Before I dive into the state of the plant side of my pepper grower, a quick update (and solicitation for suggestions) on another project I’m starting to think more about.

In the comments of my dyno video from December, a couple of people took me up on my offer for a video dedicated to the coupler. As I’ve started to think about that a bit more, there are some measurements I want to take on them like (in no particular order):

• Torque transfer efficiency as a function of angular and radial offsets
• Rotational stiffness and failure torque
• Axial stiffness and failure load

And maybe if I’m feeling ambitious even repeating the latter two… for different infills.

Now for the solicitation. I’d welcome suggestions for additional tests/measurements that folks would find interesting. Also, very much open to any fun suggestions (aka cheap) for obtaining these measurements. So if anything comes to mind, please do let me know!

Oh….and I’m also resisting the urge to get sidetracked into a custom torque sensor build for this, but it would likely mean the actual coupler testing is months away…thoughts? :)

From the start of one project to the end (at least of the main build part) of another. Time to take a look at the root side of things to round things out.

Above is the model of my planter, isn’t it….somethin?

And here’s how it looks in the mostly-PETG flesh.

So, what exactly’s goin on in this little chaotic mess?

At the center is a 4” rockwool cube that will serve as the grow medium for plant.

That rockwool cube is housed within a 3d printed ‘planter’, shown below in green.

The slots on the side of the planter are pass throughs for some capacitive ‘soil’ moisture sensors.