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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 พ.ค. 2024
- Adding cheap and simple solar power to our small outdoor projects (e.g. ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino Pro Mini) removes the need to save energy or recharge batteries. Today we will enhance a simple 50 cents Li-Ion charger board to do exactly that.
I am a proud Patreon of @GreatScott!, @ElectroBOOM , @Electronoobs , @EEVblog , and others. No Docker, No Microsoft Teams, Zoom
Links:
TP4056 boards: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ATFwwH or amzn.to/2RqelKK or bit.ly/3eMmZw5
ESP32 WROOM : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdX... or amzn.to/3rFVvBc
ESP32 PCB (different color) : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ABYXuD
Solar panel 6V : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9xQ3CD
Solar Panels 5 - 5.5V : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AfVbIz
Voltage Regulator HT7333 : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ADLhEl
Schottky Diodes (used 1N5819) : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AXOsKv
FQP27P06 : s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A5T7oh
Explanation of Power Path: • Load Sharing for the 1...
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Thanks for another interesting video. (BTW it's "Houston" 😊👍 )
Thanks for the correction! My mistake. I pinned your comment that everybody can see it...
@@AndreasSpiess It's OK, I just thought you were talking about John Huston 😊 (except he died in 1987)
More Houston confusion: th-cam.com/video/-RHqlLSyvMw/w-d-xo.html
@@kevinwalters5160 , well they never said exactly what he quoted, but it is a widely spread myth that is not going away. The sentence was "Houston, we've had a problem." This maybe was not the best way to say it, but this is what the Apollo 13 astronaut said after they were able to communicate with the mission control center again.
In "schwiizerdütsch" (Switzerland dialect of german) it was already correct as "Huston"... ;-)
*I love my new solar **Generater.Systems** . It has the right amount of charging power for my needs and the light weight makes the portability idea.*
I like the solar panels more.
Trivia about that Indiana Jones scene: the plan in the script was actually to have a normal "epic fight scene", but Harrison Ford was sick that day, so he recommended just shooting the guy.
Thanks for the additional info. I did not know he was ill. But I took this scene because I expected a long and difficult fighting scene. Like resoldering the small SMD component...
Ford was running a fever between 40-41c and could barely stand up...
@@stephenkeebler732 Ha. I never knew that. Alway thought it a brilliant scene. Maybe it is even better now :-) And than you learn that after 43 years on a channel from a guy with a Swiss accent :-)
Sometimes what you cover is so in line with what I’ve been thinking about that it’s like you’re reading my mind.
:-) Glad it helps.
Darn I have my charging boards, now I have to get FETs and some smd caps. You and your making things better. Excellent
Search for FETs with a low Vgs voltage.
I was just waiting for the "we want more!"
You are the first mentioning the sentence!
@@AndreasSpiess We all wait for BigClive to say 'one moment please' and Great Scott to say 'lets get started' everyone gets upset when it doesn't get said. Little details are important to us makers.
i just waiting for a "we want less!" solution : lifepo4 (3.0V -> 3.5V supply for esp), mosfet switching the solar to the battery and regulation made in software!
Sleep timer near 3.0V
@@sebastienl2140 careful now, that line only comes once every 8-12 videos
@@dennis8196 Ha ha so true I watch those two gents also.
I enjoyed this very much! I really appreciate your layered approach to the project, getting the core design together, then looking at further edge cases! This great both for storytelling and for design! Lieber Grüße aus momentan sonnig Seattle
Glad you liked the approach! Here the weather is very bad for the season :-(
Excellent summary of the design and well thought out use of common ,cheap parts to bolt on to any project. Well done Andreas
Thank you!
I really appreciate the thought and care you put into your work. Very approachable and always informative.
Thank you for your kind words!
Love that power path circuit! It seems so obvious in hindsight.
Indeed, it is an elegant solution. Not invented by me ;-)
Thanks dear Andreas for great, useful and calming content.
You are welcome!
As always, another great video! Thank you!
I will be using this tech in my garden this summer!
Glad it is helpful for your project!
Thank you for this very useful project. You made the already smart ESP32 to a more versatile one by powering it with your smart renewable energy power supply.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you (yet again) for a clear and informative video. In the past I've started a number of solar projects, but always run into constraints that seem to require expensive solutions. With the information from your video, I will attempt to revive some of them. I may even try to implement them in surface mount technology. I'll let you know if I can fully incorporate your beautiful bodge onto a single board :)
The FET I used for sure was too big! You can use a DMP1045u instead.
I love the power path. Thanks
Me too ;-)
Great video. A lot of the concepts here around lipo batteries and charging were new to me so I had to go off and do a lot of research, but now I have some context I can appreciate the value you have provided
Welcome on board of the channel! Glad you like the content!
WONDERFUL!! And the timing is perfect! We are just starting out making solar remote dataloggers for measuring the water level in our cisterns (we live in a 650 acre earthship community and get our drinking water from the rain and snow that lands on the roof).
Sounds like a perfect fit!
I've never enjoyed youtube videos as much as I enjoy yours
Thank you!
Wow! Thanks for the tip about the diode and p-fet. This is exactly what I need for my current solar project!
Same.
I am glad it was helpful!
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks, this was very helpful video, as we were trying to solve this issue for weeks. one problem i had is, after deep discharge my controller board is not wakes up even there is sun (for whole day). will this solution solves that issue without any external trigger to reset the board or with other components ?!
@@arunrajalegendI have the same problem, have you had a chance to try it, can you share the results?
Excellent Andreas. It seems this came just in time for many of us thinking about solar powered projects. Greetings from sunny-ish UK
Very good, that you have a sunny day! Here I had to wait for quite some time to film outdoors. It is mostly wet these days...
@@AndreasSpiess It's mainly wet in the UK too during this month.
Great video, content, and delivery. Also love the little hand to point at things!
Thank you! Yes, the little hand seem to have a lot of fans ;-)
Really good explanation. As a tip from experience: Lion batteries hate heat, and if they are exposed fully charged to high temperatures (say over 60°C) they can swell and leak over time. If your unit is assembled inside a small container, exposed to direct sunshine, it is not rare to reach those temperatures. To mitigate this, keep maximum charging at 80%. Also, if the charger/battery has NTC (temp sensor) it can stop charging over 45°C.
Good point. I measured temperature and, in summer it reached 65 degrees for a few hours. So far I had no casualties. But I expect the battery will not live too long. Charging up to only 80% is not easy with the standard chips. Because of the power path, the battery is not used nor charged during these high temperatures and is only "stored". Which seems to be ok.
@@AndreasSpiess you are correct. Is always good to be aware of batteries limitations and that is a huge topic. Keep with your great channel, which is personally one of the best in TH-cam!
This is an interesting point since batteries don't like charging in negative temperatures as well due to dendrites. So how to best solve this very hot/very cold environment issue with solar charging these small boards?
Fun fact: TP4056 has NTC pin, just in these tiny chargers it's not utilised, just pulled to ground.
for a small project I did, using esp32, I also changed the R3 resistor (on the TP4056 board) to a more suitable 3.9K SMD resistor, which worked great for the purpose. Thanks for the great video by the way :D
You are right. You can add also a fixed resistor. And the older boards had bigger SMDs...
@@AndreasSpiess yaa, mine had the 0603 ones which are okay to replace if you have an okay eyesight :p
P.S. - i also added the ldo and powerpath to my project, didn't know i had become professional too... XD
Thanks. You just beautifully covered another future project of mine. Time to get testing!
Enjoy!
FANTASTIC!!! Thank you for the R&D that went into this!
My pleasure!
I just think about what you do today. wow!
Good idea!
Thank you for a great video! In my projects i also add a temperature sensor and a mosfet to cut off the battery charging if the temperature is too low or too high (charging lithium batteries bellow 0C can causes permanent damage). Alternatively the tp4056 has a pin where one can connect a thermistor. Also if you use lifepo4 not only you don't need the regulator you also don't need the voltage divider to measure voltage. One can use ESP.getVcc() directly. And as a bonus no risk of blowing up 🤯.
wow do you have any guide I can view so I can implement what you did? I want to incorporate it that into my mini electronics project.
@@noddlexxx9161 Sorry i got no guide but it is pretty simple. Whenever the ESP wakes from deepsleep (15 mins) I measure the temperature and depending on the result turn the mosfet between charging board and battery on or off. The project is now running something over 2 years without any manual charging needed.
@@TheChopain oh okay thank you. I'm panning to make like a little backup cam for my car and it would be pretty annoying to switch out the battery you know.
@@noddlexxx9161why not take the power directly from the car? Of course have to step voltage down first, but would not need to have a separate battery.
How did you keep the TP4056 off during deep sleep?
Thanks for showing that P channel MOSFET hack. I knew sth like this was used in "zero power off" toggle circuits... But here it is an excellent addition, too!!!
Indeed, this is a very elegant solution.
I was looking for such a solution for my overhead water tank. Thank you so much.
Happy to help
Yet another brilliant video from you! Thank you so much for such "useful AND interesting" one ! The clarity, detail and practicality in your work is not something that many others can match ! Thanks again. Can you please answer a question about the FET you used - the one you mentioned isn't available here, can you tell what should be the parameters of this FET so that I can choose another one.
You need a P-channel FET with low Vgs voltage (DMP1045u is also good)
Alternatively, especially if you're more application engineer.. just use the 5v (or USB in) on the ESP32. You will need something like "PFM 600MA Control DC-DC Converter Step Up Boost Module" between the TP4056 battery out and your ESP32. This will boost the signal to a consistent 5V and you can connect that to your board through the USB in. I also highly recommend getting an 18650 with a protection circuit for additional protection.
For battery monitor also consider a "I2C 3.7V Li Battery Fuel Gauge" which you can connect to the I2C on the ESP32
This is a good idea if you are. Ot concerned about power consumption.
Thank you very much @Andreas. I'm working on a wireless project powered by solar. I was stuck on making a powerpath with TP4056, having completed the prototype for the rest of the system. Thank you for the "we want more" section, and explaining the working.
Cheers..
Glad it was helpful!
Excellent stuff! Always enjoying your videos, and learning along the way!
Much appreciated!
Yet another great video from Andreas. Thanks!
I wonder if it is possible to control TP4056 current setting from the ESP32 instead of using a manual pot. With a DAC maybe ?
You can get electronic potentiometers. But, as said, it is not worth the effort for such small panels.
Maybe we should design a board with your proposed modifications (and a 3.3V regulator) and manufacture it with a PCBA service. I guess many people here in the community would take one or two :)
Let's hope somebody will do it...
Love the energy calculation! helps out very much!
Glad it was helpful!
Lovely view of the hills, at the end!
Thank you! It was a nice day when I did my tests...
Very nice tutorial. The only thing I do differently, I use a 3.3V buck-boost instead of a regulator. I have an ESP8266 that is more than a kilometer from my house, and it has been running m/l continuously for over a year. The battery doesn't do well below 0C...
I recommend using the solar panel to shade the other parts from the sun, and mount the parts to an aluminum bar that extends outside the weatherproof enclosure. The bar will remove heat from the enclosure.
Good idea with the shading. I have a few IKEA boxes to try and compare different cooling concepts. I just have to do it...
Glad I stumbled upon this video.. Definitely subscribed!! I'm more of a programmer with a little digital electronics experience - This analog stuff is the hard part for me, but this was so well explained, maybe now I can get all these half-built projects back in motion.
Welcome aboard! I am sure you will learn "analog stuff" if you are interested...
Useful as always, dear Andreas! I have to create a system for ventilation of a greenhouse. And that will certainly help me! Thanks for your job!
Best regards.
Jean-Michel
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for your video. I was just doing my own research for solar powered ESPs recently and ended up with the TP4056 as the simplest solution as well. But ... there's no point in fiddling with the charging current of the TP4056. The current of solar cells is proportional to the solar radiation and thus is always varying between zero and the maximum current. Your current setting will never be right. But that's not as bad as it sounds. You just want the maximum available current and that's what you get without limiting the TP4056. Chasing the MPP only makes sense with a swtiching charge controller that can transfer energy between different voltage levels.
I agree, we never will find the right current without MPPT. The problem I had was that the panel hardly delivered current when the battery voltage was very low. Then, the TP4056 tried to draw max current and pulled the solar panel to a very bad place on its curve. This is what I wanted to avoid.
If you have enough sun and your battery voltage is ok you will not encounter this issue.
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks for your reply. Are you sure it was not just the Trickle Charge Mode of the TP4056 for a very low battery voltage? The current-voltage diagram can't explain what you observed. For a solar cell the current can only get higher for lower voltages. The power might decrease but the current is constantly increasing for lower voltages.
That was also my thought. The higher power of the PV results in voltage, not current, but the higher voltage is burned anyway by the charge controller.
Concidering the charge controller does not consume current, only burns the voltage above 4,2V, but we charge a battery that has 4V at the moment, you will get more power to the battery when operating the PV with 4 V, then operating it at its MPP at 5V:
voltage current power power at battery with 4V
0 0.098 0
0.5 0.097 0.0485
1 0.096 0.096
1.5 0.095 0.1425
2 0.094 0.188
2.5 0.093 0.2325
3 0.092 0.276
3.5 0.091 0.3185
4 0.09 0.36 0.36
4.5 0.089 0.4005 0.356
5 0.085 0.425 0.34
5.5 0.07 0.385 0.28
6 0.03 0.18 0.12
6.5 0 0 0
Good video. Damn, it arrived a week after I had used an identical circuit with 2 Schottky diodes and missed the pro solution. Still, mine looks nicer! Next time…
I can imagine that the two diodes look better! And the difference is probably not big for this application where we never want to deplete the battery.
This video arrived at the perfect time for my project. Thank you.
Glad I could help!
AMAZING! I AM OBSESSED! THANK YOU! ❤
Glad you like it!
The MCP73871 is a complete solar charger with all the bells and whistles needed in your project Andreas... Adafruit has a board with it.
This is an old board design, at a whopping price of $17.50 + shipping. Adafruit recommends the new board with BQ24074 - cheaper - but out of stock, so Andreas tips is the hackers way of doing it. Have a nice day. ;-)
@@Cptnbond Yes....we can go down down to build it with simple transistors...nice learning too. :)
You are right. These chips seem to have all parts on board. Boards with this chips are not so widely available.
I've seen at mouser that the MCP73871 cost € 1.59 for € 1.85 for the new BQ24074.
The price difference for the two Adafruit boards is only explained for commercial reasons ... nothing to do with the board bom.
I have been using the MCP73871 for years and it is possible to solder it by hand with a fine welding tip (the BQ24074 footprint looks similar).
is there a cheap chinese version of it?
6:40 "Never bring an smT-component to an smD-component-fight..."
:-))
Excellent and timely, as always. Thanks!
You are welcome!
Thank you sir! this is exactly what I was looking for, your a gentleman and a scholar🤝
I subscribed👍
Welcome aboard the channel!
I would appreciate it if you would add in the amount it cost you at the time to build the total package. I know I can calculate it myself by opening all the aliexpress links and tallying them up but it won't reveal how much you personally paid for the package at the time of making the video.
Having watched Andreas' old mailbag videos, I expect that all of these parts came from his inventory so no new purchases were needed.
Andrew is right. I assume the total cost was around 10 dollars including the battery and the solar panel. Plus 1000 dollars work of a Swiss engineer ;-)
Andreas what is the status of Super Power project?
They are testing the prototypes and found some errors. Firmware for the Pi board seems in a good shape.
@@AndreasSpiess very good news, thank you. 👍
@@AndreasSpiess Very nice!!
Thanks a lot Andreas for this very useful video! Useful and interesting, as always!!!
I am glad you liked it!
Thanks Andreas, it is a great idea to convert my esp projects as I am living in Turkey, by the Aegean sea.
So for sure you only need a small solar panel ;-)
Does anyone have a Fritzing diagram for the p mosfet and diode components? I quite don't get it :(
I do not use Fritzing :-( Maybe somebody else...
Great video, something I've wanted to do for ages. Very clear explanation.
Glad it was helpful!
Beautiful lesson!!
I always learn a lot with your work.
Sun is done. Now I look for a 200mA wind generator
Good luck! Fortunately, we do not have a lot of wind here. So I cannot help you.
Hands off your knowledge 🙏 sir. Keep delevering , it really helps us.
Lots of Love form "India"❤️
Thank you for your nice words!
Thanks Andreas, I’ve been struggling using a tp4056 for a solar project, reckon this is the solution! Perfect…
I hope it will work for you as well.
What was your problem?
To small solar panel?
To high charging current?
Houston, Andreas solved the problem ! Thaank you.
:-)) Thank you!
I was waiting for this video! Thanks)
Will be interesting to see solar equipment for RPi 4 😎
They are still testing...
I’d like to see your take on other energy harvesting methods, like rectennas.
Ooh and that PFET circuit is wonderfully elegant. And 90mV dropout on that LDO is excellent!
I once did a video about harvester. It is only for very special applications and you have to use very low power chips...
Thank Andreas, your lessons are very interesting and kinde of relaxing ))
Glad to hear that! Thanks.
oh my, wow! this part 11:56 is the solution to my problem of diy ups. Thanks a lot
You are welcome!
The voltage input for the analog input on the raw 8266 is 1v but on the Wemos Mini and other Node MCU boards is 3.3V. Love the video! I learn so much from you thank you!
Yes, you are right.
Thanks for this great video. For all my sun powered project, I am using the mppt charger/balancer PS-BC12111 also including a bay for 3 x 18650.... Works flawless.... and cheap.
This would probably be an overkill. And I am not sure how much of the energy would be used by the charger board itself... But for larger panels a more elaborated board like the PS-BC12111 is needed
Nice, do you know of any 2S boards?
Thank you for the knowledge shared. you earned a new subscriber.
Welcome aboard the channel!
Sir your channel is one of the best channels on TH-cam, providing educative and valuable content, please keep up the good work, YOU ARE DOING A FAVOR TO HUMANITY.
Thank you for your nice words!
Very interesting - always great ideas and videos
Thank you for sharing
You are welcome!
Das war ein Super interessantes Video, vor allem die MOS-FET Lösung. Bei der Indiana Jones Szene musste ich laut lachen. Danke dafür, Andreas ☺️
Bitte, gern geschehen!
Simple and efficient approach. Thanks.
Maybe we should use this approach more often.
Absolutely! The film is old and still not fully understood ;-)
Thanks Andreas! Very good explained and very usefull.
Glad you liked it!
Thanks for such a simple tutorial
My pleasure 😊
Thank you so much. Very interesting, and informative.
You are welcome!
very useful and good solar project, talented man👍👍👍
Thank you!
Really nice and informative video. Thanks for making this. 👍
Glad you liked it!
Thanks dear Andreas 🤗🤗
You are welcome!
I have over 6 KW of pv and 13kwh of battery here at my place. I like your simple setup and how you are using those tiny PV and battery - it sure takes up a lot less space than what I have !
But it would be too small to charge your Tesla ;-)
Exactly what i'm doing.. Bravo!!!!!!!
Glad you can confirm it is a good idea.
@@AndreasSpiess well done. As usual a brillant demonstration.
Excellent video, thank you. Simple and professional! It is what I need. BTW I also need turn-off the load at night. So I can use the solar panel voltage, or the lack of them, to turn off the load. I need the battery only to supply instant current on LoRa transmit or similar.
Good idea!
Perfect timing. Thank
You are welcome!
Excelent video as always.
Thank you!
I love it so much. Thanks
You're welcome 😊
Amazing video. I tried to think something like this. Thanks!
Glad you like it!
Excellent. Thank you!
You are welcome!
Thanks Andreas, excellent explanation :)
You are welcome!
Thank you!! Very helpful!
You're welcome!
great engineering, love it
Thank you!
Thank you for the videos
You are welcome!
love the location you lived at
Thank you!
Wow, you're really thinking, smart!
Thank you!
Nice one! Thank you!
You are welcome!
Very usefull indeed and nicely explained. Pure entertainment on Sunday mornings. What else....
Thank you! Currently, they do not produce a lot of energy. We have bad weather :-(
@@AndreasSpiess Too bad of the weather. Here in Belgium it's reasonable... thanks to global warming and climate change the summers are getting warmer and sunnyer ;-). I'm thinking of buying a few of those solar cells. Also 2nd hand panels with more power are interesting these days.
Excellent. Thanks for this Andreas. I've been struggling to add an E-peas solar charging chip to my lora board. It does mppt, but it doesn't seem like I'm winning much. It's very complicated and expensive. I think I'm rather going to use the design you show in this video.
My tests also showed that MPPT does not help with these low power panels. For you own PCB you might also have a look at the bq24074 or similar ( www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/bq24074.pdf?ts=1621319840198&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.ti.com%252Fproduct%252FBQ24074 ). It seems to have a built-in power path.
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you for this. I've been trying to find this for months!
Great video! Time to bring down my solar powered sr04t-esp8266 based water tank level monitor. I had simply put the tp4056 board directly without any mods and was wondering why it's not performing well. Now I know exactly what to do! 73 de VU2DJI
Good luck! 73 de HB9BLA
"the finger" is very cute :)
:-)
Thank You,
great inspiration as every video on Your channel.
Two alternative aproach come to my mind .....
- using ttgo t display as it has charging circuit and I love the display on all esp projects.from video366.
- using the 18650 power bank "shield" offered from various sources.from video351.
both not so much hacked but will check what happens connecting to solar cell......
Regards from Bavaria
You are right. There are many other possibilities. This one was very simple and cheap, I thought.
i will add the power path，nicework
Thank you!
Great video, as usual. Thank you! I just wish some company would create one in the correct way and take my money already!
Who knows. Maybe they watch my video ;-)
Excellent. Thank you
You are welcome!
Very nice solution...cheers.
:-)
Muchas gracias amigo, excelente, ojala puedas perfeccionar este proyecto
y convertirlo en una mini UPS.
It probably already can be used as an UPS for an ESPxx