Arduino - solar powered!

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1

As this is my first post, before everything,
Hello guys :slight_smile:

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I'm building a project where I would need arduino to be powered by solar panel, and when there is no sun to use battery source.

On image you can see that Solar panel is connected to this controller and it goes to battery, but at first instead of battery I connected to arduino and it was working perfectly.

This "solar controller" it's a big unknown on internet. There are some tutorials and something but really badly translated to english language. I cannot even understand what and how.
What are those two screws I have A and B?

Directly solar panel gives 14V, and I've noticed after several test that when I'm playing with screws, I got different voltage on output(where battery is)

depends how much you screw it, it gives either, 8V, 8.3V, 9V.... in steps by 0.1V you can change voltage.
But for what is the second screw?
There is a led on that controller sometimes red, when you screw it a bit, then it's blue?

Can I use this to power my arduino with battery and solar?
I know there are controllers like this:

But can I use this one also? The red one?
I just need some description of that product because I cannot find ANYTHING online.

Thanks guys so much!

2

Sure you can! Begin by looking at the silk screen text next to the two screws. Look at: What is Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) | NAZ Solar Electric. That is what one screw is for.

I began by looking for a matching image on Google. Found the Ebay posting. No help there, but could see the silk screen text "mppt" and Googled for that text. Found lots.

Paul

3

Thank you so much!
I managed to get little info about this device, I can use it now properly :slight_smile:

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I managed to get little info about this device

Wow - if a guy from Google can't find any information on it -- it must not exist... 8)

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haha :slight_smile:

Trust me I did research!
Just like Paul said, only way to find it it's by image, and then investigate.

I managed to find what those screws on board are, but wanted little better clarification from someone who maybe used something like that to get better picture about the product.

Anyway I did several tests and figure it out!

Thanks anyway

6

A cheaper option than buying solar panels, solar controllers and whatnot would be simply to purchase a USB solar battery pack. They mass-produce 'em.