Post by SDL on Jul 14, 2019 17:58:11 GMT -8
Folks,
We are going to be releasing a new product shortly (one more part is coming in next week and then test, document and start shipping!) called SolarMax. It is basically very similar to the SunControl board but is designed for 12V solar panels (VOC up to about 25V). We are seeing an influx of cheap 12V panels into the market, and we figured we should do this for customers to take advantage of these cheap panels, but still get the advantages of getting lots and lots of data and control out of the system. Woohoo!
This is not as easy to build as SunControl systems (takes some wiring and (perish the thought) might involve some soldering!) but will provide a lot more power to the systems you want to build.
The primary reason we moved this up on our product list was because SkyWeather is coming out with a version that will support video streaming up to WeatherSTEM.com (maybe for display on the Weather Channel - test single frame shot attached) and we have found that the Raspberry Pi Zero just won't keep up with the Video streaming (I killed a remote Pi Zero system by installing the streaming, but that is another story. I have to go down to fix it in a couple of weeks. Grrr.).
Running the camera all the time takes a lot of current too! So, SolarMAX was born. Attached are pics of the new video streaming shot (still frame) and also a picture of the SolarMAX prototype happily powering a SkyWeather system. That's a 30W panel. We are testing a 100W panel next.
Best regards,
John Shovic
We are going to be releasing a new product shortly (one more part is coming in next week and then test, document and start shipping!) called SolarMax. It is basically very similar to the SunControl board but is designed for 12V solar panels (VOC up to about 25V). We are seeing an influx of cheap 12V panels into the market, and we figured we should do this for customers to take advantage of these cheap panels, but still get the advantages of getting lots and lots of data and control out of the system. Woohoo!
This is not as easy to build as SunControl systems (takes some wiring and (perish the thought) might involve some soldering!) but will provide a lot more power to the systems you want to build.
The primary reason we moved this up on our product list was because SkyWeather is coming out with a version that will support video streaming up to WeatherSTEM.com (maybe for display on the Weather Channel - test single frame shot attached) and we have found that the Raspberry Pi Zero just won't keep up with the Video streaming (I killed a remote Pi Zero system by installing the streaming, but that is another story. I have to go down to fix it in a couple of weeks. Grrr.).
Running the camera all the time takes a lot of current too! So, SolarMAX was born. Attached are pics of the new video streaming shot (still frame) and also a picture of the SolarMAX prototype happily powering a SkyWeather system. That's a 30W panel. We are testing a 100W panel next.
Best regards,
John Shovic
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