Solar / Battery Power for SBC

Littlenose

Littlenose

Littlenose

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Joined
27 May 2008
Posts
931
Location
Petersfield, Hampshire
I'm looking to run a SBC from battery, but solar top up to the battery when the sun's out.
I'm a mechanical engineer and have to admit, the electronics for this confound me, and wondered if someone clever with this stuff can point me in the right direction.

I've tried using a couple of small circuits like the 4096 that is often used for charging batteries, but my complication seems to come from wanting to continue drawing power at the same time as benefitting from the solar.

The project is for logging data from my greenhouse, such as temp, humidity etc.
 
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What voltage you looking to run at?
If 12v then plenty of easy options for you.
5v also easy to do, lithium battery is good for rapid recharge, lead acid can be cheaper, maybe used car battery or something.
Also for charge controller I use a pwm85 for 2 of my cars it's a project by some YouTubers and works very well for my use case
 
Littlenose said:
I'm looking to run a SBC from battery, but solar top up to the battery when the sun's out.
I'm a mechanical engineer and have to admit, the electronics for this confound me, and wondered if someone clever with this stuff can point me in the right direction.

I've tried using a couple of small circuits like the 4096 that is often used for charging batteries, but my complication seems to come from wanting to continue drawing power at the same time as benefitting from the solar.

The project is for logging data from my greenhouse, such as temp, humidity etc.
Click to expand...

Before diving in, by any chance do you have anything running Home Assistant? I've got some Sonoff Zigbee thermometers & hygrometers. They're paired up to HA, so I get full logging of temperature and humidity. Wireless, and powered by a button cell battery.
That might be a more elegant solution: https://sonoff.tech/product/gateway-and-sensors/snzb-2d/

However, if you're already sure of running the SBC, You'll need the solar panels to produce around triple the power of the SBC; to run the computer in the day, and to put surplus into the batteries to run it when the sun's gone in.
The simplest and most 'reusable' method I can think of would be to look at kits for caravans and motorhomes. Those'll be designed to maintain a 12v leisure battery; you can then use that battery to power the SBC.
 
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