maintenance
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Compost was down for several hours early in the morning today. As predicted in the previous maintenance log post, I was late getting back to the server on the previous day to unplug and replug. I had assumed I could do it anytime before the charge dropped too low but I realized later that I re-plugged it in too late in the day yesterday for it to develop a full charge before nightfall around 21:30. I awoke after a couple hours of sleep, just after sunrise, having had a premonition the battery might run out. Sure enough the battery had died in the previous couple hours. So I climbed up to the roof and re-plugged it in hoping for the best, seeing the charge hovering in the single digits finally, then went back to sleep. Several hours later and we seem to be okay. I think part of the issue was panel placement. While the panel received good sun during the morning it was in shadow in the evening. I moved the panel to a new position that should get an even amount of sun for much of the day, though the phone is a bit more exposed to the elements now.