Solar Charging Tracker Directions: Experience and Errors

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jgarney
 
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Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:44 pm

Solar Charging Tracker Directions: Experience and Errors

Post by jgarney »

I just finished building the Portable Solar Charging Tracker Quickie Project. It works with a solar panel I had on hand and with the Duemilanove starter Pack, case, lipoly battery, and charger I purchased (back in Aug). I've had a solar powered remote sensor design in mind for several years and just never got around to putting it all together. This should help motivate me!

Nice project! All appears to work. But,....

I found a few errors in the directions for construction. Others might have an easier time being able to avoid these errors.

1) Parts list indicate:
4x10K resistors.
Actually you need 3x10k and 1x47k. The schematic shows that.
You also need a mini-usb cable to cut and use.
2) The directions to assemble the LCD panel summarize the Data lines as "D8 thru D4", but this should be "D7 thru D4".
3) The instructions for connecting the LCD to the Arduino reverse the RS and EN lines. I haven't checked on whether the summary signal list after the LCD panel is incorrect. Or if the connections to the Arduino are reversed. The picture shows the correct connections.

Also, you have to be careful in how to solder the contrast pot for the LCD to get it to fit in the case. It is pretty snug against one of the support posts. And you can't have the other components stick up too far or the case can't close.

As others have mentioned, I also had problems in being able to upload sketches to the Arduino. I had to manually press the reset button during the upload to get it to work. I'm going to try to dig into that a little more to see if I can find/fix the problem. But I was able to upload successfully.

Update 02/17/2011:
I believe the charger and solar panel connectors in the schematic are also reversed. As shown, I couldn't get any current (mA) measurements (> 0). Tracked this down to the voltage across the 0.1 ohm resistor being negative. Upon reversing the connections, all works great!

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mfmjos
 
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Re: Solar Charging Tracker Directions: Experience and Errors

Post by mfmjos »

Any idea if the GPS logger shield kit could be substituted for the data logger shield? Seems like it should work, and be able to log the location of the reading.

adafruit
 
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Re: Solar Charging Tracker Directions: Experience and Errors

Post by adafruit »

sure, that would be possible. GPS is a little more expensive

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mfmjos
 
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Re: Solar Charging Tracker Directions: Experience and Errors

Post by mfmjos »

Yes, it's more expensive, but I already have one!

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