Hello, I’m working with ZigBee Pro Serie 2 chips.The routers are connected with a battery. My problem is the battery life. The batteries are 4400mAh and the routers consumtion are about 50mA. Then the battery life is 4400/50=88h/24=3 days.
I thought of using a solar panel, but if there are a couple of cloudy days the battery will not charge.
Any solution?
Thanks,
Regards.
I have run several S2 ZigBee routers full time on solar for about 3 years now. I use a 10-watt panel (over-kill, but I had them) and 3AH lead-acid batteries.
The network is not over chatty, but once I placed the panels near vertical to prevent snow collection, they have run non stop.
Hello, thanks for reply. Can you tell me your schematic? What is the voltage of battery? What regulator use you for solar panel and chip zigbee?
Thanks,
Regards.
My battery is 12vdc. The panel is nominal 12vdc, which means open-circuit is about 20vdc. The charger is from MorningStar and includes a low-voltage shutdown to kill the device isf the battery hist 11vdc. This router is a 9-30vdc packaged device using a switching regulator, so powering by 11-14vdc from the battery.
To build solar into an adapter, you’d probably want 6vdc panels & battery, plus a lower drop-out regulator. Charging batteries can be hard, so if you really want to design from scratch, consider using a special charger chip. Otherwise the battery will likely fail and/or be destroyed by an odd environmental accident (something covers the panel for days, and so on).
Hello, I will use a battery Li-ion 3.7V 6600mAh, a solar panel 3W 5.8V nominal ( open-circuit is about 7.25V) max power current 0.52A and a charger like this:
https://www.adafruit.com/products/390
The charger can be adjusted from 50mA up to 1A.
What do you think?
I’m thinking to use a more big solar panel for I get more voltage and current.
Thanks,
Regards