I am working on a design project where I need to use power generated from a solar panel to charge a battery and then in turn power LEDs after dark. I am on a team and my assignment is to design the controller to regulate the battery charging and driving the LEDs.
I am just curious if anyone has done a project similar to this or components of it. Such as an LED driver, battery charging methods, or regulating input from the solar cells.
Efficiency is of utmost importance for this project. Would using a microcontroller to run a charging program be appropriate or is there something 'smart' enough to do it on its own? We haven't decided whag type of battery we are using yet. We are leaning towards Li-Ion/Polymer or Ni-Cd.
I guess any input on designing a controller that can do something like this would be helpful. Right now Im working on the research phase but will be building a protoype in a couple months.
Thanks for any help!
I am just curious if anyone has done a project similar to this or components of it. Such as an LED driver, battery charging methods, or regulating input from the solar cells.
Efficiency is of utmost importance for this project. Would using a microcontroller to run a charging program be appropriate or is there something 'smart' enough to do it on its own? We haven't decided whag type of battery we are using yet. We are leaning towards Li-Ion/Polymer or Ni-Cd.
I guess any input on designing a controller that can do something like this would be helpful. Right now Im working on the research phase but will be building a protoype in a couple months.
Thanks for any help!