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Post by triggerfish on Oct 4, 2018 12:45:54 GMT -8
Hi,
Last night, my system went down because of battery exhaustion. I let it in the sun all day to see if it would wake up again. Sun is not too common here (you know, when they tell you to go where the sun does not shine? That's here), so when I got home and the system was still down, I was not too worried yet... I hooked up and external power to the external power jack on the sunair board. The mini usb input. The red led went on, but nothing happened yet... Should the system power up immediately, or is it now charging the battery through external power and will it wait for the battery to be charged before powering up?
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Post by triggerfish on Oct 4, 2018 21:54:07 GMT -8
This morning my question was answered. When I woke up I noticed a still dark box, so I was already doubting stuff. 15 minutes later, I noticed a box full of shiny leds  So the powering on worked! |
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Post by triggerfish on Oct 5, 2018 2:39:30 GMT -8
Trying to understand the values: LIPO_Battery Bus Voltage: 3.86 V
LIPO_Battery Shunt Voltage: -25.52 mV
LIPO_Battery Load Voltage: 3.83 V
LIPO_Battery Current 1: -255.20 mA
Battery Power 1: -0.98 WCurrent 1 beeing negative means the battery is getting power in stead of giving? Solar Cell Bus Voltage 2: 4.82 V
Solar Cell Shunt Voltage 2: -52.64 mV
Solar Cell Load Voltage 2: 4.77 V
Solar Cell Current 2: 526.40 mA
Solar Cell Power 2: 2.51 W Current 2 beeing 526 means the sun is doing allright?
Output Bus Voltage 3: 4.96 V
Output Shunt Voltage 3: 20.88 mV
Output Load Voltage 3: 4.96 V
Output Current 3: 208.80 mA
Output Power 3: 1.04 WCurrent 3 is what the system is using to operate?
Am I correct in assuming the system is fully powered by the sun now, since the solar panels provide more than the 208 used? And is the sum of Current 1 and Current 3 related to Current 2?
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Post by SDL on Oct 6, 2018 9:10:44 GMT -8
Peter,
Yes, Current 1 being negative means the battery is being charged.
Yes, Current 2 being 526mA means that the solar [power is flowing into the system).
Yes, Current 3 is the power that the syesem is using.
You have sum Power numbers and not current numbers because the voltages at each places is different.
to calculate efficiency:
(1- ((Output Power) + (Battery Power))/(SolarCellPower) )*100 = Percent efficiency
BP
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Post by snakn1 on Oct 8, 2018 11:00:15 GMT -8
FYI try to reduce the power that the Pi uses by turning off a few thing that are not need when the project is live. in Config.txt: # Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835) dtparam=audio=off start_x=1 gpu_mem=128 enable_uart=0 dtoverlay=w1-gpio # Disable the ACT LED. dtparam=act_led_trigger=none dtparam=act_led_activelow=off # Disable the PWR LED. dtparam=pwr_led_trigger=none dtparam=pwr_led_activelow=off # Disable internal BT dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt sudo systemctl disable hciuart.service sudo systemctl disable bluealsa.service in the crontab.. I turn off the ethernet chip (that also turns off the usb buss that the camera is on but the wifi is still active) at night. # turn off the usb ports and Ethernet port from 8pm until 6 am keeps wifi alive. 1 20 * * * echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/buspower > /dev/null 1 6 * * * echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/buspower > /dev/null for the file: /etc/rc.local # Disable HDMI /usr/bin/tvservice -o Do not do this in the crontab as then if there is an issue and you try to plug the hdmi cable back in to fix your issue, you will not be happy, this way you can edit this file via a different source. see the below for more info on saving power: monkeyinmysoup.gitbooks.io/raspberry-pi/content/5.1-power-consumption.html |
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Post by triggerfish on Oct 8, 2018 12:22:09 GMT -8
Already disabled HDMI and the LED. I never thought about the BT though. Will disable that also. The Pi Zero does not have much other stuff on board. |
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Post by SDL on Oct 9, 2018 16:52:49 GMT -8
Interesting you have this: in the crontab.. I turn off the ethernet chip (that also turns off the usb buss that the camera is on but the wifi is still active) at night. # turn off the usb ports and Ethernet port from 8pm until 6 am keeps wifi alive. 1 20 * * * echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/buspower > /dev/null 1 6 * * * echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/buspower > /dev/null This is cool! BP P.S. we use a Raspberry Pi Zero and an external WiFi Dongle and turn off a USB PowerControl most of the time to kill the WiFi power on Project Curacao2. www.switchdoc.com/2018/09/tutorial-reducing-power-for-solar/ |
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Post by snakn1 on Oct 9, 2018 18:19:33 GMT -8
I keep getting blocked when trying to reply ( try again without some of the data )
I just changed this today:
my crontab has a entry in it already that takes a picture every 15 minutes from 6 am until 8pm. I just moved those entries in to that file so to keep the usb camera unpowered unless it is needed
I would show you but it is all blocked.
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Post by SDL on Oct 10, 2018 5:46:20 GMT -8
I saw your posting picture. It didn't block the above posting. What did your error message say? Was this an Internet thing?
BP
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Post by snakn1 on Oct 10, 2018 7:19:09 GMT -8
I tried to post it Via Chrome and IE (edge). it had redirected me to your cloudflare security site that said that it triggered the block and to email the owner. I also have issue with going to this form via your home page. but I have a link to this page so I can get here. I have tried it from home, a pi and at work. so I know it is not at my end.
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Post by SDL on Oct 11, 2018 13:48:42 GMT -8
Hmm. I'm still not sure.
Could you give me a step by step of what is happening so I can duplicate it? The forum seems to work fine on Chrome and Safari on my Mac.
BP
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So the powering on worked!
