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Some redemption

I finally got my watering to work consistently. All it took was replacing the MOSFET with a switch relay and some persistence in getting the damn ESP8266 to connect to the network for more than 5 minutes.

I also had my first crop: green beans (or as they seem to be called in the US, string beans). Still waiting on the tomatoes, but I fear the aphids may have undone the good work so far.

So, here's the setup:

Two window boxes featuring, from left to right, carrots, green/string beans, tomatoes, and strawberry. The white PVC pipe has drill holes to provide water with a length of flexible tubing entering it on the left, supplying the pipe, and the right end of the pipe emptying back into the reservoir.
A design issue with this simple setup is that the pipe is too high - it can easily erode un-mulched soil. In a better-designed setup, I would have the reservoir lower than the return so that the pipe can sit on the soil.

The reservoir:

Nothing fancy here. A 12v DC pump submerged in the bucket, about an inch from the bottom. Hose clamp on the tubing to keep the pump engaged. Holly leaves are optional, but to date haven't caused any issues. Keeping the pump from touching the bottom mitigates some of the issues of debris.
The green box at the left contains my electronics. The box is a Sockitbox weatherproof cord connection enclosure. It features a nice seal, lip, and rubber entry/exit points for cabling. We've had some bad thunderstorms and everything inside has stayed nice and dry.

The result (part 1...?):

Green/string beans. Nothing too impressive in terms of yield, but a fun outcome. With a year of trying to get this to work under my belt, I feel like I'll be able to scale a little better next year.

Now, time to go give the tomatoes another good spray.
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