Hydroponic Veggies Part 2 -- The water level sensor

The initial idea was to stick a VL53L0X TOF distance sensor to the reservoir lid and get the water level from there.

Didn't work out. Not enough light reflected from the water surface lead to super flaky readings. What did work out in the end is this ...

Fan-Tas-Tic Pinball, Part 7, Back to a LED - display!

The original Fan-Tas-Tic machine had a mechanical roulette wheel assembly, visible through a window in the middle of the playing field. For some time now I had it replaced with a 1280x720 LCD panel.

 

However, I'm not completely happy with this configuration and recently decided, the LCD panel has to go! 

Hydroponic Veggies

The goal is to grow tomatoes, chilis, carrots, lettuce and spinach on my balcony. It shall be hydroponic and as much automated as possible. Here's my setup so far ...

Plumbing and Dutch-buckets

No rocket since here. It's all made from 1/2 inch PCV pipe and fittings from the hardware store. The buckets were done according to these excellent instructions by mhpgardener. As I wanted the setup to be removable, I didn't use any glue. To achieve a good seal anyway, I used a bit of silicone grease on all fittings. So far it holds up fine.