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[on:]

Howdy,

I have a solar panel I got on special from Canadian Tire (Sunforce 50013) which is a 1W solar panel that seems to output anywhere from 6v to 21v, used to keep 12 V Lead-Acid batteries charged.  I was wondering if I could use this with a 12V battery to power an arduino safely.

Basically, I'm building a weather station and the remote station with all the sensors ideally shouldn't be connected to the grid.

The project is similar to this one:

http://blog.tkjelectronics.dk/2010/06/arduino-weather-station-school-project-3/

Anyhow, thoughts?

[Reply #1 on:]

Nice project, well done!
Are the results pushed to the internet too? (in the future?)


Yes is possible,
Be aware that the voltage regulator of the Arduino has to dissipate "7 volts" and maybe more at peaks.
You could make a 2 stage regulator by placing e.g. a 9 V regulator before the Arduino, each removing half of it. optionally use heat sinks.
Also an 12V-1Amp fuse in between might be a good idea as lead batteries can provide a lot of current...

(No electric guru disclaimer

[Reply #2 on:]

I'm going through several iterations of the project.  So yes, eventually I want to have a module push the data to Weather Underground through their API. 

Any good reference for a 9 volt voltage regulator circuit I could use as a base?

Thanks.

PS: If you want to do your own weather station and are missing the wind vane, the anemometer and the rainfall meter, you can get a really easy-to-integrate kit from Argent Data Systems:

https://www.argentdata.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29&products_id=145&osCsid=j6f3el5dmq4nlbgddkegiju260

Getting it to work with an arduino was a snap.

The datasheet is pretty simple to understand:

https://www.argentdata.com/files/80422_datasheet.pdf