The sun is a huge source of energy. On sunny days, it can provide 1000 watts of energy per square meter. Over the years, [Jasper sikken] has developed many projects using this power supply, and has just completed his latest solar collection module to power the microcontroller project.
The concept is simple. A small solar panel is used to charge lithium-ion capacitors (LIC) and can then be used to power other projects. We first saw this project last year, when it was one of the winners of the hackedy 2021 earth day competition. At that time, it could only throw 80 Ma at a voltage of 2.2V.
However, the latest version has greatly increased the bet, providing a current of up to 400 Ma at a voltage of 3.3V. This opens up new possibilities to allow modules to power projects using technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi and LTE, which require more current to operate. It relies on a huge 250F capacitor to store energy and an aem10941 solar collection chip to obtain as much energy as possible from a panel through maximum power point tracking (MPPT).
This is useful for projects that you want to run in the sun. If you don’t want to build your own project, you can get a point on tindie. We’ve seen Jasper complete other solar projects before. Video after break.