tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18934249881540095402011-12-30T17:46:28.282-08:00Solar garden fountain project and development of other low cost solar energy solutions.SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-80977673556891727282011-12-30T17:31:00.000-08:002011-12-30T17:46:28.293-08:00

Labeling the controllers, in a way that is out-door ready, has been more difficult that I originally anticipated. I had vinyl labels made by a sign maker, that stick on. Those work but it's difficult to get them put on right, then you have to x-acto knife all the edges and openings. It's time consuming. So I made this jig to hold the box lids so they could be silk-screened.I found some

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-88610493881897428352011-10-13T07:42:00.001-07:002011-10-13T07:51:48.017-07:00

The ICSP header allows you to plug a programmer onto the board so you can download new code to the microcontroller, (uC) as well as debug code that's on there. You can also use the programmer to read data off the uC.There are other standards besides ICSP (In Circuit Serial Programming) it's used by the Microchip products. I use the PIC microcontrollers made by Microchip because they are very

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-50728721755711484232011-09-19T20:16:00.000-07:002011-09-19T20:47:50.171-07:00

You have to have some kind of label on the controller, that looks decent. I've been getting vinyl labels made at sign making shops and then trimming them with an X-acto knife. It turns out nice but is time consuming. So making a silk-screen jig made, so I could get some quality labels and artwork on the controller has been one of many necessary things that I didn't think I'd wind up doing when

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-53339892439581786832011-09-12T20:23:00.000-07:002011-09-12T21:06:34.793-07:00

The LED/Pump driver circuit is where the work get's done. Everything else is just so this section and do it's thing and make stuff move or light up or whatever. In electricity; they like to call what's using the power the "load". So this section controls the load. It has the ability to turn the load on and off via the transistor (labeled IRL3714ZPBF for the part number I'm using). For high

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-75896308830017751582011-09-12T20:18:00.001-07:002011-09-12T20:21:55.567-07:00

Silicone or Polyurethane? May the best water-proofing adhesive WIN!!!(The seedy underbelly of solar controller construction revealed)It will be interesting to see if there's a difference in either one after they setup for a day or so.This is one of those things I never imagined I'd be doing when I set out to build solar powered electronic stuff; but it turns out weatherizing is a major part of

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-61632747470828775152011-08-24T08:16:00.000-07:002011-08-24T08:28:40.819-07:00

Sensing light is pretty simple. Most stuff I've found on it for microcontrollers (uC's) uses LDR's or Light Dependent Resistors. The problem I have with these is two fold. 1) They mostly come in non-weather proof packages so if you left them out in the yard they'd corrode/delaminate and fail within a few months. 2) They're butt-ugly and not as accurate as a photo-transistor. Plus doesn't

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-4310654023012303462011-08-09T07:01:00.000-07:002011-08-09T07:20:15.571-07:00

Here's a snippet of the schematic that shows how the solar panel is regulated. It's connected to the battery when the battery needs to be charged and disconnected when the battery is fully charged (that's the simplistic explanation). Actually it's connected and disconnected many thousands of times a second in order to control the current flowing into the battery in order to get the optimum

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-38546923354957405772011-08-04T19:16:00.000-07:002011-08-04T19:31:58.536-07:00

This picture is the representation of the micro-controller on the schematic. Power and ground on the right. All the multi-purpose pins on the left. The micro-controller is the heart & brains of the controller. It makes the decisions about what do; connect the panel to the battery, turn on the load (LED lights, pumps, motors, etc). You can think of it like a CPU for your computer but it's

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-86998029704967711362011-08-04T06:50:00.000-07:002011-08-04T07:18:50.943-07:00

As promised, the first post that details how a solar controller board works. First here's an overview of what the controller does. A Solar Controller, or a Solar Charge Controller, is a bunch of electronics and code that control the storage or use of energy created by a solar panel.The controller ensures that the battery* doesn't get overcharged or doesn't over-discharge. Both conditions

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-73890803320407472292011-08-03T18:20:00.000-07:002011-08-03T18:36:54.913-07:00

Not much blog activity lately. Plenty of great projects and hacks going on but I don't seem to have the time to write about it at the end of the day. I plan to do a series of posts that breakdown the current solar controller and discuss each section. If you're still reading this then maybe how a solar controller works might be something you'd like to know about. Stay tuned. Every post will

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-91803645845649177712011-05-15T12:53:00.000-07:002011-10-13T07:37:57.166-07:00

Here's the latest design for a solar panel DC/DC buck converter. Ultimately something like this will be used to employ a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorhythm. This design works well for current limiting power from the panel to hold the battery at a specific voltage. The current software runs a 3 stage charging pattern (bulk, saturation and float charge levels) that is configurable to

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-90850916141818752822011-04-17T09:29:00.000-07:002011-04-17T09:45:14.463-07:00

This is the second run at an effective high side (switch the positive side of the panel outputs instead of the negative side) MOSFET panel driver. I designed one that works that I use but it can only be switched at about 200Hz or less and really works best as just a switch. What I have now adds a voltage follower to the circuit as well as a voltage divider paired with a 12 Volt Zener diode to

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-34344652700151490492011-03-19T11:02:00.001-07:002011-03-19T11:06:03.736-07:00

Here's the latest schematic of the Solar Controller board. It's multi-purpose now. Supports both the Solar Fountain and the Solar LED controller.The next step is to add a high-side MOSFET driver and switch out the P-Channel MOSFET for an N-Channel. As it stands here the Panel MOSFET is switched on very slowly (in terms of it happening 5,000 times per second) due to the big 2.2K series resistor

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-24446719446348434602010-06-24T19:36:00.000-07:002010-06-24T19:47:35.845-07:00

Here's a quick video from the Fair exhibit, as well as some other random things seen at the Fair.The exhibit's running strong the whole fair. It goes into low power "geyser" mode in the late afternoon (once the sun gets behind the Bing Crosbie Hall building) and turns on every ten seconds for a bit. It keeps the rock wet and is often enough to keep people looking to see if it will turn on

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-73875640940367324672010-06-03T08:59:00.000-07:002010-06-03T09:23:28.367-07:00

Hi There,Too long without a post. Been busy with many experiments, projects, two river trips (canoe/camping and Kern whitewater), life, and get-paid-for-type-work projects.The controller is running pretty good. Needs some software reworking but hardware is solid so far. The motor controller that worked fine at Earth Day with the 1 amp pump got pretty hot with the 9 amps being pulled by the

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-45381763492391133022010-04-21T07:01:00.000-07:002010-04-21T07:08:49.089-07:00

Here's the schematic that includes the P-channel MOSFET solution for the panel. If you've got some ideas on how to get this done with an N-channel let me know!

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-18243632509477804092010-04-11T21:19:00.000-07:002010-04-11T21:25:48.349-07:00

Sorry so long with no posts. Lot's of news and new projects. I've decided to open source the schematic, source code coming soon. I need to work a few more bugs out first.I've got some error where the panel mosfet still conducts even though there's no voltage on the gate??? Also I'll be showing the fountain controller, and taking orders, on Earth Day, April 24, at AltaVista botanical gardens.

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-2249852864091566532010-02-22T20:13:00.000-08:002010-02-22T20:29:51.064-08:00

I opened up some $2 Harbor Freight multimeters (that's right, $2 with the coupon) so I can see the current coming in from the panels and the current going out from the battery. Pretty simple and something I've wanted to do for a long time. I soldered right to the back of the meter since the probe leads that come with the meters don't look like they'd handle the advertised 10 Amps.Overall it's

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-31972175106145359892010-02-21T21:22:00.000-08:002010-03-01T15:50:15.473-08:00

I worked on tabbing up some cells. It's pretty satisfying when it's all working and your in a rhythm, not so much when they break on you.The blog got mentioned in this Tom's Hardware article: I'm way in the back on the last page:I still like the idea of boosting the .5 to 1V you get out of one of those ebay, 4 amp cells and building a dedicated charging station or something with them. I need

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-28724841722957146192010-02-14T21:03:00.000-08:002010-02-14T21:19:03.597-08:00

I bread boarded up a simple boost converter. Thanks to Ronald Dekker for his post here I was able to steup up my 12V battery to over 100 Volts. But I'm still wrestling with what the scope pictures mean. For instance:Here I can see the voltage jump up off the inductor when I close the switch. How do I know if I'm saturating the inductor completely from this picture?Here's one with all the

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-13888993728859423182010-02-07T19:29:00.000-08:002010-02-07T21:38:33.068-08:00

So I built those cells I got from Electronics Goldmine into a panel. Well, half a panel, they didn't ship enough tabbing wire. The good news is that I tested the half I built and it was pushing 9.75 watts during the weak winter sun we had today. So when I put the other 4 cells in it will be about 19 watts for about $55. Which is a great price for a small panel. I got a $7 picture frame from

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-86623326396464266282010-01-31T16:21:00.000-08:002010-01-31T16:54:34.380-08:00

So the load switch schematic from yesterday worked but it required power from the microcontroller to switch on. So that didn't solve my problem of having the panel on even if the battery and microcontroller are dead.Here's today's solution. I'm pretty sure this will work. It uses an N-Channel mosfet, cheaper and less resistance, instead of a P-Channel. I use the power coming from the panel to

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-72493053870880064852010-01-30T21:59:00.000-08:002010-01-30T21:59:24.905-08:00

Alright, so my P-Channel mosfet circuit from the other night worked better on the breadboard than it did connected to the PIC (the microcontroller).  Excessive current flowed into the microcontroller from the BJT transistor and kind of heated things up until you could smell it.  If you don't burn something up every now and then you're not trying hard enough (or your impatient).  I'll build this

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-26799844748264146532010-01-28T21:34:00.000-08:002010-01-28T21:34:41.174-08:00

So a problem I realized I had a couple months ago is that I can turn the panel on by applying voltage to a electronic switch (N-Channel mosfet) using the microcontroller.  That's great for turning off the panel if the battery is getting overcharged.  The only problem is that if the battery is dead then my microcontroller is not on so I can't apply a voltage to turn the panel on to charge the

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-3735263331720595132010-01-26T20:17:00.000-08:002010-01-30T21:59:54.307-08:00

Here's the exciting update...  I got some standoffs, so I can mount the board in the box, then I soldered up the switch and knob (potentiometer) to the board.  Also I got the code loaded onto the chip and running.  Proof being the blinking LED on the board.  Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP5JdNqs8WE I ran into some frustrating compiler/linker problems over the last couple of days

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1893424988154009540.post-15751216147163109552010-01-23T16:54:00.000-08:002010-01-23T22:04:03.026-08:00

Alright, here's my first blog. This project's been going on for quite a while so I'll catch you up. I'm making a solar powered garden fountain. Not a small one but one that moves a lot of water say, 500 gallons per hour (like your garden hose turned half way up). The fountain is just the first of many projects that are intended to allow people to make use of low cost solar power that they

SolarOnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13087714044590998446noreply@blogger.com3