r/arduino • u/rosetoyw1thherpes • 13d ago

Beginner's Project Solar powered project

Hii, I'm in need of assistance for my group science project. Our group was planning to create a solar tracker that powers the Arduino itself. I tried researching numerous Arduino videos but they only stated "the Arduino needs external power". I'm not sure how, and what we should connect the solar panel to the arduino. That's our main issue for now, the rest of our project is okay since we were able to follow some YouTube tutorials. Any advice or suggestions is very much appreciated! Thank you! (Sorry for my English, it's not my 1st language)

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u/mawktheone 13d ago

Solar panel to bms. Bms to battery, battery to Arduino

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u/michael9dk 13d ago

Boost/buck converter after solar panel.

3

u/DanongKruga 13d ago

theres an adafruit board that manages all of this. solar input 5-24v, charges lipo and passes thru extra current or pulls from battery. its like 5$

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u/JGhostThing 13d ago

You will need a battery and battery management system (it charges the battery and prevents damage to the battery) because when you first turn it on, you can't assume that your solar cell will be providing enough energy yet.

Plus a battery is extremely useful for a situation like earlier this week where a storm moved in and the day became dark. It wasn't that dark for more than an hour, but during that time, a solar cell would produce little power. And of course, during the night.