I’m working on a project for a solar powered garden sensor with wireless connectivity via xbee to a Yun basestation. I’ve come a long way but I’m trying to pack as many sensors as possible in without driving up the cost or form factor too much. To that end I’m wondering if there is a way to get dual use out of the solar panel. In other words, is there a way to both power the Arduino and measure the light intensity utilizing a single source i.e. the solar panel?
netgeos:
is there a way to both power the Arduino and measure the light intensity utilizing a single source i.e. the solar panel?
It's not clear whether you already have figured out the size of solar panel needed to power your system.
Using the solar panel to measure sunlight is not so easy. I guess if you had a system that could use all the watts available at any instant you would get some sort of data by measuring the volts and amps being produced. But you would probably need to know the relationship between light intensity and power output for your particular panel.
However if you are using the panel to power some device, or recharge batteries I think you will find it very difficult to get meaningful data because the output of the panel will be affected by the demand.
I suspect a simple Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) would be a better way to measure light intensity and it would just need one of the Arduino's analog inputs.
