New series revealing secrets of the PWM5 solar charge controller. Soon to become an open source project, I can now reveal all of the confidential information held back while the PWM5 was a commercial product. Starting with a competing product which inspired much of the PWM5's specification and feature list, I will go on to reveal information on sales, reliability, performance and what I might have done differently in hindsight.
I discovered that due to a lucky co-incidence of voltage and internal resistance, a 100W LED can be connected directly across the terminals of two 18V Nickel Cadmium power tool batteries. And that ...
This GU10 LED spot light is cheap (£3 including postage) and bright. But it's also lethal! There's a 50% chance of putting live mains within a few microns of the metal casing (which is what you'll ...
To run a 100W LED from a 12V battery you need a few bits and pieces. A high power boost converter to generate the 36 volts at about 3 amps. Lots of metal, thermal grease and heatsink hardware. And ...
Clones of the popular Arduino Uno are now so cheap, it's difficult to save money by building your own. But the knowledge gained from assembling an Arduino from individual parts, makes the exercise ...
eBay is awash with these solar mobile power banks, most claiming way more storage capacity than is genuinely inside - this one has just 4,800mAh of LiPos. The unit only charges properly in full sun...
A cheap and simple way to connect a 10W LED to a 12 volt supply. A current regulated LED driver keeps the LED at maximum brightness, while a heatsink and fan keeps it at a safe temperature. Total c...
If you connect a solar panel directly to a car battery, it will eventually overcharge the battery and damage it. That's why you need to use a solar charge controller. This is my own design using th...
Most people are familiar with regular H4 car headlight bulbs. Here I compare regular H4 main beams with a 100W LED. The headlights are narrowly focused, but the LED has a very wide spread of light.
An Arduino for £2.50? Not the genuine article of course, but a cheap Chinese clone selling on eBay. Here I look at the Nano v3, the Pro Mini and the Leonardo-like Pro Micro.
Cover version of the song Drive by the Cars. Recorded in home studio back in 1986. Lots of sampled 'ah's cos we just built our own sampler. Julian Ilett singing , Brett Gossage instrumentation. Pho...
I'm building a test rig which will measure solar panel voltage, current and power. With it I'll do a series of videos on open circuit voltage of solar panels, short circuit current, maximum power p...
Finally built my variable DC load which I've named the LAMB (Large Array of Miniature Bulbs). Precious little sun here in the UK just now, but snatched a few moments today.
Built a basic pixel plotting mode which displays the solar panel's IV curve. The curve has a distinct turning point (often called the knee) where maximum power is located.
Time to connect a solar panel to a 12v battery and take a look at voltage, current and power. I'm using a bigger 80W panel now, so the bargraph has been modified to automatically change sensitivity...
The test rig now has the buck converter components (MOSFET, Schottky diode and inductor) added to it. A 9 volt battery connected directly across gate and source terminals keeps the MOSFET turned on...
Finally, the buck converter can be switched using a new 7555 based oscillator circuit. And it seems to work in that I can extract 20 Watts when connected to a 12 Volt battery.
MPPT test rig has been re-arranged to make it easier to see what's what. Here I explain what each section does and how it works. Also some ideas on how this project should progress from here. And d...
If the economic argument for MPPT doesn't stack up, perhaps it's ability to match high voltage panels to a 12V battery will. Here I connect two 20W panels in series to produce a 72-cell 40W solar p...
I've fitted a new potentiometer with a nice visible numbered dial which makes it much easier to see the relationship between PWM percentage and resultant power. Also, time now to check the buck con...
It's not acceptable for commercial products to explode just because the consumer connects things up the wrong way round. Reverse polarity protection sounds dull, but it provides the perfect excuse ...