DIY

We frequently get asked how to create an IV curve for a solar panel. We show you how to do it with a minimal amount of equipment. Why Generate an IV Curve for a Solar Panel We build out IV curves for our own...

Students at the University of Michigan are building a "high-altitude testing platform for atmospheric and space systems." After a lot of prototyping and test flights, they have arrived at their final...

Open Source Drifting Buoy As sensors and communications hardware drop in price, there are entire new worlds that are opening up for exploration and monitoring. One of those is the ocean. The Maker Buoy Shop...

The Particle Boron is a new cellular modem for IoT. It is designed to consume less power than its predecessors, especially during data transmission. The Boron introduces Cat-M1 cellular technology, which is...

To run an IoT device from solar you need to know how much power the device daily consumes (energy budget) and how much power you can produce from solar. Accurate data is extremely important. If your estimate...

Running a flash off a V88 Battery Pack This tutorial will show you how to modify a Yongnuo YN560-III Speedlite flash so that it can be run off the V88. We built this specifically for a remote camera trap...

The black-capped petrel lives high in the mountains of Hispaniola and makes its nest in a deep burrow, among dense ravines or dry rocky ridges. It is an endangered seabird known as Diablotin (“little...

In this post, we test how to run an Apogee full spectrum sensor from a small solar panel or simply a battery. The sensor measures PPFD which is the number of photons in the 400-700nm range of the visible...

We explain how to choose an MPP (maximum power point) voltage for solar charge controller chips that use a ‘constant voltage’ regulation method, such as TI’s bq24650 or Linear Technology’s LT3652. We...

In this article we evaluate three popular lithium ion solar charge controllers, with and without MPPT, and compare their performance with a variety of different size panels in different lighting...

How to Estimate Solar Charge Time Unfortunately, solar charge time is not as simple as just dividing your battery capacity (measured in Watt hours) by the power of your solar panel (measured in Watts). Even...

We deployed our water quality sensor in a basin near the East River nearly three weeks ago and it is consistently reporting water quality data. Using circuit and software design by Dylan Sri-Jayantha and...

Using Raspberry Pi in a remote time lapse environment requires power management or a very large solar panel. Dan Julio designed a Raspberry Pi expansion board for the Pi Zero called the Solar Pi Platter that...

Maybe, but probably not that well. Charging battery packs from a solar panel isn't as straightforward as you think - even if the solar panel output is regulated. We recently tested 10 different battery...

I paired up with Voltaic Systems to create a cellular, solar-powered water quality monitor. For phase one one of the project, I configured an Adafruit FONA to a water temperature probe and publishes the...

In this post, we show you how to build a solar-powered asset tracker for your bicycle or other important equipment using Adafruit FONA 808 and Freeboard. We will show you how to 3D print a custom case, wire...

In this post, I will discuss how we are working to revolutionize bird research by creating a solar powered bird feeder with a range of data collection capabilities. I will focus on how we have worked to...

We sometimes need a lightweight way to track power production of our panels in places that are far from an electrical outlet. In this post, we show you how to design a voltage, current and luminosity data...