Making Raspberry Pi with Solar Energy

[@LagomorphaMusic]

Hello! Thanks for the very informative video! :-) One question: What is the name / manufacturer of the battery you're using? And: The video is nearly one year old now - is the whole thing still working? Would you do something different if you would build it now?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Hi, the battery I wound up using was this one. uk.pi-supply.com/products/pijuice-5000mah-battery?_pos=4&_sid=0cb658181&_ss=r The project is still up and running, the only downtime I eventually had was do to 8 inches of snow we got that buried the device. During that time the battery died and it powered off. Once I got it out though, I recharged the battery using the wall connected and it was up and running again. If I was to do it different, I might use the full PiSupply and A regular raspberry pi rather than the zeros. Ultimately the project had enough space for the larger devices and I think it would have made everything more flexible. I had planned on updating the video with a follow, but with the lockdowns and two kids at home, production has been slowed. I do hope to get back to it, so check in from time to time.

[@leonardojake9153]

A tip : you can watch movies at Flixzone. I've been using them for watching loads of movies during the lockdown.

[@raulcrew5116]

@Leonardo Jake yea, I have been using flixzone} for years myself :)

[@Gerald-iz7mv]

hi nice video - does the PiJuice Zero also work for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

I don’t know for sure but I don’t see why it wouldn’t as the power requirement are the same. I haven’t had the chance to use the new version but I want to soon. Try emailing the team at piSupply in the UK that makes it they respond super fast just account for the time zone difference.

[@geirha75]

Is it possible to configure PiJucie from cli only? I have a project pi zero project no GUI.

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

yes it is.

Did you run in long term on solar power, or on the sun at all?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

For stability, I ran off battery and had the solar panel maintain and recharge it.

[@samwoollard4491]

I watched the next video, connecting sensors. Was there another one with the solar recharging the battery? I'm looking to do a similar project but am concerned the Pi will discharge the battery over time and cut out. Will it start back up when the sun is out? How does the Pi not go through a cycle of booting up then shutting off when there is a tiny amount of power in the battery, which then gets drained by startup?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Hi Sam, the PiJuice took care of managing the the battery charge. Essentially when sun is available it charges the battery. Here is what you need to look out for. First you need to make sure that when sun is available the output of the panel has enough power to run the pi plus all its devices and has a significant amount of extract capacity that can go into charging the battery. If you don't have enough reserve, the battery will eventually be depleted over time. I tried to get a s big of an overcapacity I could so the battery could charge on days when there was little sunshine. The second thing you need to look at is the battery capacity. It needs to have enough power to run the pi long enough to make it through times with poor or no sun. This includes times of bad weather. So you'd need a much larger battery likely in the Pacific Northwest than you would in say Arizona do to the number of days of sunshine. The PiJuice had a number of features for handling shutdown of the Pi in case of the battery going dead. I don't think it had the ability to turn itself back on to recover from power failure. I do seem to remember that you can program the pi to turn on automatically a set time with its clock if it isn't already on. So that is a potential failover. if the battery dies. Once there is sun it will recharge. Set the pi to try and turn on every so often and it will reboot itself in case of power failure. Let me know if you need anything clarified or need more help. I'm happy to dig into my notes from making the video. Also this video is from awhile back so you may want to check the PiSupply website as they were often updating the PiJuice and may have improved it from when I did this.

[@wesleybell1100]

How long does the battery last overnight?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

In this particular setup the battery lasts the about 2 days in the the dark.

[@MFJLabs]

Thanks for your vid. Very informative. Read somewhere that plugging power into the RPi Zero directly while the Pi Juice is connected and powered can damage the RPi Zero. Curious if your RPi Zero threw any errors or experienced any damage while experimenting with power directly into BOTH boards?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

@MFJLabs I didn't have any issue or get any errors. I plugged it in a lot of ways while I was testing it too. Honestly I would have expected it to break while I was figuring it out, but I think I only did what you described a few times, before getting the final configuration. I'll take a look in the directions and see ifI can find something on that. If you happen to see it, let me know where and I'll add something in the video description about it. The nice thing about the Pi Zero is they are so cheap, blowing one up isn't the end of the world. I have definitely killed a few but usually doing something stupid like hot connecting motor drivers and motors.

[@ruudvoest1038]

Great video , thanks for that.! Does your setup also work with the Pi Sugar Pro instead of the Juice ? I use a Pi 4 , will your setup work with that one as well? And do you have link of the ordered battery please?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

For a Pi 4 I'd likely go with the full version of the PiJuice. Here is the link to the battery. ttps://uk.pi-supply.com/products/pijuice-5000mah-battery?_pos=4&_sid=0cb658181&_ss=r The PiSugar2 seems like a nice device and I have no doubt it would work with this project. I haven't personally tested it though.

[@ruudvoest1038]

@@SoWeBoughtaHouse Thanks for you information & the link. Cheers, Ruud

[@AskIveSolar]

Tries to meet your eye line. Like Jim and Dwight from the office. Haha But seriously. Interesting concept. A bit too involved for me. I just use my portable power station

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

You can always use the portable power station to power your project and then set up solar charging to extend the run time. I used a more elaborate controller for my project but you could really simplify it.

[@wisekkracker]

am working on a pico based controller for a 5lb 100w smart solar energy solar panel costing $50 to make

[@wisekkracker]

22000mah 10 2200mah 18650 for plenty of portable power

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

The bigger the battery the longer you can run in bad weather. As long as you have the space, go for it.

[@crofty13001]

Love your video, really helpful. If I might add some small feedback, your not looking into the camera. Put a small toy on top of the camera and talk to it and it looks like your talking straight at the camera ☺️

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Thanks Dan.

[@chucklowe584]

Why use a PiJuice zero and not just use the solar bank on the pi?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Hi Chuck. Do you mean plug the solar panel directly into the Pi? The Pi Zero doesn't have a power manager so the the PIJuice manages the incoming solar power to charge the battery or run the Pi. I'm sure there are other ways of doing it. How were you thinking of connecting the panel to the Pi? The PiJuice also provided the UPS functionality to the device. When I did the video this was a an easy and elegant way of configuring it. I'm happy to give you my opinion of other options, just let me know what you are thinking.

[@mercy9198]

It's late to reply but I think you are referring to solar power controllers ( more like MPPT ) ?

[@chrisbachor5813]

Geht das ganze auch mit einem Pi 4 B Sie sprachen da glaube ich von einem Pi Zero . Danke erst schon mal vor ab für diese E-Mail . Ich habe auch ein Spannungsregler gesehen in einem anderen Video , den musste man aber mithilfe eins Mess Gerätes über ein Poteziometer einstellen . So etwas besitze ich leider nicht .

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Für den Pi 4 würde ich dieses Modell des Pijuice verwenden. uk.pi-supply.com/products/pijuice-standard Das pi Zero, das ich im Video verwende, ist nur eine kleinere Version. Ich habe den Stromsensor verwendet, um den Stromverbrauch des Solarpanels zu überwachen, aber das brauchen Sie nicht. Das PiJuice bietet über die API ein grundlegendes Feedback zum Panel-Status. Lassen Sie mich wissen, wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben. Viel Glück bei Ihrem Projekt. Ich entschuldige mich, wenn mein Deutsch nicht gut ist.

[@chrisbachor5813]

@@SoWeBoughtaHouse Vielen Dank schon mal für diese Info und den link .

[@haywoodyoudome]

It's more fun to recycle panels and circuits from a cheap outdoor solar light and write your own code.

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

You absolutely can do it and I'd recommend if you have those skills you try. In this case though the solar panels from cheap lights would not provide the needed power and the off the shelf panel was relatively cheap and looked nice. there are so many ways of doing things which is what makes electronics so much fun!

[@GEMSGuy]

where is the Python / PHP video?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Hi Richard - Unfortunately the Pandemic hit and I got really backlog on this project. I did finish the code PHP code for the project, but never got around to making the full video. If you have any specific questions, I'm happy to answer them and share with you any code that could help.

[@chrisbachor5813]

Sehr gutes Video , leider kann ich nicht alles verstehen da es in Englisch ist . Aber für das grobe reicht es hoffe ich mal . Danke

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Vielen Dank. Wenn Sie eine Frage haben, können Sie diese gerne auf Deutsch stellen. Wir können übersetzen

[@ruidelgado5294]

What's up?

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Not much, you?

[@jtreg]

Nauseating intro

[@SoWeBoughtaHouse]

Sorry you felt that way.