Charging Lithium Ion batteries via a solar panel can be very difficult, and in some cases dangerous. That’s where this universal solar charger designed by Adafruit comes into play.
So, what does it do? It handles all the tricky circuitry required for safely charging Lithium Polymer (LiPoly) or Lithium Ion (LiIon) rechargeable batteries via a solar panel. Not an easy task! Making the connections is easy. You have a convenient barrel jack connector for a solar panel, also available at Adafruit. And you have a standard
connector for your battery on the other side of the board. At the heart of the board is the bq24074 IC which handles all the complexities and automatically draws the most current available from the solar panel. Charging these types of batteries can be complicated, so make sure to head over to the website to learn more about this handy little charger.
They give it a 10 out of 10, saying it’s a “A great solution for solar power management.”
Please note: Adafruit now has a newer, easier, and cheaper design for solar charging – check out the bq24074-based Adafruit Universal USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger!It has more input protection and wider voltage range, no need for a large capacitor, USB C, and more. They’ll continue stocking this older design for folks who need it. For new Solar charging projects, please use the bq24074.
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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.
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Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Python Releases, an ESP32+MicroPython IDE 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
