In the need for solar power
We are now sailing in the Carribean.
The boat is like most boats here: you are expected to run your engine two hours a day to charge your batteries.
Order
The red version has a samewhat more organized layout of the hardware.
Red edition
But not ready for mass production.
Mechanical change
I rotated the display 180 degrees and got a whole new look.
16 bit AD
I found an quite good voltage, amp and amphours instrument. It does lack the ability to record top values for the amps.
So I fixed that with the old TI 2013 which has a 16 bit D/A that can manage the low 0.25 mOhm measuring resistor
Voltage drop
Some mechanical progress
The flyport is housed in a package for toth picks, I like the small form factor.
Bootloader destroyed
I managed to put it back with a Pickit3, I will probably do this mistake some more times.
Voltage dipp
As I suspected the voltage from the battery makes a dip after a while.
I will try to find something suitable from inside the solar power regulator.
New peak
With an extra 25 watt panel I reached 7.8 amps.
Going into reset
It seems like the USB power supply sometimes drops its voltage forcing the CPU into reset when it wales up.
At the moment I don't have an oscilloscope to verify it.
All time high 6.4 amps
Crash
The measurements was going on quit well for little less than 12 hours when I acidently pulled the cord to the regulator.
The cord to the battery losened in a way I was not able to repair.
It is now running temporarely with a backup battery for USB devices.
The cord to the battery losened in a way I was not able to repair.
It is now running temporarely with a backup battery for USB devices.
Up and running with some faults
Does it fit
I assembled all the hardware except the cable to the sensors. So far everything fits in the box.
Wakeup
I am very happy with my on/off and wake up from sleep buttons. They are colour matched, it happened by accidence.
Wakeup
I am very happy with my on/off and wake up from sleep buttons.
They are colour matched, it happened by accidence.
Dremel
The USB Lipo charger board had to undergo some Dremel work to make it fit.
Box
An attempt to squeeze the hardware into a Rasberry Pie box has begun. So far it looks like it will fit.
Solar panels
My 14 years old solar panel finally gave up. I have now mounted two new 40 watts panels which I will connect so they can be directed to any of two battery banks.
