Solar Pannel and LiOn or Lipo

[epierre]

@awi @ceech what test should I do about those units:

• delay test: what kind? what to watch ?
• sleep test: what kind? what to watch ?
• radio issue on one of the boards working only with amplified board, not with small one.

The good news it although they pollute the radio by sending infos every 30s, they are still alive alone with the sun one week after.

[ceech]

@epierre Try comparing the two boards side by side. You'll get an idea where the problem is.

[epierre]

@ceech do you mean on SW or HW side ?

HW:

• I cannot plug the standard radio in one, only amplified works with it
• same solar pannel 1W
• different batteries, one is LiPo, the other is LiOn, but same behavior on delay/sleep seen on both
• same lux sensor

SW: they run the same software

any idea ?

[ceech]

@epierre Not enough power for the amplified radio, probably. Try adding bigger capacitor. In the hundreds of uF region.

[epierre]

@ceech are the radio 3.3V or not ? why should I need a capacitor and between what parts ?

[AWI]

@epierre I quess what @ceech meant is that the on board power supply is not equiped to power the amplified radio. I you put a large capacitor on the power lines (near to the radio) it will handle the power better.

I am still confused as to the problem you are having with the delay. I am able to reproduce your > 30second problem and it is driving me nuts. When I execute the 'original' sketch (including MySensors) it is working fine with gw.sleep() and times longer than 30 secs.

i will do some additional measurements...

[epierre]

@AWI @ceech I have tried this:
-I have removed the mysensor debug mode on the sensor

• I have removed the 4 x gw.send in the sendVoltage

For a sleep time of 31-32 this is fine , start to fail at 33...

Batt: 4.07V ; 0.00A 
Solar: 0.84V ; 0.00 A; charge: No
BattPct: 81% 

@AWI the one with amplified has a 4000mAh Lipo and the radio is perfect. Anyway simple radio does not work with it.

[epierre]

@AWII @ceech any advancement on this ?

[ceech]

@epierre Nope, sorry.

[epierre]

@ceech I've ordered the wrong boards so without the solar panel... what should I do to complete the missing here ?

rq: your page https://www.mysensors.org/hardware/ceech is not present anymore in hardware @hek an error ?

[hek]

I asked @ceech to add it to the openhardware.io site instead. Guess he hasn't had time to do it yet.

[epierre]

@epierre said:

@ceech I've ordered the wrong boards so without the solar panel... what should I do to complete the missing here ?

@ceech would adding these on the either ext or batt do the trick enough ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5pcs-5V-1A-USB-18650-Lithium-Battery-Charging-Board-Charger-Module-Protection/221533778016?_trksid=p2050601.c100085.m2372&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140211132617%26meid%3D3aab1c92f1544168b6c5a3033e5d60fc%26pid%3D100085%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D300376371464%26clkid%3D3316748233453320960&_qi=RTM2247626

[epierre]

@ceech should I put the power on Vin / Gnd as I guess ?

I have started graphing the solar / lipo one here:
https://thingspeak.com/channels/89944

[ceech]

@epierre Yes, Vin is the right choice. Nice graphs :)

[epierre]

@ceech actually the Particle Photon is doing less well than yours: https://thingspeak.com/channels/88622

[Mark Swift]

Hello guys,

@ceech

I have a load of the 18650 charging boards with the protection circuit (from Aliexpress). I also have a few 18650 batteries and solar panels hanging around.... Can I use the code above to get readings (batt, solar, charge, pct) or do I need something else?

[ceech]

The code above is for dedicated boards with on-board charger IC. Like the one from the following page:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331838940273?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649

This board uses LTC4079 and has voltage dividers on battery and solar cell connectors. They allow for voltage readings. Current is measured on one of the LTC4079 pins.

[Mark Swift]

HI @ceech

The boards look great, sadly I have a ton of spares around I need to use first. I wondered if the code could be adopted, or if there was perhaps a way to get the readings off the solar input and battery using the 18650 charge module alone...

[ceech]

Of course you can. Use voltage dividers to scale down voltages that you would like to measure if they are above your VCC. And you can also read the current from TP4056 charger board. Tap to Prog pin (pin 2) and measure its voltage. Here is the correlation between voltage and current:
Ibat = (Vprog /Rprog) x 1200
Adapt the above code with your hardware values, current formula and measure away.