#383 Cheap and simple Solar Power for our small Projects (ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino)

#383 Cheap and simple Solar Power for our small Projects (ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino)

Adding cheap and simple solar power to our small outdoor projects (e.g. ESP32, ESP8266, Arduino Pro Mini) removes the need to save energy or recharge batteries. Today we will enhance a simple 50 cents Li-Ion charger board to do exactly that.
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Links:
TP4056 boards: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ATFwwH or https://amzn.to/2RqelKK or https://bit.ly/3eMmZw5
ESP32 WROOM : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdXCHi3 or https://amzn.to/3rFVvBc
ESP32 PCB (different color) : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ABYXuD
Solar panel 6V : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_9xQ3CD
Solar Panels 5 – 5.5V : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AfVbIz
Voltage Regulator HT7333 : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ADLhEl
Schottky Diodes (used 1N5819) : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_AXOsKv
FQP27P06 : https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A5T7oh
Explanation of Power Path: https://youtu.be/T70mBHeIOZA

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49 Comments

  1. Hello sir, Very good information, I have one question, If we use two 100k resistors for a voltage divider, what could go wrong with them? Why is calculation necessary? In my case, the voltage seems perfect with two 100k resistors. Please explain in detail, I’m grateful for your help.

  2. Andreas what is better:
    -Solar system of 12V then adapt the power for a 5V Arduino or
    -Solar system of 3.7V then adapt to 5V?
    Thanks in advance

  3. Very helpful video! I’ve played around with this a little lately with a view to running a few esp32/ esp8266 lora sensors.

    It appears that solar charging is working though I’ve not yet got around to monitoring / logging battery voltage closely.

    I’m a little confused about the standby & charging status LEDs… do these behave normally? i.e. blue / green led is off and red light indicates charging and vice versa when charging is complete? I’ve tried the 2 diode and p mosfet power paths and on my modules the blue led remains on indefinitely red lights up when illumination is great enough. It appears an opamp version also behaves this way too though I’ve not tested this method enough yet to confirm this behaviour)

    Is it just my modules that do this?

  4. I think the TP4056 charge controller is one of the worst options for this application. When you make a project powered by a solar panel, you need to think about the most efficient use of the received electricity, and thanks to the ineffective TP4056 charge controller, you will simply lose a large share of the electricity received from the solar panel, in addition, it will not allow the solar panel to work efficiently. I recommend using high-efficiency pulsed charge controllers rather than linear charge controllers in this application. Additionally, I recommend looking for charge controllers specifically designed for solar panel power that can keep the panel voltage near its maximum power point.

  5. Thank you sir! this is exactly what I was looking for, your a gentleman and a scholar🤝
    I subscribed👍

  6. When using ESP 32 servo motors, there is a problem when operating it via 3.3 volts, so it is necessary to power the ESP-32 via 5 volts. Also probably any modul that plugs into the esp-32 require power. Would two TP4056 be sufficient for an ESP 32 operating with 5 volts and a servo motor connected to it? Or how should we set up this mechanism?

  7. According to this mechanism, does ESP 32 get its power from the battery or the solar panel when there is sun or in the morning? How does it work when it’s cloudy?

  8. Nice video but you made it more complicated than required to accomplish the task at hand. Some may appreciate the theory, others just want to configure and get it done. Time is very expensive.

  9. f the PV is only producing around 3.3v and the battery is at say ~4v (Lion) then the cct will prefer the 3.3v over the Battey 4v. Is this normal ?

  10. Is not the P-Channel FET reversed? It conducts always in the direction of the internal diode regardless of if it is activated or not, so from drain to source, and blocks only the other direction, right? And when the gate is zero and activates the FET then it conducts in both directions. So, from my understanding it should be reversed, to block current from the TP4056 when it is off. Or I understood it wrong? Thanks!

  11. Like usual, very interesting and practical. I have a few considerations/questions: the powerpath is as you perfectly explain to prevent the battery charging and discharging at the same time, which could basically ‘screw up’ (my words) the proper charging of the battery. I wonder, if one has an ESP that is in deepsleep most of the time, whether in reality this is a significant problem, as most of the time the discharge would be say around 3uA.
    I am not sure but i seem to remember that some of the charge boards you tested earlier (#155), e.g. the CN3056 did not have this problem. These boards are also extremely cheap (61 cts in euro). Anyway, you probably know better than I as you have more solar projects than I. I only have one, with a bare ESP8266, fed through a 4056 with protection and no powerpath. The ESP wakes up every 3 hrs, maybe does 5 secs of connection and goes back to sleep. I use a 750mAh battery. Till now, even in the dark days that seems to work, at least i have not been faced with a battery that would remain below cut off.
    On a side note, as through some lucky finds, i acquired about 100 discarded ‘vapes’, with lipo cells varying from 500-1200mAh, i will definitely do more solar projects, and will consider the CN3056.

  12. Hello Andreas, i use a same protected charger with solar panel, one 18560 and 5v booster.Powering uno,gsm900 and sensors i use a ds3231 to start the circuit every hour.My problem is when it shuts off,after a while the charger protection stops feeding the booster because the load is μΑ.Is there a way to disable this?

  13. This is a very useful video!! Is there any way to wake ESP32 over LORA? I want to send a signal to wake my Esp32 cam for 15 minutes, then let it sleep until next LORA wake up signal. Any ideas? Do you already have a video like this?

  14. This is my last straw of getting the answer but can anyone explain what he mean at 8:20 when he says "to comply with datasheet". I dont understand why he would put the 10uF cap there, what exactly is being complied here, sorry if I miss anything

  15. Hi, what if I connect a USB cable for the charge on the tp board once a small solar panels are soldered?

    I fried small panel in this way following another tutorial (not yours).

    How can i protect the panel?

    Thanks a lot, great channel!

  16. Nice idea, this power path
    but you mentioned that the 2nd diod is needed to protect the battery from some 6V.
    What prevents the esp32 from being exposed to the 6V that should not go to the battery?
    🙂 a connection to wify when voltage rises to high 🙂

  17. I started adding a powerpath to all my solar projects. I still see ‘issue’ though: if at a certain moment the solar panel output is high enough to shut-off the FET, rhen after the Schottky doode the available voltage may be lower than the battery voltage that in itself is not a problem, but then a small current may flow through the small diode in the FET, a current delivered by the battery

  18. Hi Andreas, can you comment on those solar power banks for esp32 projects? They ate all in one, although charge very slowly at 1-2 Wh solar harvest per day, it may be sufficient and easy as a quick and simple solution.

  19. Andreas thank you for the very educational post! I have a question about understanding what Rprog value should I set in my T4056 board. You decided on 10K but I leave in an area with more sun. How should I know what is the best Resistor value for my solar panel and sun to be set in the T4056 board. (Minute 7:13 )

  20. Thanks for the helpful information! May I ask you how you did those graphs at 9:21 ? I made a small weather station, which saves data on a sd card. I tried to make an excel chart with temperature and humidity over time and date, but excel just doesn’t want to work somehow.

  21. Hi Andreas, Love you videos. Thank you! Regarding the Power Path circuit, I implemented this with a 5V solar panel but found that the FET never stopped conducting. I bench tested it and also simulated it. This seems crazythat at any gate voltage from -5 to +5V, the PFET never stopped conducting. My bench testing and simulation confirms this, but why would that be? Here is a link to screen captures of the simulation where I sweep the gate voltage from -5V to +5V while keeping the TP4056 module output voltage at 5V. The source at best only drops less than one volt. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QijsPB04QrZX_RVzHoTwFmmud7shHax9?usp=sharing NOW, when we orient the PFET with the source connected to the TP4056 output and the drain connected to the load, it works perfectly.

  22. A few comments posted here, and Andreas himself made mention of designing a PCB that incorporated the handful of components here for an all in one power path. There are a few comments about smaller FETs too. SO…has anyone got around to doing that and would they be willing to share their PCB design with us all? I might do this too, but I thought I’d ask before reinventing something.

  23. do you think it’s better to use a Solar Power bank that charges and instantly supply boards like esp32 and arduino with 5V voltage? i’m sure that it supply a continue type and besides it’s easy to use instead of assembling a solar panel + a converter and a bettery.

  24. Hi there, I have a smaller panel (I think it maxes out at 4.20v) and when it switches to panel there’s not enough current, I guess I should change the 10k resistor for something smaller or just remove it, voltage regulator should compensate for that. One more thing I didn’t change the current limit resistor (R2) could it be the culprit?

  25. Can I at the same time have connected usb directly to esp32, assuming I have standard board, and solar panel?

  26. If you want to make your TP4056 adjustable, I recommend that you add a 1.2kΩ resistor in series, so you don’t exceed the maximum rating. The chip on these little modules already easily reaches 100°C at 1000mA (1.2kΩ) without a heatsink.

  27. This iw very interesting! TodayI did my first attemp: same charging circuit, connected to 5v 1amp solar panel and to a 3.7 rechargable battery. It charges nicely.

    Then, from de charge controller circuit output I connected a boost to convert to 5v so that I can chargr the battery while also fedding some device that consumes 5v.

    While there is sun, everything works fine. When the sun goes down my battery is full -but for some rason the consumer device receibes verty littlr current and shuts down.

    I can ‘t quite understand how the outputs on the charger circuit work: why would it deliver suck low current into the booster if I have a full batery? Should I connect the 5v booster right to the batteries to draw 3.7v?

    Still cant understand those outputs.

    Thanks!!

  28. i didn’t understand your calculation.. why did you divide 6000 mah to 3600 ? your esp32 to consumes 6000 mah per hour , doesn’t it? (10 seconds x 100mah = 1000 mah, and 6 times per hour = 6000 mah)

  29. Are you making the UPS device you describe in the video number #250, urgent answer please, So can we make UPS ourselves like this?

  30. Very interesting the opposite connection of the p-mosfet. It is the key to do what you say. The usual way connection simply doesn’t work. It cannot conduct when solar voltage gets lower. It conducts only when zero solar voltage.The worst is that the battery will be overcharged by the body diode. Thanks for torturing our brains😂!!!

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