Energy harvester
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@Anticimex After looking at the schematic of the board I think its power consumption exceeds the capabilities of a typical harvester power supply and I'm having second thoughts about it. It is probably not appropriate to be used with it. I might just make it for Sensebender Micro.
@ceech I fully understand that your board won't handle that particular board. I only referenced it as an example on how a motherboard would manage the power rails in the MYSX connector. So don't be disencouraged by my specific take on a motherboard :)
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Here are two new boards. Their purpose is to replace batteries in wireless sensor nodes in places where batteries are not appropriate, available or recommended for use.
The first one is a Thermal Energy Harvester which uses thermopile or thermoelectric generator as a power source:
This board uses a transformer to step-up the voltage and works with voltages as low as 20mV. Here is an intended use:
There are three outputs:
Vout
Vout2 and
VLDO
Vout and VLDO turn on as soon as the voltage on those pins is within regulation and Vout2 turns on when the Vout2_EN signal receives a high on its pin from a microcontroller, for example.And the second one is a Solar Energy Harvester which is powered by a small 5 - 20V solar cell:
The IC can operate with up to 60V of input voltage and has a built-in CC and CV algorithm.
There are also some settings available for this one:
User can choose output voltage and charge current and also MPPT point of solar cell.
This power supply can act as a battery charger as well.Both boards are designed to fit on top of sensor board:
to help with connections@ceech Nice Design, but you use a chip he is to expensive 4-6 Euro. Hmm, you now a alternative for this LTC4709?
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@ceech Nice Design, but you use a chip he is to expensive 4-6 Euro. Hmm, you now a alternative for this LTC4709?
@Frank-Herrmann Thank you.
This chip might seem expensive, but it's very good at what it does. It's voltage range is far wider than any other's, for example. And CC-CV algorithm for battery stacks for up to 60V. That's what caught my attention. Also I had experience with LTC4067, which I also like. -
Since last posts much time has passed. What experiences are related to energy harvesting boards?
It can provide an outdoor sensor, for example. BMP180 node supply all night long?
@Dany Yes, it can. While those boards are mostly used for short energy bursts, I made some continuous current draw measurements. I've attached an LED with current draw of 3.5mA. The board provided 20 minutes of power while dropping the voltage from 2.3V to 1.86V.
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@ceech what thermopiles could be used with your board ? I don't find any reference for it?
thanks
@epierre You can use a Peltier element to power this board. Like this one:
