Hello.
I am looking to have a weather station that charges via solar power.
I bought this from adafruit:
My question is… Can I charge this battery (also bought from Adafruit) :
With the SparkFun Battery Shield?
I don’t know how the solar cell power output is, and if it needs some sort of filter, converting or shutting down the input in case of too low of a power generation?
Any clue would be appreciated!
Hi @frlobo,
Good question! I think any lipo charger breakout board will help you charge that battery, but solar is easily impacted by clouds / etc.
This board is a little more expensive, but that giant cap will roll up smaller / inconsistent current into little bursts that can charge a battery on low-light days.
I don’t see a voltage in on the Sparkfun battery shield, so I have to imagine it uses the regulator on the photon itself, which needs a constant 3.6VDC and 5.5VDC. So I wouldn’t recommend running that directly off the solar panel. Our new battery shield can do 7v-20v input, but I’m not sure that’s a good choice for connecting directly to a panel either. (I am more on the software side of things, so I could be way off here, but I’ve been piecing together some solar packs for my personal projects).
My setup:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/354 (or smaller)
https://www.adafruit.com/products/1525 (or smaller)
https://www.adafruit.com/products/390
The adafruit solar lipo charger board will let you draw load from the board as well
Thanks!
David