Can I run a Raspberry Pi on SOLAR POWER?

I was recently thinking about some projects I could do for future videos, and I ended up thinking about powering a project with solar power. I had never used a solar power before, so I decided to see if I could power a Raspberry Pi Zero with a solar panel.
I got all of my parts for this project from Adafruit ( www.adafruit.com/ ).
I also used a guide from Adafruit's learning system to figure out how to use solar panels ( learn.adafruit... ).
I am NOT sponsored by Adafruit. I'm just a big fan of their products and the educational content they provide.
Check out my blog here:
corsecure.blog

[@QAYWSXEDCCXYDSAEWQ]

A great little project, explained to perfection!

[@ste76539]

You can absolutely power a Raspberry Pi via it's GPIO pins, no USB power required. So you could have easily powered the Pi with the JST connection on your charger board, so long as it has a good 5v output.

[@mohinderkaur6671]

%v would fry 3.3v raspberry pi if connected incorrectly

[@ste76539]

*if* being the operative word here. Connecting it properly, however, would not.

[@notyoutube8128]

The gawd awful noise you call music is just unbearable.

[@ytu52973]

I have a makerPower Solar from Crowd Supply, 30W Aleko Panel, and a 12V 10AH AGM Battery running a Pi Zero W for over a year now. I Update/reboot on occasion and current uptime is 176 days.

[@helloken]

This sounds really cool, thanks for the information and story!

[@jeffschroeder4805]

Lots of projects are possible with solar power. It seemed a pretty fair test though you might be losing capacity of the battery gradually and it wouldn't be noticeable right away. A black insulated case is probably not likely to help keep your components cool, the components will likely generate some noticeable heat and without some airflow to cool them it will only serve to keep that heat inside. If your charger has a 5V output (most do) you could eliminate the USB adapter. Your web server was a wonderful trial projects - good work.

[@Rcbeacon]

I have a solar powered esp8266 running in the greenhouse on a 10 watt solar panel on the roof of the greenhouse and a 7Ah battery. During summer it works great but over winter it goes flat and needs an occasional boost. There is a huge difference in solar output between summer and winter, at least here in New Zealand. The esp8266 connects via wifi to a sbc server so I can see conditions in the greenhouse and the battery voltage on a web page. I am not using any low power modes and it connects every 60 seconds. I can't remember what the current draw is from the battery with no solar, which would show the total power draw.

[@AtlantaTerry]

I believe you are wasting power by converting to USB then powering up the Raspberry Pi via it's USB port. All you really need to do is connect your 5 volt power to the Pi's header pin #2 and Ground to pin#6. Remember, *K.I.S.S.* in design is always best Terry Thomas PC Tech Support Atlanta, Georgia USA

[@AlexGelinas42069]

Solar powered security system sounds kind of amazing, actually. It could generally be great for some homebrew IoT kinds of projects =D

[@wrekced]

I think that that capacitor you soldered to that first board could go on the back of the board instead. Then you would not have to worry about other componnents heating it up. You could mount it a lot closer to the board then. This is a useful idea. I have been looking into powering my raspi 3 from solar. Thanks for this video.

[@martinausdeutschland]

I recently saw a video about the Rapsberry Pi Pico with the Phew Framework installed, which includes a webserver. It drains about 40 mA of power, much less, than the zero, which is about 100-150 mA. Maybe experimenting with this may lead to a webserver running severaly days without needing energy and also having a framework installed, which can do much more, than serving staic pages. Though, I just herad baout it, have made no experiments by myself yet. But your video gave me some new inspirations... 🙂

[@Gerald-iz7mv]

hi nice project - is there a waterproof camera or a camera case on the market you could use? You could also try to connect a LTE module to that raspberry Pi and send the photo over LTE.

[@Natasguy]

Awesome job man. 👏. Definitely doing this

[@cjlowe1650]

Dude, where did you get the pouch?????

[@marder6554]

Can't I just use a jst connection cable and use the cables to power the Pico over the 5V and a GND Pin without using the jst-to-USB adapter?

[@CorSecure]

that would probably work. I just used the adapters for convenience.

[@__Dallas]

@1:54 Mind Blown. Smarter every day.

[@thadonis.]

Great vid dude, want a set up like this too for something. will sub.

[@elektron2kim666]

Cool. I have a couple of projects in my window. At some point it will be larger solar cells.

[@MrBobWareham]

You need to remove all the LEDs as each one is consuming 20ma

[@cmdrcorvuscoraxnevermore3354]

Hi CorSecure, I am glad I got you video suggested by YT. Your solar-to-Pi system is exactly what I've been looking for, thank you! I have been trying to find info on using a solar panel to charge an Anker 20,000 mAh battery (the one with the integrated solar panel). Having some concerns about the Anker internal charge controller playing nice with an external solar input. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Maybe this could be a good video subject for you? Again, thank you and I'm subscribed now; looking forward to viewing your old and new videos. Be well!

[@CorSecure]

thank you for the sub and the kind words! I don't know anything about the Anker battery that you mentioned, but I will keep that in mind if I end up doing a project with something like that in the future.

[@cmdrcorvuscoraxnevermore3354]

@@CorSecure I'll be following your YT channel for sure. Have a good day.

[@wannehaves]

Your videos are amazing. It's not that I want to complain but could you try to get a better focus? I'm not native English and use the pictures to understand what you mean. Other than that, keep up the good work.

[@cjlowe1650]

Why didn't Adafruit have the capacitor on the board already????????

[@SteampunkSammy]

As it's a through hole component it would have likely doubled the cost of production for the tiny board. The rest of the board is Surface mount components and can easily be automated

[@HelloNotMe9999]

How is this even a question? Even a Pi 4 at max draw pulls 15 watts. A small 100 watt panel can run 4 of them with zero strain.

[@chazcov08]

Exactly. As soon as I saw the title, I was like, “Duh”.

[@despacitoyee1553]

Assuming that weather conditions are perfect, when plugged directly, then maybe. But more often than not, you aren't going to max out the panel. Clouds, obstructions, rain, dirt/dust, etc. will effect the overall output of the panels. And in the case of having an inline battery bank, it assumes the panels are going to be operating at 100% capacity, and that it stores up enough energy in the batteries, to last during hours of indirect sunlight, and nighttime. In some cases from tests done with a few solar panels I have, I get maybe 2-3 hours of dead on sunlight, and varying levels of sunlight outside that, till sunset to sunrise where there's almost zero energy generated

[@BurkenProductions]

Why even use adapters. Firstly they cost a lot. Just desolder any shit connectors from the boards and attach the wires directly. Much more safe too. Things wont come apart due to vibration and other shit.

[@CorSecure]

it was just a temporary proof of concept experiment. I wanted to be able to re-use the parts for other projects. also, as I mentioned, I am not an expert in soldering, so I typically don't do more soldering than is necessary. if you have the ability, knowledge, and desire to skip steps or use less parts, feel free to do so. I'm only showing how I chose to do this particular project.

[@mykofreder1682]

A PICO W would probably be better for a single task.

[@cjlowe1650]

Adafruit page is NO LONGER AVAILABLE

[@CorSecure]

For some reason, the parenthesis got included in the hyperlink in the description, so when you clicked the link there was an extra parenthesis at the end. It should be fixed now.

[@cedricflutter311]

Sponsered video

[@GhostForce]

how i can contact you please?