I am working on a simple Arduino nano device that will act as a deer alarm when deer are in the yard. Essentially it has a motion sensor an ldr and at the moment a buzzer that plays a melody but I hope to change that to an sd card with cougar sounds on it and a small speaker. There are also two leds that might seem like cougar eyes in the dark.
The ldr is programmed to avoid the buzzer in daylight.
I want to power this with a cheap solar charger (8000 mah).
Conceptually, these seems sound. The buzzer works when plugged into a simple usb charger, but it isn't very portable that way.
Now, the solar charger acts kind of weird. I had the nano down to using less than 10ma when it senses no motion and 46ma when the buzzer is sounder. However, the solar charger cycles on and off after about 10 seconds if there is less that about 60ma of current going out. I have tested this with a bank of leds and found if the current is at 67 ma or more, they stay on indefinitely, but if I take one led off (down to 55ma) then the charger cycles off and then on again. So rather than having this work with low power, I have to make sure my circuit consumes at least 60ma at all times. I have another 12000 mah charger and I haven't found the spot where it just cycles off yet (more than 87 ma!)
I am hoping that during the day the charger will charge up and have enough power to drive the Arduino at night. But it needs to stay on at least during the night time, and the cycling on and off makes it pretty useless.
So my question is, have other people tried using these solar chargers (really made for phone chargers) as the power source with outdoor Arduino projects and if so, what have your experiences been and do you have any useful observations to make on this kind of setup?
They don't actually have to be used just for outdoor projects. Even portable projects. They seem to make a good power source at low cost!
The ldr is programmed to avoid the buzzer in daylight.
I want to power this with a cheap solar charger (8000 mah).
Conceptually, these seems sound. The buzzer works when plugged into a simple usb charger, but it isn't very portable that way.
Now, the solar charger acts kind of weird. I had the nano down to using less than 10ma when it senses no motion and 46ma when the buzzer is sounder. However, the solar charger cycles on and off after about 10 seconds if there is less that about 60ma of current going out. I have tested this with a bank of leds and found if the current is at 67 ma or more, they stay on indefinitely, but if I take one led off (down to 55ma) then the charger cycles off and then on again. So rather than having this work with low power, I have to make sure my circuit consumes at least 60ma at all times. I have another 12000 mah charger and I haven't found the spot where it just cycles off yet (more than 87 ma!)
I am hoping that during the day the charger will charge up and have enough power to drive the Arduino at night. But it needs to stay on at least during the night time, and the cycling on and off makes it pretty useless.
So my question is, have other people tried using these solar chargers (really made for phone chargers) as the power source with outdoor Arduino projects and if so, what have your experiences been and do you have any useful observations to make on this kind of setup?
They don't actually have to be used just for outdoor projects. Even portable projects. They seem to make a good power source at low cost!