Raspi Solar Supply (Using stuff I have in my garage)

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justgotdangerous

Joined Jun 2, 2014
2
First time poster. I've lurked here for a few months now.

I have a Model A Raspberry Pi with a camera module that's been sitting in my garage for quite some time, and I want to use it to take pictures of my back yard during the day.

I have a bunch of random solar cells lying around the garage and managed to combine them into a panel that with a boost converter, should power the pi. I plan on manually turning it on in the morning and having a cron job that shuts it down before it gets dark.

I want to make sure that if the sun dips a bit, I had a battery solution to shore up the power. I attached a diagram which I think covers that concept (without specifying the individual parts I have), but I would love to hear if anyone has any other ideas or sees any flaws (i've only recently started playing with electronics, so I'm sure I'm making plenty of mistakes).

Any help would be appreciated!
 

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#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Do not include the D2 circuit. Replace D3 with SW1.

You just use the solar cell to charge the battery (with a back-flow preventer, D1) and power the boost converter from the battery. Move the switch so the boost converter doesn't use power idling with no load.
 

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business_kid

Joined Feb 5, 2013
22
Are you sure the solar thing is big enough? For the camera as well? I'd be thinking of a PIC on 3.3V and you might not need the battery at all. Run @ 32.768khz, they consume next to nothing. You would also need to factor in the camera power.
 
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