Vielen Dank Andreas für Deine Arbeit und Deine sehr gut ausgeführten Erklärungen. Als "Quereinsteiger" in die Welt der Elektronik helfen mir Deine Videos sehr die Hintergründe zu verstehen, um auch selber in der Welt der Elektronik erfolgreich zu Experimentieren und eben auch zu Lernen. Wirklich ein herzliches Dankeschön von meiner Seite....
I know. I learned to fly in Venice in June/July! I experienced the sun as well as the afternoon storms. Sometimes dangerous for a novice: I have good memories (Yes, it was the airport wher the guy from 911 learned to fly, but many years earlier)...
Andreas Spiess Just heard about they landslide in Switzerland. I hope you are not caught up in this and that you and your loved ones are ok. My heartfelt thoughts are with your fellow countrymen my friend.
It happened at the other end of Switzerland, so no problem here. Many voices say, it has to do with global warming. The risk to live in these areas increased considerably over the last years.
That may require some sun which is like winning the lottery in Ireland! So far finding that TP4056 is pulling (small) panel voltage low so charge is at a low rate. I will look at tuning for our low insolation level her in Ireland. Thanks again!
Hello Andreas, Thanks for the excellent review of solar charging modules. You may wish to consider testing this module: "5V 1A Micro USB 18650 Lithium Battery Charging Board Charger Module+Protection Dual Functions". The PCB is labeled "03962A". This module is based on the TP5056 and in addition to battery and charging pins it also has power out. The benefit is you can use unprotected Li-Ion 18650 cells and power a project when charging or not. This charging module has battery discharge protection at 2.5V. I am hoping it will perform as well as the TP4056 board you tested but will be more functional as you can use unprotected cells. I have used over 300 of these modules for charging and powering devices but have not tested them as solar chargers and would be keen to see if they are useful for this. Also note, while they have through hole connections you can also surface mount them to speed up assembly. Keep up the excellent work! Cheers, Matthew.
Hi. I really like this. You are doing this heavy lifting for us, Thank you for that!. In my similar projects for sleeping Atmega328 chips using Lipo batterys and two 1Watt solar panels 6V each panel I have used this perfect TP4056 module. Very low power consume and input voltage up to 8V is perfect with 6V panels! Please keep on going similar project. ESP is quit new to me and I want to learn more. Regars Tuomo Finland
Must be careful, they are still pawning the single chip ones out there, which have no battery over-voltage protection. You want the ones with 3 chips (both are TP4056)... You will see the new ones in a picture, and find China shipped you the old ones.. :)
A schottky diode seams the obvious solution for back current protection but try using a mosfet it will have better performance like low voltage drop and low RdsOn.
Missed that bit. Thanks for reminding me. I'm now thinking about a latching relay. But is there such a thing as a latching MOSFET? Maybe a PNP MOSFET is the answer and although I haven't done much searching guess that controlling the gate would be too much extra circuitry anyway.
There's TP4056 boards that *do* have separate pins for the battery/load (has discharge protection), I've got both types and the chip is the same, prices for both are very cheap.
Yes, these dual connection 4056 battery/load boards are cheap enough to buy by the dozen. I remember seeing somewhere... possibly another Andreas video.. that having the load connected simultaneously to charging the battery may cause some concern to the overcharge logic on the board. Why then would separate pins be provided? Simultaneous hook-ups have not been a problem during my short experiments.
Craig Larson if you connect load to the same line as battery you can damage the battery permanently by going below ~2.5V, that's why you need separate pins
Again, you hit the bull's eye: You did the research I planned for my holydays next month. Thanks for that and you did it in a great way. I'm full of expectation on you review of the "SwitchDoc Labs" solar charge controller board as I encountered some thermal problems which heavely dropped the efficiency and makes this expensive board (version from 2016) somehow useless.
I'm not certainly good as well as you, probably because I don't have switzerland accent at all. But I live not so many km southern as you and I care about solar panel efficiency on winter time. I made my tiny solar charger using the joule thief tecnology to optimize the worst cases. Also mounting the solar panel for winter angle of sun, keep the panel cleaner and doesn't matter on summer time, because is much better than winter. To limit voltage, is done with zener kind circuitry, evently with a transistor to dissipate heat. however, you did a very nice job
You are right to optimize your installation for the worst case. However these days, solar panels are no more expensive and I use a "too big" panel to avoid too much optimization.
Clear methodical approach. I like it. A bit much to fully grasp in one go but more info is better than less. I will need to watch over a in the future. When the complete investigation is in can you summarise on a spreadsheet and link in in the description? I think that will be really useful.
Hi again. About TP4056: When you use the TP4056 module with the protección board, you will get a dropout voltaje of 0.4 - 0.7V in the output. That is because the forward voltage of the reverse diodes of the mosfet of the FS8205A. DW01A pin 3 is for overcharge control and is connected to pin 5 in FS8205A DW01A pin 1 is for discharge control and is connected to pin 4 in FS8205A Also, overcurrent protection use the DW01A pin 1 The TP4056 already control to protect for overcharge the battery, so what about a bypass between FS8205A's pin 6 or 7 and FS8205A's pin 1 or 8 (see datassheet) We will loose overcharge protection of DW01A, but we have already the TP4056's one. We will change over current protection as the Ron of the mosfets of FS8205A that DW01A will see, will be the half, so we will change over current protection from 2.5A to 5A (I think both of them are useless, 2.5A is usually a lot for our projects). You can "repair" it by putting a resistence of 30mOhm or bigger instead of the direct bypass. With this modification we will get the real battery voltaje in our output only loosing the overcurrent protection (more or less), won't we ? I hope you understand me, regards,
I did not look at the protection part of the TP4056 during my tests (I only used the battery pins). If I continue towards the microprocessor, I might have a look at the protection. AFAIK, all TP4056 protect the battery from charging over 4.2 volts, because they only provide 4.2 volts. And the current is also limited to 1A or lower for all TP4056. The only protection needed would be a protection against undervoltage.
Yes, both DW01A and FS8205A gives you that undervoltage protection, but as I have explained, I think that we loose 0,4V in our output pins. Maybe with the proposal bypass we will avoid that dropoutvoltaje Waiting for your tomorrow's video .... ;) cheers !!! Regards,
Thank you for your response.I can see that you can only increase the voltage. I have also set up the Wemos device mentioned in an earlier. post but have yet to test. From a previous project I have an Adafruit solar charge controller that I hope to test.that a well. Rather expensive but then I'm wheelchair bound and can't walk so this is my only pleasure. I am 80 years old and find solldeing difficult!
Another well researched and detailed video. I look forward to seeing your recommendation for use with the 3.3 and 5 volt microcontrollers. I'm building a wildlife camera with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and would like to know if it is feasible to connect a solar panel to keep the Pi's Li-Po battery charged.
Very nice video, but unfortunately you will need more which will cause additional loss etc. My solar stuff tests here in the Northern part is ... well a bit depressing. Getting 3 Watts from a 50 Watt panel on a cloudy day (like in 90% of the days) and you soon will see that even powering low power devices requires more than what you actually think you needed. My advice is to just get a much bigger panel. Of course knowing what works best and to know how it all works out is step number 1 but the the disappointment will soon kick in after knowing that our eyes seeing light and getting power from a panel is a much different thing.
I think, I chose the way to understand each component and then build the whole system. Your remark about lack of Solar energy is probably why people go to the south for holidays. Maybe we have to do the same thing with our Solar panels...
Hi Andreas, thanks for the video, very interesting and useful. One remark about your explanation of the power curve: Your spoken description does not seem to match the way your pencil follows the curve. You should start pointing at the lower right corner of the power curve when not loading the solar panel. Then when increasing the load, the power increases quickly to the maximum with the output voltage decreasing relatively little. When loading the panel more, the power and output voltage start to lower "slowly" until the output power and voltage are zero (lower left corner)
I will be waiting for that! I have the same module as the link shows with the heat sink. Unfortunately some of them not contains the heat sink. I choose this because of LiFePo charging capability and the 2A seems okay. Not too much found on the internet, just some articles where show the efficiency of this module a little bit better than the TP4056 module. Thank you Andreas every of your efforts!
Good morning Andreas! Thanks for another nice video (watched all intermediate ads in return). My experimental ESP8266 MQTT node uses the HT1117 and features a 1W 6V panel with a cheap TP4056 protected Li-Po charger connected to a 650mAh Li-Po via a schottky diode. I'm taking good notice of your testing setup because I want to properly measure mine. Based on your video I really need to test if the diode is needed. I use the protected version of the charger so that might behave different from the version you use. Maybe you also can test that version? Secondly I need to measure the input voltage as looking at your measurements it may get too high. Perhaps there are efficient ways to optimize it to a fixed (mppt-like) level. Looking forward to see your follow-up video... Have a nice day!
i'm building a similar setup and was thinking of putting a supercapacitor and tp431 shunt before the tp4056 to feed it with a steady voltage, as i was assuming it would just turn on and off frequently and not charge very well and adversely affect the battery. also thought i'd need a 1n4001 diode to prevent backfeed to the panel, i also have the new protected dw01+8205 micro usb version. i was thinking of changing Rprog (R3) to 5k1 to output 240mA charge current to roughly match my 5v 1.2W panel to achieve very basic MPPT. looking at this video i can greatly simplify my design!
Simon John - interesting idea to use Rprog! Perhaps using a potmeter as variable resistor would allow for futher experiments in different circumstances. I now have my panel indoors behind a window in some awkward orientation. Charging is probably far from optimal but in summertime the battery gets fully charged with enough energy to wake up every quarter to report sensor status and survive the night. However I need further improvements for wintertime and for more frequent awakenings.
@ 3:10 upper right corner converter is a beast LTC3780 Automatic Buck Boost Constant Current Power Module you can use your cars battery and set the converter to stop the connection so it doesn't totally kill the battery CC and CV. Nice
Not to mention this device not only stops you car battery from dying, but it will also stop a single 18650 or LiPo pack from dying. So it can come in handy as a under voltage device
If you have "too much" power during high illumination you are probably doing something wrong... Most solar panels are most efficient at higher light levels and can decrease quite significantly at low light levels (like indoor lighting for example). For indoor applications amorphous silicon solar panel are probably the best option. While mono-/polycrystalline solar panels perform a lot better in daylight. Amorphous silicon solar panels are actually more efficient in very low light levels. That's why they are mainly used in devices like calculators etc. that don't need much power but should ideally work even in low light environments. To be fair, I think for you application monocrystalline is probably the best option, since it's generally the most efficient in normal daylight (even when it's cloudy etc.) and setting the MPP voltage somewhere close to the correct voltage is probably more than good enough (certainly better than without MPP). But you should definitely take advantage of the peaks. If your battery doesn't have such a high capacity and is full fairly quickly, you should get a bigger battery or a smaller solar panel. The battery will last a lot longer if not fully charged/discharged all the time anyway (though if your project is outside the cold will likely be a bigger problem for Li-Ion batteries anyway when it comes to lifetime). I hope I don't come across the wrong way. I think you've summed up the topic very well and you've saved me a lot of time with some of your videos. Just thought this may be worth pointing out.
I saw some tests and the difference between the two technologies was no more big. These days it is probably cheaper to use a bigger panel because of cheap price. But I am no specialist in Solar Panels.
Hey Andreas. Super Video, wenn man sich die alten anschaut ist die Qualität wirklich enorm gestiegen. Macht Spaß jetzt viel mehr Spaß dir zu zuschauen. Kleiner Hinweis noch: Die neue Version des TP4046 Boards hat ebenfalls eine Möglichkeit einen Verbraucher einzeln anzuschließen.
Hi, I have a question that is really important. Which of those chargers can be used with Arduino which constantly draws current without the risk of messing with the charge termination features of the module and overcharging the battery?
Hi, with 37691 , let's say we charged the battery with solar energy in the morning, can we run another device from this battery in the evening? Is current flowing to both the battery and the device we connected to the outlet in the morning with solar energy?
You can run a device as long as the battery is charged (think of solar as an additional power source). Solar either feeds your device or charges the battery if enough solar energy is available
Andreas, the CN3065 does have a resistor (marked Rxin figure 2 of data sheet) that alters the voltage. Do you intend looking further into the poor results for this device? I have ordered one but have to wait for the 'slow boat fromChina'.
With this resistor, you can only add to the battery voltage (Vbat ＝ 4.2＋3.04×10-6×Rx ), which is probably not a good idea with LiPo batteries. And you can just go higher than 4.2 volts. So, nothing for LiFePo4. In the full sun tests of today it performed a bit better. I will keep it in the selection. I need also bad examples to show how good others are ;-) And to prevent people to buy devices which do not fit.
Hi Andreas, thanks for your videos! Would it be possible to charge a LiFePo4 directly from a 4v Solar-Panel? With a Schottky-Diode there should be a maximum voltage of 3.6V . My small garden-lamp´s also do not have any charging circuit... Or am i getting something wrong with solar panels?
Should be possible, if the panel is not too big. Otherwise, it might overcharge the battery. Maybe you test if the voltage is not much higher than 3.6 volts with a fully charged battery and if full sun (worst case).
Very good and informative video! I would like to see a test on the more professional devices esp. for 12V battery systems which might be the most common to camping, yachting e.g. I wonder if an ordenary buck converter has the same performance as a so called MPP tracker. Most advertised MPPTs are only PWM controllers, esp. the cheap ones on ebay! Of course it all depends of the load you put to the converter. I would say a lipo / Liion battery is a very common one or a lead acid battery.
Great stuff Andreas! I have ordered only the CN3791 for my tests, the one I got only started charging starting at ~11V, I had to replace the resistors (same ones you mentioned) to other values so it started charging at 5V. Can you tell us where you describe/build the meters you mentioned at 13:10?
Speaking of solar panels I recently bought a Bosco 10,000 mAh solar power bank from Ace Hardware. It had two 5V outputs, and could also be charged from AC. But, it was dead on arrival. I charged it from AC for 24 hours, and still dead. At no time was there any current flow from the charger. I left it in the sun all day, to see if it would charge that way, and it's still dead.
Thank you for the suggestion. I tried leaving it out in the sun again today (so naturally it rained most of the day). However, whatever solar charge it received must have set or reset something, as now the AC charging works. It charges at about 1 amp, and has 2 of the 4 status LEDs light, after several hours, which is what is expected. In other words, while it was DOA, and AC charging didn't work, after some solar charging, the AC charging started to work. Before I took it outside today I put the solar charger inside an airtight & watertight plastic food container, which has a clear cover, and that worked OK, as well as protecting it from the heavy rain. It's typhoon season here, so not the best time to start playing with solar stuff.
The specs say it takes up to 12 hours on a 1 amp charger, or up to 50 hours at not less than 3,000 Lux. The battery is Lithium Polymer and the solar panel is Polysilicon (1 Watt). 3 of the 4 LEDs are on steady now while the charging rate has dropped to 700 mA (it's been charging on AC for about 8 hours). I just put a meter on the output and it's 5.10 V with no load. The cost was under $10, because it rang up at the register $2 less than the price tag indicated (I just noticed that now). It even came with a common square 1 A charger (100 - 240 V 50/60 Hz), plus a USB cable with a micro USB connector tip and a Lightning tip. It claims to have a "USB torch." There is no power out when it is charging.
Hi Andreas, as always again a great video. Could you tell something about the 6V Solar decision? I tried the same configuration with the TP4056 and a 5V module and was not happy because there was plenty of light required and it did not work very well. Then I tried 2x 5V in series, but also not really successful. It looks like the 6V is the only one that is working. I had the problem, that the battery was only charged on sunny day and then only for a few hours, when voltage was high enough. Is there a way to get the Power in any case? Even if cloudy. I:m fine getting 0.1W 10h a day instead of 10h nothing.
I moved on the weekend with my 5V panel. Thank god the sun is now shining. I found out that for my 5v panel that practical delivers 50mA on 4.7V (Datasheet 5V 175mA). Goes down to 20-30mA on the TP4056. It looks like on this tiny Solar panels the world is different. It might be a better idea to directly connect the Solar to the battery and get the 4.2V stuff solved. It looks like the Lost through additional components is higher than the benefit from MPP point reaching in this kind of low power.
It is quite important that your panels do not go below their MPP. Otherwise they lose a lot of power. The TP4056 has no such capabilities. So, you have to change the charging current to fit the solar panel (one resistor on the module).
I am planning a small project with small solar panels charging a few AA size rechargeable batteries outside in all weather conditions. Would TP4056 work well for this application having in mind that in winter the charger will have to drop the current to charge the batteries slowly?
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you for responding, Andreas. Is this the video you are referring to: ua-cam.com/video/_TSouG7xb1A/v-deo.html There is no mention of any specific charger in this video. :-(
Thanks for this video. I just ordered some LM2577S Boost-Buck chargers to test with solar cells. Maybe I have to order another chip. Which solar panels are you using?
Great Video Andreas. One doubt, when connecting the Solar cell to the TP4056, do we need a Zener Diode at the input to prevent reverse current to the Solar Cell?
Andreas, once again another excellent video presentation. What are your thought regarding the RF interference that a buck converter generates if we are going to be using solar to work with a lora node? The buck seems to provide the lowest energy loss but I'm concerned the resulting interference could negate the benefits.
+CJ Brown Switchers are on 300 kHz and LoRa on 868 MHz. Should be ok. But check the current the converter uses during sleep. Because this is the longest time.
I need quantity of 4 batteries of 18650 in parallel for my project.. Can I charge these on one solar board ? Any board ? If not, how would I accomplish this ?
You have to search for a solar charger for your 4 batteries. Then you have to search for a solar panel that produces enough voltage according to the specifications of this charger. I assume a 21V solar panel should do it (4x4.2V=16.8V).
Great work again Andreas. Impressive and logical and clear approach to the issues. I look forward to the 3rd 'solar' video with great interest. Thank you for sharing your research and putting the time into your videos. At low voltages there is no charge being delivered to the battery. The charges seemed to be 'simply' designed? As someone commented earlier, is a boost converter an option to charge during low voltage from the solar panel?
Thanks! The voltage of a solar panel is low because there is no energy available. So, if you boost this voltage, you do not get more energy, just more voltage.
Andreas, Great as always! I have a question, though, about the TP4056 and other LiPo chargers. Since they don't 'trickle charge', under what conditions will they trigger another charge cycle?
Andreas, so I understand... If a TP4056 module is always connected between panel & battery, the panel will go through it's pre-programmed cycle on it's own, but only once the battery voltage drops to a threshold, correct? In other words, the preferred method is therefore to connect a new style TP4056 module (3 chips, not 1 = protection) permanently to the rechargeable battery? It would be undesirable to have to unplug & plug-in the charger manually...
Hello, really nice video. you are a gifted teacher. Did you later do the follow-up video about the charge controller? i have checked your video page but couldn't find such video. If you did, can you direct me to it by replying with a link?
Great video ! As usual. Btw, if you can make recommendations for a charger/controller to use in combination with 12V Lead/Acid batteries (for motorcycly).
True. I've done some research, but there's no video that comes with so much detailed information as yours. BangGood and similar sites offer many products, but the quality/result afterwards (when tested in the field) are sometimes dissapointing.
Hello Andreas, have you ever considered using supercaps to store solar energy? They withstand better the outdoor temperatures than the lithium batteries. Sure they hold less energy but a lot of optimization can be done on the microcontroller side where you can have an Arduino pro mini drawing just a few micro amps.
I looked them up after your post. But they only support very, very low currents. So, they are probably for very small super caps in very low power devices.
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to have a solar power ups. Just a small 10440 as a battery backup, that doesn't need to be charged, it's just needed for heavy clouds. Also needing the lowest voltage drop from the solar panel as possible.
Hi, @andreas good video as always. There is also a cheap solution for charge a battery: a simple direct connection with a TL431 to protect over 4.2V. If solar panel current is more than 100-150mA you have to use a TL431 and a MOSFET like SI2301 or 2302. But usually this little solar panel have low power. I am sure that this option hasnt the best performance, but could you check it, please ?
Hi Andreas. PLease add this characteristics to your test: drop voltaje from battery terminals to output.I have been doing some test with TP4056 with protection circuit. I have found that there is always a big dropout voltaje between B+B- terminales and OUT+OUT- terminals.Googling I haven't found almost information, but finally I get some:"Notice on battery protection circuit, one MOSFET operates Drain to Source and other MOSFET operates Source to Drain? The diodes drop too much voltage for battery use."It is clear with this datasheet (normally TP4056 boards take FS8205A doble mosfet IC): www.spectron.us/SM6FIE/Electronics/SparkFunLiIon/FS8205A-DS-14_EN.pdfWe are lossing lost of power (0,5V) with that kind of battery protection. Do you know any thing better? Regards,
@Andreas Spiess Why don''t you use a buck converter to step down the 3.7v of the LiPo to the required 3.3v of your microcontroller? It will be much more power efficient than a LDO regulator.
Andreas Spiess oh, I see your point. Could you check and..... um, let me know :P I am working on a project and am debating whether to use a LDO or a buck converter. And oh, I do utilize the deep sleep, so we have similar scenarios. Thank you, even if you can't! No problem!
XL6009 With this module there is a big problem, when the voltage drop at the inlet below 3.3 V, the output gives 40V! Even if the resistor is exposed to a current of 5v
Thank you , I want to make a simple sensor that measure the moisture in trees and just report once in a sunny day , I do not want the device to be on all the time , just one minute is enough , can I do that with just (solar panel + CN3791 Solar Charger + ESP8266 ) , without battery ?
Thank you again , excuse my low knowledge this is not my area , how much µF do you think I need ? Also do you think I need DC 5V to 3.3V Step-Down Power Supply Module AMS1117-3.3 LDO 800MA ?
1. I would use the biggest you have (a few thousand uF is ok) 2. The AMS1117 is ok if you want to use it in full sun. 3. I think, you have also to think about how to switch the ESP on and off, because It could get unstable if your voltage is not stable (and it will be unstable, especially if the sun starts to shine). You should start the ESP only if the voltage is around 3 volt. Maybe you Google for "Voltage Detectors ic"
Thank you very much Sir ! , Would be nice if you can cover this "Standalone" sensors in one of your episodes , it is very good for farmers and area with big landscape .. etc
Great job, sir! You helped me a Lot in clarifying basic doubs of nRF24L01 modules. I would like yo write in the nRF24L01 registers but when writing radio.write(NRF_CONFIG, 0x7E); i get error in the compiler. Do you know The way to modify the nRF24L01 registers? Regards!
Maybe you have a look into the RF24 library where you fing modules like uint8_t read_register(uint8_t reg, uint8_t* buf, uint8_t len); /** * Read single byte from a register * * @param reg Which register. Use constants from nRF24L01.h * @return Current value of register @p reg */ uint8_t read_register(uint8_t reg); /** * Write a chunk of data to a register * * @param reg Which register. Use constants from nRF24L01.h * @param buf Where to get the data * @param len How many bytes of data to transfer * @return Current value of status register */ uint8_t write_register(uint8_t reg, const uint8_t* buf, uint8_t len); /** * Write a single byte to a register * * @param reg Which register. Use constants from nRF24L01.h * @param value The new value to write * @return Current value of status register */ uint8_t write_register(uint8_t reg, uint8_t value); /** * Write the transmit payload * * The size of data written is the fixed payload size, see getPayloadSize() * * @param buf Where to get the data * @param len Number of bytes to be sent * @return Current value of status register */ uint8_t write_payload(const void* buf, uint8_t len, const uint8_t writeType); /** * Read the receive payload * * The size of data read is the fixed payload size, see getPayloadSize() * * @param buf Where to put the data * @param len Maximum number of bytes to read * @return Current value of status register */ uint8_t read_payload(void* buf, uint8_t len); /** * Retrieve the current status of the chip * * @return Current value of status register */
Thanks for your help sir, the detail consisted in changing from private to public the class where functions of writing and reading registers are defined in RF24.h library. Now I can modify registers and access the CE pin. I am developing an RF sensor for a security system and my priority is that the signals sent by the transmitters reach the receiver without risk of losing the data, but if the maximum retransmissions is exceeded(MAX_RT = 1), I can still restart the sending by putting CE at low and then activating it to restart the transmission. I appreciate your comments, any suggestions are welcome. have a nice weekend!.
I see several people have similar experiences. I also have the problem getting 90% of the day nothing. I used 2 5V Solrar in serial and a Step Down converter. Bad luck the StepDown consumes nearly all of the energy....
If the open circuit voltage is below 5.5 volt, you will anyway get no power, even if you boost the voltage, because there is no solar energy available. That is the intrinsic problem of solar energy ;-) and has to be solved by storage devices. BTW: This is the reason for my fist video about this topic.
I have the same charger as yours on the video. You can use it for lifepo4 and li-ion too! If you don't know how to setup it, Voltlog has a nice video on yt, try it out ;-)
No, the world will speak Desesperanto which sounds extremely like English, BUT does not contain 72 genders and cannot be used to offend… #FreeKekistan Btw: Schwizerdütsch is better anyway...
Mr Spiess, another great video, it reminds me of another video, where mppt and supercaps are used for exactly this application: ua-cam.com/video/KhDnqtAT1no/v-deo.html
This is certainly a topic I've been wanting to study. Thank you so much for your effort in documenting this.
I look forward to your results.
You are welcome!
Vielen Dank Andreas für Deine Arbeit und Deine sehr gut ausgeführten Erklärungen. Als "Quereinsteiger" in die Welt der Elektronik helfen mir Deine Videos sehr die Hintergründe zu verstehen, um auch selber in der Welt der Elektronik erfolgreich zu Experimentieren und eben auch zu Lernen. Wirklich ein herzliches Dankeschön von meiner Seite....
Bitte, gern geschehen...
Thank you Andreas for your efforts making our development way easier.
:-)
Very informative !
I like the way you approach the problems and you present the results.
Waiting for the next video ! 👍👍
:-)
Wonderfully scripted and delivered professional informative video! I am very impressed again. Thanks.
You are welcome!
Sir, This is great! I am waiting your upcoming videos about Solar Powered uC's ! Thanks a lot!
You are welcome!
Amazing video, as always, thank you Andreas.
You are welcome!
This is great! I'm in Florida, we get sun about 90% of every day. The sun even shines when it rains here sometimes.. so it's a win win 🎉🎉
I know. I learned to fly in Venice in June/July! I experienced the sun as well as the afternoon storms. Sometimes dangerous for a novice: I have good memories (Yes, it was the airport wher the guy from 911 learned to fly, but many years earlier)...
A very good morning to Andreas on Sunday 😀😀
5am post 😲😲😲
Loving Solar and your approach.
As always a big thank you from England🇬🇧
Shall I publish the video a little later to not steal your sleep? Thanks!
Andreas Spiess
Just heard about they landslide in Switzerland. I hope you are not caught up in this and that you and your loved ones are ok. My heartfelt thoughts are with your fellow countrymen my friend.
It happened at the other end of Switzerland, so no problem here. Many voices say, it has to do with global warming. The risk to live in these areas increased considerably over the last years.
Andreas Spiess
Great news you are ok🙏
Thank you for sharing your research. Very useful for all sort of people who want to build any microcontroller solar powered device. Nice video ☺️.
Thank you!
thanks for your time investigating this problem. for sure it will help a lot of people who want to power small devices with solar.
:-)
Thanks Andreas! I am tinkering with TP4056 + lipo for 3.3v LoRa nodes but mine is a far less scientific approach. Very insightful again.
Thanks! Then, you can compare your findings with mine...
That may require some sun which is like winning the lottery in Ireland!
So far finding that TP4056 is pulling (small) panel voltage low so charge is at a low rate. I will look at tuning for our low insolation level her in Ireland. Thanks again!
You can change the charging current of the TP4056 by changing a resistor.
Andreas Spiess This is the plan. I have a 4k7 smt resistor, should work on a deep sleeping node and 800mAh LiPo with max charge current about 270mA
Hello Andreas, Thanks for the excellent review of solar charging modules.
You may wish to consider testing this module: "5V 1A Micro USB 18650 Lithium Battery Charging Board Charger Module+Protection Dual Functions". The PCB is labeled "03962A". This module is based on the TP5056 and in addition to battery and charging pins it also has power out. The benefit is you can use unprotected Li-Ion 18650 cells and power a project when charging or not. This charging module has battery discharge protection at 2.5V.
I am hoping it will perform as well as the TP4056 board you tested but will be more functional as you can use unprotected cells.
I have used over 300 of these modules for charging and powering devices but have not tested them as solar chargers and would be keen to see if they are useful for this.
Also note, while they have through hole connections you can also surface mount them to speed up assembly.
Keep up the excellent work!
Cheers, Matthew.
I will check if I have such a module and test it, if so.
Awesome video. Much appreciated! Looking forward for more test and a clear winner! Most regards from sweden
Thanks!
Really, this video is my ultimate reference for solar chargers, thanks a lot, did not think the tp4056 would perform so well. Definitely my choice
Glad I could help
@@AndreasSpiess this is not only help, you inspire and motivate .
Hi. I really like this. You are doing this heavy lifting for us, Thank you for that!. In my similar projects for sleeping Atmega328 chips using Lipo batterys and two 1Watt solar panels 6V each panel I have used this perfect TP4056 module. Very low power consume and input voltage up to 8V is perfect with 6V panels!
Please keep on going similar project. ESP is quit new to me and I want to learn more.
Regars Tuomo
Finland
Thanks. You find many more videos about the ESP8266 on this channel...
Thanks for the video, tried to search for all that information for the last 2 hours :)
So you were very fast ;-)
great video as always ... the new TP4056 Boards have additional OUT+- Pads for undervoltage protection.
Which boards are those please? Hard sorting which are "new" as apposed to fake.
the new ones have micro usb connection ... the link under the video points to the new ones
Carsten Klein i have several, others reports those chips are fake. So confusing, but thanks.
Must be careful, they are still pawning the single chip ones out there, which have no battery over-voltage protection. You want the ones with 3 chips (both are TP4056)... You will see the new ones in a picture, and find China shipped you the old ones.. :)
A schottky diode seams the obvious solution for back current protection but try using a mosfet it will have better performance like low voltage drop and low RdsOn.
Thanks for the tip. I did not think about that possibility.
Thanks much again Andreas!
I'm currently backing the TP4056 but will await your great investigations.
Phil B the tp4056 is a regulator so a LOT of energy is wasted
Missed that bit. Thanks for reminding me.
I'm now thinking about a latching relay. But is there such a thing as a latching MOSFET?
Maybe a PNP MOSFET is the answer and although I haven't done much searching guess that controlling the gate would be too much extra circuitry anyway.
I am not sure if switching regulators are always more efficient. We will see...
thank you for one more video about solar power. Very good.
:-)
There's TP4056 boards that *do* have separate pins for the battery/load (has discharge protection), I've got both types and the chip is the same, prices for both are very cheap.
Thanks. I will see if I have such a device and if yes, will use it in my next video.
Yes, these dual connection 4056 battery/load boards are cheap enough to buy by the dozen. I remember seeing somewhere... possibly another Andreas video.. that having the load connected simultaneously to charging the battery may cause some concern to the overcharge logic on the board. Why then would separate pins be provided? Simultaneous hook-ups have not been a problem during my short experiments.
Craig Larson if you connect load to the same line as battery you can damage the battery permanently by going below ~2.5V, that's why you need separate pins
May those chargers work fine with LifePo4 batteries? I hace been looking for them after watching ua-cam.com/video/DicVZfW5YL0/v-deo.html
codigoBinario no, because LiFePo4 has different voltage. You should look for LiFePo4 specific chips/boards.
Again, you hit the bull's eye: You did the research I planned for my holydays next month. Thanks for that and you did it in a great way. I'm full of expectation on you review of the "SwitchDoc Labs" solar charge controller board as I encountered some thermal problems which heavely dropped the efficiency and makes this expensive board (version from 2016) somehow useless.
So, I wish you relaxing holidays. I had mine last week...
Andreas, You are the reason I don't have to do any research !
Thanks :)
You are welcome!
I'm not certainly good as well as you, probably because I don't have switzerland accent at all.
But I live not so many km southern as you and I care about solar panel efficiency on winter time.
I made my tiny solar charger using the joule thief tecnology to optimize the worst cases.
Also mounting the solar panel for winter angle of sun, keep the panel cleaner and doesn't matter on summer time, because is much better than winter.
To limit voltage, is done with zener kind circuitry, evently with a transistor to dissipate heat.
however, you did a very nice job
You are right to optimize your installation for the worst case. However these days, solar panels are no more expensive and I use a "too big" panel to avoid too much optimization.
i would like to see version 2 of this video, thanks for your efforts
Recently I made a video about solar charging where I showed an optinal setup for small devices.
Good video! lots of information, and a lovely view from your yard!
Thanks!
Clear methodical approach. I like it. A bit much to fully grasp in one go but more info is better than less. I will need to watch over a in the future.
When the complete investigation is in can you summarise on a spreadsheet and link in in the description? I think that will be really useful.
UA-cam is great because I can watch things over and over till I understood. In school, this was not possible...
Awesome series, very interesting. Lots going on here.
:-)
Hi again. About TP4056:
When you use the TP4056 module with the protección board, you will get a dropout voltaje of 0.4 - 0.7V in the output.
That is because the forward voltage of the reverse diodes of the mosfet of the FS8205A.
DW01A pin 3 is for overcharge control and is connected to pin 5 in FS8205A
DW01A pin 1 is for discharge control and is connected to pin 4 in FS8205A
Also, overcurrent protection use the DW01A pin 1
The TP4056 already control to protect for overcharge the battery, so what about a bypass between FS8205A's pin 6 or 7 and FS8205A's pin 1 or 8 (see datassheet)
We will loose overcharge protection of DW01A, but we have already the TP4056's one.
We will change over current protection as the Ron of the mosfets of FS8205A that DW01A will see, will be the half, so we will change over current protection from 2.5A to 5A (I think both of them are useless, 2.5A is usually a lot for our projects). You can "repair" it by putting a resistence of 30mOhm or bigger instead of the direct bypass.
With this modification we will get the real battery voltaje in our output only loosing the overcurrent protection (more or less), won't we ?
I hope you understand me, regards,
I did not look at the protection part of the TP4056 during my tests (I only used the battery pins). If I continue towards the microprocessor, I might have a look at the protection. AFAIK, all TP4056 protect the battery from charging over 4.2 volts, because they only provide 4.2 volts. And the current is also limited to 1A or lower for all TP4056. The only protection needed would be a protection against undervoltage.
Yes, both DW01A and FS8205A gives you that undervoltage protection, but as I have explained, I think that we loose 0,4V in our output pins. Maybe with the proposal bypass we will avoid that dropoutvoltaje
Waiting for your tomorrow's video .... ;) cheers !!!
Regards,
Thank you for your response.I can see that you can only increase the voltage. I have also set up the Wemos device mentioned in an earlier. post but have yet to test. From a previous project I have an Adafruit solar charge controller that I hope to test.that a well. Rather expensive but then I'm wheelchair bound and can't walk so this is my only pleasure. I am 80 years old and find solldeing difficult!
Good to hear that you are still interested in these "modern things"!
You really do great work
Thank you!
Thanks for sharing. A good start 👍😀
Thanks!
Another well researched and detailed video. I look forward to seeing your recommendation for use with the 3.3 and 5 volt microcontrollers. I'm building a wildlife camera with a Raspberry Pi Zero W and would like to know if it is feasible to connect a solar panel to keep the Pi's Li-Po battery charged.
Sounds like an interesting project...
Very nice video, but unfortunately you will need more which will cause additional loss etc. My solar stuff tests here in the Northern part is ... well a bit depressing. Getting 3 Watts from a 50 Watt panel on a cloudy day (like in 90% of the days) and you soon will see that even powering low power devices requires more than what you actually think you needed. My advice is to just get a much bigger panel.
Of course knowing what works best and to know how it all works out is step number 1 but the the disappointment will soon kick in after knowing that our eyes seeing light and getting power from a panel is a much different thing.
This is when wind comes in or hydro and if none of those work (a few places on the Earth) you are out of luck.
I think, I chose the way to understand each component and then build the whole system. Your remark about lack of Solar energy is probably why people go to the south for holidays. Maybe we have to do the same thing with our Solar panels...
@TheBestStooge So could multiple TP4056 boards (solar, hydro, wind, ...) from different sources be in parallel on a single battery?
Thanks a lot for your time! Really useful video
You are welcome!
Hi Andreas, thanks for the video, very interesting and useful.
One remark about your explanation of the power curve: Your spoken description does not seem to match the way your pencil follows the curve. You should start pointing at the lower right corner of the power curve when not loading the solar panel. Then when increasing the load, the power increases quickly to the maximum with the output voltage decreasing relatively little. When loading the panel more, the power and output voltage start to lower "slowly" until the output power and voltage are zero (lower left corner)
Thanks for the tip, but UA-cam does not allow changes after upload.
I understand. My comment was to explain for others that might be confused by this. Keep up your terrific work. Really appreciate all that!
Andreas Spiess yes but you can add OSD comment on the video or in the comments below the links of the components, a note. Thanks for your videos
professional job. 👍
Thank you!
Thanks for the video. Good stuff
:-)
Awesome video with the stuff we really care about!
Thanks!
Wow awesome video can't wait for the next
:-)
TP5000 - I would recommend to test also. I used one with 2 6V Solar panel to charge 2x 2000mAh in paralel LiPo cell.
Thanks for the tip. Maybe I will include it also in the next video. We will see...
www.diypowerwalls.com/t-TP5000-module-review-and-technical-details
I should have a few modules laying around, but so far was not successful in finding them...
I will be waiting for that! I have the same module as the link shows with the heat sink. Unfortunately some of them not contains the heat sink. I choose this because of LiFePo charging capability and the 2A seems okay. Not too much found on the internet, just some articles where show the efficiency of this module a little bit better than the TP4056 module. Thank you Andreas every of your efforts!
Great stuff!!
Glad you think so!
Good morning Andreas! Thanks for another nice video (watched all intermediate ads in return). My experimental ESP8266 MQTT node uses the HT1117 and features a 1W 6V panel with a cheap TP4056 protected Li-Po charger connected to a 650mAh Li-Po via a schottky diode. I'm taking good notice of your testing setup because I want to properly measure mine.
Based on your video I really need to test if the diode is needed. I use the protected version of the charger so that might behave different from the version you use. Maybe you also can test that version?
Secondly I need to measure the input voltage as looking at your measurements it may get too high. Perhaps there are efficient ways to optimize it to a fixed (mppt-like) level.
Looking forward to see your follow-up video... Have a nice day!
i'm building a similar setup and was thinking of putting a supercapacitor and tp431 shunt before the tp4056 to feed it with a steady voltage, as i was assuming it would just turn on and off frequently and not charge very well and adversely affect the battery.
also thought i'd need a 1n4001 diode to prevent backfeed to the panel, i also have the new protected dw01+8205 micro usb version.
i was thinking of changing Rprog (R3) to 5k1 to output 240mA charge current to roughly match my 5v 1.2W panel to achieve very basic MPPT.
looking at this video i can greatly simplify my design!
Simon John - interesting idea to use Rprog! Perhaps using a potmeter as variable resistor would allow for futher experiments in different circumstances. I now have my panel indoors behind a window in some awkward orientation. Charging is probably far from optimal but in summertime the battery gets fully charged with enough energy to wake up every quarter to report sensor status and survive the night. However I need further improvements for wintertime and for more frequent awakenings.
I think, it is a good idea to experiment with the Rprog resistor
@ 3:10 upper right corner converter is a beast LTC3780 Automatic Buck Boost Constant Current Power Module you can use your cars battery and set the converter to stop the connection so it doesn't totally kill the battery CC and CV. Nice
Thanks for the info. But unfortunately, it does not comply with the needs for this project. So, I will not include it in these tests.
No, but it's another good reason for having this device.
Not to mention this device not only stops you car battery from dying, but it will also stop a single 18650 or LiPo pack from dying. So it can come in handy as a under voltage device
Excellent video as always! Have you tried using vernier diode to stop battery feeding back to charger circuit? Sorry if this is a dumb question?
Most charger chips have a built-in circuit to prevent current flowing back. You easily can check it with an ampere meter
looking forward for the next video
:-)
If you have "too much" power during high illumination you are probably doing something wrong... Most solar panels are most efficient at higher light levels and can decrease quite significantly at low light levels (like indoor lighting for example). For indoor applications amorphous silicon solar panel are probably the best option. While mono-/polycrystalline solar panels perform a lot better in daylight. Amorphous silicon solar panels are actually more efficient in very low light levels. That's why they are mainly used in devices like calculators etc. that don't need much power but should ideally work even in low light environments.
To be fair, I think for you application monocrystalline is probably the best option, since it's generally the most efficient in normal daylight (even when it's cloudy etc.) and setting the MPP voltage somewhere close to the correct voltage is probably more than good enough (certainly better than without MPP). But you should definitely take advantage of the peaks. If your battery doesn't have such a high capacity and is full fairly quickly, you should get a bigger battery or a smaller solar panel. The battery will last a lot longer if not fully charged/discharged all the time anyway (though if your project is outside the cold will likely be a bigger problem for Li-Ion batteries anyway when it comes to lifetime).
I hope I don't come across the wrong way. I think you've summed up the topic very well and you've saved me a lot of time with some of your videos. Just thought this may be worth pointing out.
I saw some tests and the difference between the two technologies was no more big. These days it is probably cheaper to use a bigger panel because of cheap price. But I am no specialist in Solar Panels.
Very useful video!
:-)
Thanks for sharing !
You seem to cath up with my videos. Bravo!
@@AndreasSpiess Yeah ! I had some free time this last days ;) Cheers !
Hey Andreas. Super Video, wenn man sich die alten anschaut ist die Qualität wirklich enorm gestiegen. Macht Spaß jetzt viel mehr Spaß dir zu zuschauen. Kleiner Hinweis noch: Die neue Version des TP4046 Boards hat ebenfalls eine Möglichkeit einen Verbraucher einzeln anzuschließen.
Ich muss mal in meinen Bauteilen wühlen. Vielleicht finde ich ein solches Exemplar...
Andreas Spiess m.de.aliexpress.com/s/item/1852201781.html?spm=a2g0n.search-cache.0.0.7f25570fb1Wakg
Geht leider zu lange von China...
Hi, I have a question that is really important. Which of those chargers can be used with Arduino which constantly draws current without the risk of messing with the charge termination features of the module and overcharging the battery?
Hi, with 37691 , let's say we charged the battery with solar energy in the morning, can we run another device from this battery in the evening? Is current flowing to both the battery and the device we connected to the outlet in the morning with solar energy?
You can run a device as long as the battery is charged (think of solar as an additional power source). Solar either feeds your device or charges the battery if enough solar energy is available
Andreas, the CN3065 does have a resistor (marked Rxin figure 2 of data sheet) that alters the voltage. Do you intend looking further into the poor results for this device? I have ordered one but have to wait for the 'slow boat fromChina'.
With this resistor, you can only add to the battery voltage (Vbat ＝ 4.2＋3.04×10-6×Rx ), which is probably not a good idea with LiPo batteries. And you can just go higher than 4.2 volts. So, nothing for LiFePo4.
In the full sun tests of today it performed a bit better. I will keep it in the selection. I need also bad examples to show how good others are ;-) And to prevent people to buy devices which do not fit.
Thanks a lot for this
:-)
Hi Andreas, thanks for your videos! Would it be possible to charge a LiFePo4 directly from a 4v Solar-Panel? With a Schottky-Diode there should be a maximum voltage of 3.6V . My small garden-lamp´s also do not have any charging circuit... Or am i getting something wrong with solar panels?
Should be possible, if the panel is not too big. Otherwise, it might overcharge the battery. Maybe you test if the voltage is not much higher than 3.6 volts with a fully charged battery and if full sun (worst case).
Very good and informative video! I would like to see a test on the more professional devices esp. for 12V battery systems which might be the most common to camping, yachting e.g. I wonder if an ordenary buck converter has the same performance as a so called MPP tracker. Most advertised MPPTs are only PWM controllers, esp. the cheap ones on ebay! Of course it all depends of the load you put to the converter. I would say a lipo / Liion battery is a very common one or a lead acid battery.
So far I was not in solar energy. There are other channels covering this topic. This is why I concentrated on this "small stuff"
Great stuff Andreas! I have ordered only the CN3791 for my tests, the one I got only started charging starting at ~11V, I had to replace the resistors (same ones you mentioned) to other values so it started charging at 5V. Can you tell us where you describe/build the meters you mentioned at 13:10?
Interesting tests, thanks again ;-)
You are welcome!
Speaking of solar panels I recently bought a Bosco 10,000 mAh solar power bank from Ace Hardware. It had two 5V outputs, and could also be charged from AC. But, it was dead on arrival. I charged it from AC for 24 hours, and still dead. At no time was there any current flow from the charger. I left it in the sun all day, to see if it would charge that way, and it's still dead.
I had one which only delivered output when no light was shining on the solar panel. So, just turning it upside down helped...
Thank you for the suggestion. I tried leaving it out in the sun again today (so naturally it rained most of the day). However, whatever solar charge it received must have set or reset something, as now the AC charging works. It charges at about 1 amp, and has 2 of the 4 status LEDs light, after several hours, which is what is expected. In other words, while it was DOA, and AC charging didn't work, after some solar charging, the AC charging started to work. Before I took it outside today I put the solar charger inside an airtight & watertight plastic food container, which has a clear cover, and that worked OK, as well as protecting it from the heavy rain. It's typhoon season here, so not the best time to start playing with solar stuff.
Be aware, that the solar panel is very small and it might take a few (sunny) days to charge the big batteries inside.
The specs say it takes up to 12 hours on a 1 amp charger, or up to 50 hours at not less than 3,000 Lux. The battery is Lithium Polymer and the solar panel is Polysilicon (1 Watt). 3 of the 4 LEDs are on steady now while the charging rate has dropped to 700 mA (it's been charging on AC for about 8 hours). I just put a meter on the output and it's 5.10 V with no load. The cost was under $10, because it rang up at the register $2 less than the price tag indicated (I just noticed that now). It even came with a common square 1 A charger (100 - 240 V 50/60 Hz), plus a USB cable with a micro USB connector tip and a Lightning tip. It claims to have a "USB torch." There is no power out when it is charging.
danke für dein review! welche solarpanele has du für den test eingesetzt? gruß aus wien
Das waren 5V/6W Panels. Die sind allerdings nicht mehr erhältlich
Hi Andreas, as always again a great video. Could you tell something about the 6V Solar decision? I tried the same configuration with the TP4056 and a 5V module and was not happy because there was plenty of light required and it did not work very well. Then I tried 2x 5V in series, but also not really successful. It looks like the 6V is the only one that is working. I had the problem, that the battery was only charged on sunny day and then only for a few hours, when voltage was high enough. Is there a way to get the Power in any case? Even if cloudy. I:m fine getting 0.1W 10h a day instead of 10h nothing.
I did not do a lot of testing yet. So, we have to wait.
I moved on the weekend with my 5V panel. Thank god the sun is now shining. I found out that for my 5v panel that practical delivers 50mA on 4.7V (Datasheet 5V 175mA). Goes down to 20-30mA on the TP4056. It looks like on this tiny Solar panels the world is different. It might be a better idea to directly connect the Solar to the battery and get the 4.2V stuff solved. It looks like the Lost through additional components is higher than the benefit from MPP point reaching in this kind of low power.
It is quite important that your panels do not go below their MPP. Otherwise they lose a lot of power. The TP4056 has no such capabilities. So, you have to change the charging current to fit the solar panel (one resistor on the module).
I am planning a small project with small solar panels charging a few AA size rechargeable batteries outside in all weather conditions. Would TP4056 work well for this application having in mind that in winter the charger will have to drop the current to charge the batteries slowly?
I made a video about those calculations.
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you for responding, Andreas. Is this the video you are referring to:
ua-cam.com/video/_TSouG7xb1A/v-deo.html
There is no mention of any specific charger in this video. :-(
You have to watch several videos on this channel to get everything you need :-(
@@AndreasSpiess That would be difficult. You have over 200 videos. If you could point me to some I'd greatly appreciate it.
Excuse me, did you know if there is a way i can cite your results in a article for a proyect?
UA-cam videos are open source as long as you mention the source
Thanks for this video. I just ordered some LM2577S Boost-Buck chargers to test with solar cells. Maybe I have to order another chip. Which solar panels are you using?
I added the link in the video description
Hi Andreas,
Cool video! Please try SPV1040 and SPV1050 - this is MPPT charger with embedded 1.2V and 3.3V LDO
Thanks for the tip. I ordered a SPV1040. But it will take time to arrive...
Great Video Andreas. One doubt, when connecting the Solar cell to the TP4056, do we need a Zener Diode at the input to prevent reverse current to the Solar Cell?
I do not think so. But you can easily measure the voltage with a charged battery and without a solar cell.
Andreas, once again another excellent video presentation. What are your thought regarding the RF interference that a buck converter generates if we are going to be using solar to work with a lora node? The buck seems to provide the lowest energy loss but I'm concerned the resulting interference could negate the benefits.
+CJ Brown Switchers are on 300 kHz and LoRa on 868 MHz. Should be ok. But check the current the converter uses during sleep. Because this is the longest time.
I need quantity of 4 batteries of 18650 in parallel for my project.. Can I charge these on one solar board ? Any board ? If not, how would I accomplish this ?
You have to search for a solar charger for your 4 batteries. Then you have to search for a solar panel that produces enough voltage according to the specifications of this charger. I assume a 21V solar panel should do it (4x4.2V=16.8V).
@@AndreasSpiess thank you
Hi. Have you ever tested BQ24650 MPPT Solar Panel Controller ?
I think I had it in one of my solar charger videos
@@AndreasSpiess I have found and watched it. Thanks a lot :)
Great work again Andreas. Impressive and logical and clear approach to the issues. I look forward to the 3rd 'solar' video with great interest. Thank you for sharing your research and putting the time into your videos. At low voltages there is no charge being delivered to the battery. The charges seemed to be 'simply' designed? As someone commented earlier, is a boost converter an option to charge during low voltage from the solar panel?
Thanks! The voltage of a solar panel is low because there is no energy available. So, if you boost this voltage, you do not get more energy, just more voltage.
Andreas, Great as always! I have a question, though, about the TP4056 and other LiPo chargers. Since they don't 'trickle charge', under what conditions will they trigger another charge cycle?
They do not work with "charge cycles". They just monitor th voltage of the battery and chose the charge current accordingly.
Andreas, so I understand... If a TP4056 module is always connected between panel & battery, the panel will go through it's pre-programmed cycle on it's own, but only once the battery voltage drops to a threshold, correct?
In other words, the preferred method is therefore to connect a new style TP4056 module (3 chips, not 1 = protection) permanently to the rechargeable battery?
It would be undesirable to have to unplug & plug-in the charger manually...
Sorry to be specific. Does the TP4056 board stay connected always, determining when to charge?
Hello, really nice video. you are a gifted teacher.
Did you later do the follow-up video about the charge controller? i have checked your video page but couldn't find such video. If you did, can you direct me to it by replying with a link?
It is still due.
Great video ! As usual. Btw, if you can make recommendations for a charger/controller to use in combination with 12V Lead/Acid batteries (for motorcycly).
So far, I concentrated on small devices and small currents. There are many other videos which focus on the bigger panels and higher voltages.
True. I've done some research, but there's no video that comes with so much detailed information as yours.
BangGood and similar sites offer many products, but the quality/result afterwards (when tested in the field) are sometimes dissapointing.
If you can limit the maximum voltage to 4.1V instead of 4.2 you will get a much longer life from the LiPo cells.
Thanks for the tip.
Could capacitors and diodes be used to smooth an MPPT function?
I do not think so.
Hello Andreas, have you ever considered using supercaps to store solar energy? They withstand better the outdoor temperatures than the lithium batteries. Sure they hold less energy but a lot of optimization can be done on the microcontroller side where you can have an Arduino pro mini drawing just a few micro amps.
I plan to use alternatives to Li-Po in a future video
Andreas Spiess have you already seen the sab mosfets?
I looked them up after your post. But they only support very, very low currents. So, they are probably for very small super caps in very low power devices.
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to have a solar power ups. Just a small 10440 as a battery backup, that doesn't need to be charged, it's just needed for heavy clouds. Also needing the lowest voltage drop from the solar panel as possible.
So you must live in a country with a lot of sun ;-)
Hi, @andreas good video as always. There is also a cheap solution for charge a battery: a simple direct connection with a TL431 to protect over 4.2V.
If solar panel current is more than 100-150mA you have to use a TL431 and a MOSFET like SI2301 or 2302. But usually this little solar panel have low power.
I am sure that this option hasnt the best performance, but could you check it, please ?
I think, this would behave similar to the TP4056 one.
Andreas Spiess ok, thanks again. I have commented this because that solution will be a good one for LiFePO4 batteries. (Changing from 4.2v to 3.6v)
You are right! I did not think about this.
Hi Andreas. PLease add this characteristics to your test: drop voltaje from battery terminals to output.I have been doing some test with TP4056 with protection circuit. I have found that there is always a big dropout voltaje between B+B- terminales and OUT+OUT- terminals.Googling I haven't found almost information, but finally I get some:"Notice on battery protection circuit, one MOSFET operates Drain to Source and other MOSFET operates Source to Drain? The diodes drop too much voltage for battery use."It is clear with this datasheet (normally TP4056 boards take FS8205A doble mosfet IC): www.spectron.us/SM6FIE/Electronics/SparkFunLiIon/FS8205A-DS-14_EN.pdfWe are lossing lost of power (0,5V) with that kind of battery protection. Do you know any thing better? Regards,
Why are You didn't tested lm2596 buck on full sun but only on cloudy sun?
Wait for the next video...
Danke!!
Bitte, gern geschehen!
I really appreciate your clear and complete explanations. The info is relevant and useful.
Your an EXCELLENT instructor!!
Thank you!
@Andreas Spiess Why don''t you use a buck converter to step down the 3.7v of the LiPo to the required 3.3v of your microcontroller? It will be much more power efficient than a LDO regulator.
I am not sure if a switcher is more efficient than a linear one during deep sleep of the CPU.
Andreas Spiess oh, I see your point. Could you check and..... um, let me know :P I am working on a project and am debating whether to use a LDO or a buck converter. And oh, I do utilize the deep sleep, so we have similar scenarios. Thank you, even if you can't! No problem!
I will do this, but it will take some time, because I have to use the sun to do the charger part first.
Oh no no problem!! And, thanks again! Keep doing what you're doing :D
super wäre auch ein review mit supercaps
Ich habe schon ein Video mit Supercaps gemacht. Die unterscheiden sich in diesem Szenario kaum von Batterien.
XL6009 With this module there is a big problem, when the voltage drop at the inlet below 3.3 V, the output gives 40V! Even if the resistor is exposed to a current of 5v
Strange...
ua-cam.com/video/uArobEAm0do/v-deo.html
I also experienced this. They are only really safe if you keep the input voltage (at least to the controller IC) above 4.5-ish volts
Good Video, again. But i really dont like the New watermark
Thank you , I want to make a simple sensor that measure the moisture in trees and just report once in a sunny day , I do not want the device to be on all the time , just one minute is enough , can I do that with just (solar panel + CN3791 Solar Charger + ESP8266 ) , without battery ?
I would add a large capacitor to be sure for the short-time currency peaks
Thank you again , excuse my low knowledge this is not my area , how much µF do you think I need ? Also do you think I need DC 5V to 3.3V Step-Down Power Supply Module AMS1117-3.3 LDO 800MA ?
1. I would use the biggest you have (a few thousand uF is ok)
2. The AMS1117 is ok if you want to use it in full sun.
3. I think, you have also to think about how to switch the ESP on and off, because It could get unstable if your voltage is not stable (and it will be unstable, especially if the sun starts to shine). You should start the ESP only if the voltage is around 3 volt. Maybe you Google for "Voltage Detectors ic"
Thank you very much Sir ! ,
Would be nice if you can cover this "Standalone" sensors in one of your episodes , it is very good for farmers and area with big landscape .. etc
You find standalone sensors in my LoRa videos
Cool
:-)
Great job, sir! You helped me a Lot in clarifying basic doubs of nRF24L01 modules. I would like yo write in the nRF24L01 registers but when writing radio.write(NRF_CONFIG, 0x7E); i get error in the compiler. Do you know The way to modify the nRF24L01 registers? Regards!
I have a few videos concerning nRF24L01. Maybe you watch them first.
Thanks sir, i already whatched the two videos, but i couldn't find how to modify the nRF24L01 registers. :(
Maybe you have a look into the RF24 library where you fing modules like
uint8_t read_register(uint8_t reg, uint8_t* buf, uint8_t len);
/**
* Read single byte from a register
*
* @param reg Which register. Use constants from nRF24L01.h
* @return Current value of register @p reg
*/
uint8_t read_register(uint8_t reg);
/**
* Write a chunk of data to a register
*
* @param reg Which register. Use constants from nRF24L01.h
* @param buf Where to get the data
* @param len How many bytes of data to transfer
* @return Current value of status register
*/
uint8_t write_register(uint8_t reg, const uint8_t* buf, uint8_t len);
/**
* Write a single byte to a register
*
* @param reg Which register. Use constants from nRF24L01.h
* @param value The new value to write
* @return Current value of status register
*/
uint8_t write_register(uint8_t reg, uint8_t value);
/**
* Write the transmit payload
*
* The size of data written is the fixed payload size, see getPayloadSize()
*
* @param buf Where to get the data
* @param len Number of bytes to be sent
* @return Current value of status register
*/
uint8_t write_payload(const void* buf, uint8_t len, const uint8_t writeType);
/**
* Read the receive payload
*
* The size of data read is the fixed payload size, see getPayloadSize()
*
* @param buf Where to put the data
* @param len Maximum number of bytes to read
* @return Current value of status register
*/
uint8_t read_payload(void* buf, uint8_t len);
/**
* Retrieve the current status of the chip
*
* @return Current value of status register
*/
Thanks for your help sir, the detail consisted in changing from private to public the class where functions of writing and reading registers are defined in RF24.h library. Now I can modify registers and access the CE pin. I am developing an RF sensor for a security system and my priority is that the signals sent by the transmitters reach the receiver without risk of losing the data, but if the maximum retransmissions is exceeded(MAX_RT = 1), I can still restart the sending by putting CE at low and then activating it to restart the transmission. I appreciate your comments, any suggestions are welcome. have a nice weekend!.
+David Atayde :-)
So you have a 6V panel that you can't use under 4V, which is 90% of the time due to poor light. Ouch!
I suppose a 12V panel would have more margin.
I see several people have similar experiences. I also have the problem getting 90% of the day nothing. I used 2 5V Solrar in serial and a Step Down converter. Bad luck the StepDown consumes nearly all of the energy....
If the open circuit voltage is below 5.5 volt, you will anyway get no power, even if you boost the voltage, because there is no solar energy available. That is the intrinsic problem of solar energy ;-) and has to be solved by storage devices. BTW: This is the reason for my fist video about this topic.
Supper
Thank you!
You have a BQ24650 in the pile and not tested?!? Why? Waaay better than the chinese clones.
My BQ24650 is for lead acid batteries
I have the same charger as yours on the video. You can use it for lifepo4 and li-ion too! If you don't know how to setup it, Voltlog has a nice video on yt, try it out ;-)
Thanks!
Roger Federer is GOAT.
Helo voltage of no load.sol. Panel whos?
???
Endlich...
No, the world will speak Desesperanto which sounds extremely like English, BUT does not contain 72 genders and cannot be used to offend…
#FreeKekistan
Btw: Schwizerdütsch is better anyway...
Your thoughts about a schottky diode: There are "ideal diodes", realized with mosfets:ua-cam.com/video/CIx2VlbBB3g/v-deo.htmlm31s
Thanks for the link. I forgot about that!
You should also look at www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/industries/solar-energy.html and solar cell optimizers
Thanks for the link. I will have a look at it.
3:56 you started showing increase current from wrong direction of characteristic you were talking about.
I do not think so. I follow the power curve.
@@AndreasSpiess Yes, but when you were talking about increasing current, you were showing increasing voltage and decreasing current part of the curve.
Mr Spiess, another great video, it reminds me of another video, where mppt and supercaps are used for exactly this application: ua-cam.com/video/KhDnqtAT1no/v-deo.html
Thanks for the link!