-outs who, until recently, didn't even have a refrigerator, but talking using electrical terms that they maybe don't fully understand. Still, they get things to work...using 'group think' and even rumors, if that works.The other residents here, don't have much technology training, and one theory is that they haven't been 'poisoned', so to speak, by empty dictates, from some snotty technician. In other words, here, nobody insisted that they change, altering use of all those 120 vac items around the house.Kind of sounds more practical, (aside from efficiency worries) to use 12 VDC only to power a set of customized inverters. All this made possible by innovation and personal inverter prices falling. Heck, that person in the next freeway lane over, who is SHAVING his face, on the freeway morning trip to work, could very likely be using 120 vac instead of the 12 vdc accessory.So there is that distinction. They also, right here, utilize several systems, one per house, along with separate propane supplies and water heaters. These people also need to have some sense of plumbing fundamentals, waste water, and all the economic decisions involved, with keeping herd on domestic systems, and no 'house' engineers giving guidance. The folks aren't dumb, and include experienced nurses and medical technicians...just no EE's directly involved.Maybe, like I said, that helps them to have less pre-judgement, on the variety of options, like 12 vdc vs. installing multiple (small) inverters.(They still don't understand concepts, like resistive losses, in thin cables. lol)-Rick

author: LazyDebug
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 03, 2025, 08:30:55 am
content: I’ve seen similar behaviour on some newer display controllers — it can look like adjacent memory is being “smeared” even though you’re only writing the intended pixels. In my case it turned out to be related to the address window not resetting properly after the write. You might try explicitly re-sending the column/row set commands (0x2A/0x2B) before every small region write, even if you think the window hasn’t changed. Some controllers seem to need that “refresh” to avoid spilling data into neighbouring addresses.Also worth checking whether you’re using the right pixel format initialization sequence — a mismatch between 16-bit and 18-bit mode can produce ghost pixels in green/blue channels but not red. If you can, try reading back GRAM contents after your draw to confirm whether the overwrite is actually happening in memory or just on the display pipeline.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2025, 01:05:10 pm
content: Elevation? If the cheapest 12V pond pump you can find can handle it using a float switch, why not? It will be running at a duty cycle of 0.0001 or something. It's not going to fail soon.