This is actually not any sort of product or public project (!) – its something we designed to help me evaluate solar panels and how they act when charging batteries. Normally this requires a lot of multimeters and its a bit of a pain to do if you have to constantly change out panels. So we decided we would build a specialized tool that would assist us. Here is what we wanted!
Portable! Its hard to test solar panels inside
Ability to log to an SD card for long-term data analysis (to be added later)
Keep track of the solar panel voltage
Keep track of the battery voltage
Keep track of how much current is going thru the panel to the charger
This design is intended for ~6V panels, single Lithium Polymer cells and chargers. It can very easily be adapted to any kind of panel and charger, you’ll just need to adjust the resistor dividers and such!
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Open Hardware is In, New CircuitPython and Pi 5 16GB, and much more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
This is great! I’ll likely build something similar very soon. Is there somewhere that we can get more info on the analog boost circuitry you are using on the solderless board in the video? I’m a little confused at how you are doubling your current. It doesn’t seem that’s mentioned on the quickie site, but I may have missed it.
we aren’t so much ‘doubling the current’ out of the panel so much as ‘making the charger work better with the solar panel’
there will be a tutorial later on when we have the project complete (no ETA)
Will the max power point tracker be released as a standalone project, or as part of the charger? Here’s another request for more info! A lot of the stuff that I found on the topic was pretty mysterious…enough that I gave up pretty quickly, at least.
Wow- that’s really cool. Thanks so much for sharing! The Arduino project case is really slick.
This is great! I’ll likely build something similar very soon. Is there somewhere that we can get more info on the analog boost circuitry you are using on the solderless board in the video? I’m a little confused at how you are doubling your current. It doesn’t seem that’s mentioned on the quickie site, but I may have missed it.
we aren’t so much ‘doubling the current’ out of the panel so much as ‘making the charger work better with the solar panel’
there will be a tutorial later on when we have the project complete (no ETA)
Great, thanks! looking forward to it. 🙂
Will the max power point tracker be released as a standalone project, or as part of the charger? Here’s another request for more info! A lot of the stuff that I found on the topic was pretty mysterious…enough that I gave up pretty quickly, at least.