Help changing an existing project form the Hub for my project

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

I am currently trying to find a way for an ESP8266 mini board to be automatically powered by either a battery or a solar panel.

I found this...
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/igorF2/solar-charged-battery-powered-arduino-uno-645d89

and it ticked all the "boxes" that I was after for this project (the battery side) but I have one issue with it...

It is based off of a 6V solar panel but what I will be using was measured as a 12.5V solar panel.

can someone help me in how I should make it possible as the solar panel was from an old kit.

and if possible is there a way It could "split" the solar output between the board and charging the battery (when it needs to top up) at the same time?

Thanks

2

Use a buck converter!

3

What is a "buck converter"?

4
5

:woman_facepalming:
I just looked it up, it was a little confusing due to the fact that (from my knowledge and understanding) a "buck converter" is also known as a DC-DC converter that can manipulate the voltage. Thanks.

6

That's right. And you could say indeed that it 'manipulates' voltage, i.e. it converts is.
What's the confusing part exactly?

7

It was mainly due to what you called it. I am also trying to have an/multiple LED indicates on...

a: checking the status of the power supply LED.
b: check the status of the solar panel. i.e. is the solar panel powering the board or is the battery?

8

Ok, so a DC-DC converter is often called a buck converter, especially if it's a step-down converter. A buck converter topology can also be used to generate a higher output voltage from a lower DC input, and then we generally call it a boost converter or a buck-boost converter.

That's nice.

9

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