Should be getting my Pi any day now and am keen to try out lots of ideas, was wondering if anybody has had any luck running their Pi on solar power alone? I've stumbled across this http://www.maplin.co.uk/6w-portable-sol ... kit-623188 and thought it might fit the bill?
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks in advance.
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fordprefect
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Sat May 26, 2012 11:01 am
Re: Solar Power Kit
You'll need to have something that acts as a buffer between the solar cell (low current and variable dependant on the weather) and the RPi (High (ish) current and needing a constant and stable voltage)
Using 4 rechargable cells should give you a nice bit of headroom, AA cells will do (someone else spotted that this would also give a nice charge rate (C/10 is what most cells like)) but will not give you that long a run time- 2 hours from 1400mAh cells. This is assuming that your RPi will be eating the full 700mA, which it may not be doing if you're just running a keyboard.
You could also use bigger cells (D cell equivalent) which would take longer to charge but run it for longer
You'd also need some sort of power/ voltage regulation and conditioning to get your 6V solar-charged battery pack to give you 5V for your RPi.
Jaz
Using 4 rechargable cells should give you a nice bit of headroom, AA cells will do (someone else spotted that this would also give a nice charge rate (C/10 is what most cells like)) but will not give you that long a run time- 2 hours from 1400mAh cells. This is assuming that your RPi will be eating the full 700mA, which it may not be doing if you're just running a keyboard.
You could also use bigger cells (D cell equivalent) which would take longer to charge but run it for longer
You'd also need some sort of power/ voltage regulation and conditioning to get your 6V solar-charged battery pack to give you 5V for your RPi.
Jaz
Re: Solar Power Kit
Just bought one of these:
http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Pro ... =164692039
I got it for the phone, not for the R-Pi, but thought you guys looking for solar might be interested.
on it's own it maybe not too useful as it's only 200mA charge rate, but does have a 1500mA battery inside and connecting 3 of these together could power the R-Pi.. as long as there is sun!
BTW.. I'm no electrical engineer, so am expecting to be shot down with some got-ya...
http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Pro ... =164692039
I got it for the phone, not for the R-Pi, but thought you guys looking for solar might be interested.
on it's own it maybe not too useful as it's only 200mA charge rate, but does have a 1500mA battery inside and connecting 3 of these together could power the R-Pi.. as long as there is sun!
BTW.. I'm no electrical engineer, so am expecting to be shot down with some got-ya...
Re: Solar Power Kit
I just found this on sneeze-bay
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/26102507 ... sbar&cbt=y
5V 700mA Solar cell. Again I'm not an electrical engineer, but I was thinking one of these hooked up to a voltage regulator and capacitor.
I'm thinking of high altitude (30km) ballooning using the Pi for data logging and image capture. It'll be way above the clouds for most of the trip so plenty of sun light!
http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/26102507 ... sbar&cbt=y
5V 700mA Solar cell. Again I'm not an electrical engineer, but I was thinking one of these hooked up to a voltage regulator and capacitor.
I'm thinking of high altitude (30km) ballooning using the Pi for data logging and image capture. It'll be way above the clouds for most of the trip so plenty of sun light!
Re: Solar Power Kit
I'm eager to see how this pans out...anyone worked out how to use ((raspberry_pi)xN + webcams + solar+ 3G ) to remotely monitor my remote veg plot - (Aka an allotment for no-Brits) anyone have any ideas? I have no power so could put a PV panel on my shed roof- Maybe add a weather monitor. Would like to maybe use movement sensors to keep it monitor/track by exception, or post/tweet weather reports across the community of local growers @cloudstuff