IoT – Voltaic Systems Blog

Obscape Uses Voltaic In Rugged Environmental Devices

Voltaic Systems — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 17:56:29 +0000

Obscape is a designer and manufacturer of easy-to-use environmental monitoring products. Their devices are placed in extremely challenging locations around the world including coastlines, ports, offshore drilling platforms. Once deployed, they take photographs and measure wave height, water quality, water levels and water flow.

Solar powered Time-Lapse Camera deployed on a beach.

For Obscape’s customers, product reliability is a critical feature. Obscape outlines the reasons they choose to use Voltaic solar panels in this video.

Voltaic has spent extensive time and resources validating the material stack used in all of our ETFE panels. They have been tested against a wide variety of environmental forces:

combined UV, temperature and humidity
thermal cycling
thermal shock
vibration
mechanical shock
saltwater
chemical exposure

The solar panels have also been field tested with well over a million panels deployed across a wide variety of use cases and environmental conditions.

Solar panels on OBS-BUOY

Voltaic collaborates with our customers to ensure mechanical and electrical designs follow best practices. Obscape embeds each of the panels precisely and securely in the enclosure which shields them from impact. This design step extends the length of the panel by several years.

Solar panels in Time-Lapse camera during production.

We are excited to work with companies like Obscape who help their customers better understand the world around them.

Quick Install Video – 25 Watt CORE Solar System

Voltaic Systems — Fri, 30 May 2025 19:21:13 +0000

Our CORE Solar Systems were designed with ease of installation in mind. We have reduced the number of parts and steps required to deploy a solar system, cutting down on complexity and deployment time.

We lay out the basics of how to install 25 Watt CORE Solar System below. The 50 Watt CORE would follow the same principle but with a larger panel.

These solar systems are used to continuously power electronic devices in remote environments including: gateways, routers, cameras and environmental monitoring equipment.

Talk to a Sales Engineer

New Climate Futures Voltaic Customer Showcase

Lizabeth Arum — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 15:30:37 +0000

Voltaic’s customers power their industrial IoT applications with our solar panels and solar power systems, and many of these products have a positive climate impact by:

Reducing fuel consumption
Improving crop yields
Tracking the health of our cities, or
Monitoring critical environmental variables

During Climate Week NYC 2024 Voltaic showcased several of these solar powered applications at The New Climate Futures 2024, hosted by Newlab in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Here’s the rundown of our showcase:

Sofar Ocean

The product we showed off at the event was Sofar Ocean’s Ocean Sensing Platform – Spotter. Hundreds of Spotter buoys comprise a global network that collects data to improve forecasts and voyage optimization, cutting emissions by an average of 4-6%. Each day, the Sofar network makes more than 1.5 million observations of waves and other ocean variables including wind, sea surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, and GPS, and sends the data to the cloud via cellular or satellite communication. This information allows the team of ocean scientists to build innovative models that make forecasts that are up to 50% more accurate than traditional models.

When sourcing components that could withstand various marine environments, from ice to high latitudes to extreme heat, Sofar selected Voltaic to provide the durable 2 watt solar panels that recharge the Spotter’s onboard battery.

The Spotter Platform is just part of Sofar’s effort to preserve ocean health.

Clarity

Clarity wants to make it easier for cities and industries to measure and understand air pollution issues with its IoT-based air quality monitoring technology. Clarity has networks of hundreds to thousands of continuously calibrated air quality sensors that provide real-time air quality data.

The Black Carbon Module is part of Clarity’s sensor networks and is used to indicate the presence of this harmful component of particulate matter, which impacts human health, agricultural productivity, and global warming. The module is a real-time 5-wavelength UV-IR Black Carbon monitor designed to be installed outdoors on street poles and along fence lines. While the sensor also collects relative humidity and temperature data, the spectrum measurement provides insight into the composition of light-absorbing carbonaceous particles. The collected data helps observers distinguish the optical signatures of various combustion sources, such as diesel, woodsmoke, biomass, and tobacco.

Clarity chose Voltaic’s 100 Watt CORE Solar System to power the Black Carbon Module.

Hohonu

We recently wrote about our collaboration with Hohonu, a company dedicated to real-time water monitoring, and the not-for-profit Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, which manages the Brooklyn Bridge Park in our Voltaic Powers Hohonu Sensor for Real-Time Tide Monitoring in New York Harbor blog post.

Hohonu, which works to democratize access to real-time water data, currently provides 1.8 million+ hours of monitoring across 100 locations and 15 states, including the sensor Voltaic installed on Pier 3 of the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The data is freely available through TideCast for iOS:

The Hohonu’s HTG-PB2 solar-powered ultrasonic tidal gauge connects to the cloud through cellular (2G/3G/LTE) communication and refreshes live data every six minutes. The incorporated Voltaic solar panel recharges the sensor’s battery, making the system self-sufficient.

Live Dashboard:

BirdWeather PUC

The BirdWeather PUC (Portable Universe Codec) is an AI-powered bioacoustics platform that continuously monitors the sounds, identifying bird songs in real time. PUC has environmental sensors, including (Temp, Humidity, Pressure, Air Quality, tVOC, CO2, and a Spectral Light Sensor), dual microphones, WiFi/BLE, GPS, and a built-in neural engine, all in a weatherproof enclosure. This citizen-science IoT device, which sprung from one family’s pandemic fascination with the wildlife outside their home, facilitates easy recording and automatic cloud processing of bird sounds, aiding conservation efforts and ecological studies.

The cloud server uses the BirdNET neural network (a joint project between the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Chemnitz University of Technology) to process all audio soundscapes from the PUC, featuring:

Over 6000 global bird species!
Man-made sources (e.g. fireworks, engines)
Non-avian species (e.g. coyote, dog, fox, squirrel, frogs, insects)
Automatic removal of any soundscapes with human vocal detections

Studying birds and bird populations is a way to further our understanding of our ecosystems. Changes in bird populations and their behavior can tell us about the impacts of climate change, drought, weather, and habitat change.

The PUC can be powered by Voltaic’s V50 or the V35 (Shine Solar battery) and P105.

In our Solar for BirdWeather BioAcoustic Platform blog post, you can read about how we installed our own solar-powered PUC.

FloodNet

FloodNet is a cooperative of communities, researchers, and New York City government agencies working to better understand the frequency, severity, and impacts of flooding in New York City. Real-time flood sensors were developed by the FloodSense project at NYU and the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) to provide information on the presence, frequency, and depth of hyperlocal street-level flood events to a range of stakeholders, including policymakers, government agencies, citizens, emergency response teams, community advocacy groups, and researchers. The sensors and gateway are solar-powered. Sensors powered by Voltaic 0.3 Watt solar panels communicate status to the network using LoRaWAN, and the solar-powered gateway sends the data to FloodNet, which is then published for the public to view and analyze.

In our blog, you can read about how we solar-powered a LoRa Gateway on The Things Network to support FloodNet.

University of Florida

University of Florida’s Assistant Professor Christopher Dutton is an ecologist who works with academic, non-governmental organizations, and governmental agencies to better understand the causes and consequences of ecological change through the lens of animal and environmental microbiomes.

Dutton and his team have recently been studying how carbon fluxes change over the terrestrial-aquatic interface as wetlands fill and dry. The DOE-funded project uses sensors and a solar-powered Helium LoRaWAN gateway to track optical dissolved oxygen, pH, CO2 in the air, air temperature, humidity, dissolved CO2 in water, soil moisture/temp/cond, ORP, and CH4.

The Helium gateway is powered by Voltaic’s 50 Watt CORE Solar System.

Need help matching a panel to an appropriate gateway or battery? Contact us so that we can help you size your system and help you figure out all the details.

Voltaic Powers Hohonu Sensor for Real-Time Tide Monitoring in New York Harbor

Lizabeth Arum — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 16:40:10 +0000

Voltaic recently collaborated with one of our customers, Hohonu, a company dedicated to real-time water monitoring, and the not-for-profit Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, which manages the Brooklyn Bridge Park. The park granted us permission to launch a six month deployment to test a Hohonu tidal gauge. In late July, we installed a gauge on the southwest corner of Pier 3 to capture and share tidal height data with the park and the public. Pier 3 mostly sits below the 100-year-flood line, but was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) to withstand water inundation.

Background

The National Water Level Observation Network (NWLON) maintains a system of 210 long-term, continuously operating water level monitoring stations across the United States and its territories. It is the “go to” source for government and commercial sector navigation, recreation, and coastal ecosystem management. While many coastal towns are far from stations, there is, in fact, a NOAA Water Level Station at the Battery (8518750), just across the East River from the Brooklyn Bridge Park and there is another gauge located on the south side of the Brooklyn Bridge (8517847), on the east edge of the river, at the southwest corner of the park area.

The Battery, NY – Station ID: 8518750

The Brooklyn Bridge gauge collects the following data:

In addition to the data collected above, the Battery station collects Water Levels, Sea Level Trends, Meteorological Observations and is part of PORTS®, a decision support tool that measures and disseminates observations and predictions of water levels, currents, salinity, and meteorological parameters (e.g., winds, atmospheric pressure, air and water temperatures) to help improve mariners safely.

There are certainly other locations in Brooklyn or elsewhere that might benefit from an additional tidal gauge, however, our aim in installing the Hohonu sensor on the Brooklyn side of the East River is to collect hyper-local data. Think of it as being part of a dense sensor network.

Hohonu gauge installed across harbor from our Monitor One tidal gauge on Governors Island

The Hohonu Sensor

Hohonu’s tide gauges are part of the company’s initiative to monitor water levels and tidal heights and predict flood levels with stormwater run-up in many locations. The devices have an accuracy of +/- 1.5mm, which is crucial for providing precise data for various applications, including academic research, municipal emergency response to aiding in coastal restoration projects, and keeping vessels safe in a marina.

Hohonu gauge installed at the entrance of One 15° Brooklyn Marina

The HTG-PB2 solar-powered gauge is connected through cellular (2G/3G/LTE) and refreshes live data every six minutes. The incorporated small solar panel recharges the battery that powers the sensor, making the system self-sufficient and reduces the need for frequent maintenance.

The Hohonu gauge installed over the East River

The tide gauge uses an ultrasonic sensor to measure the distance from a fixed structure above the water to the surface. The sensor emits a sound pulse and then listens for the echo that bounces back from the water surface. The time it takes for the echo to return is used to calculate the distance to the water. The operating range of the sensor is typically between 0.3 to 10 meters, with a resolution of 1 mm. This measurement is known as the “distance to water” (d2w) and is used to infer the water depth by subtracting d2w from the height of the sensor. The tide gauge takes measurements at regular intervals, and the data is averaged to reduce noise and improve accuracy.

Hohonu further ensures the accuracy of their tide gauges over time through a combination of accurate sensor readings, regular data transmission, and adherence to NOAA-consistent methodologies for water level monitoring.

Sharing Data

Hohonu provides several data sharing options, ensuring that users can access the information they need in the way that suits them best.

For general and quick public access to real-time data, Hohonu offers:

A Web-Based Dashboard:
HTML widget to display a live dashboard.
The TideCast iOS Mobile App:
- Live Data – from 400 Hohonu sensors and NOAA stations that refreshes every 6 minutes.
- 72-Hour Water Level Predictions – TideCast’s proprietary prediction algorithm uses machine learning to be up to 80% more accurate than traditional tidal forecasts.
- 12-Month Tidal Predictions: Over 1,500 NOAA locations across the US provide tidal predictions 12 months in advance
- Weather Conditions – view wind, sun and moon phase, temperature, and rain at each station

For advanced public users, data can be shared via:

CSV Downloads

CSV reports can be downloaded directly from the web-based dashboard

API Access

Fully-documented API:

For internal stakeholders to monitor the hardware and network performance, there are two ways:

A Diagnostics viewer
- For validation of hardware performance before installation occurs
- Raw “Distance to water,” battery voltage, cell strength, standard deviation, and other parameters
Status page
- For monitoring of network performance across each node
- Merging of operational metadata with ongoing performance on a site-by-site basis that is updated hourly
- Permissioned user access to display exclusively the stations that each partner cares most about – while protecting sensitive operational data
- Up-to-date operational plans for each station

Preparing the Sensor

Magnet that ships with sensor

After receiving the sensor from Hohonu, we removed the magnet it ships with and temporarily installed it outside the Voltaic office in full sun in order to fully recharge the battery. This step was necessary as the sensor’s battery had discharged while we stored it indoors for several weeks while we worked out the logistics for installing it (i.e. applying for a permit, selecting mounting hardware, etc.). In total, it took about two days for the sensor to fully recharge.

Hohonu provides a handy dashboard which allowed us to monitor the voltage and ensured that the sensor was operational and ready for us to install it in the park.

Installation of Tidal Gauge

When installing the gauge, it is essential to ensure that there is one foot of radial clearance around the sensor. The sensor must also be installed on solid ground. This means no floating docks (which is why we could not install the gauge in the marina).

Best practices call for installing the device level with the surface of the water, as high as possible—at least 1.5 feet above the highest watermark but no higher than 32 feet above the lowest watermark. This height guarantees that the sensor is not affected by the highest tides when providing data for flood prediction.

Deploying the System

When we spoke to the park about installing the sensor, they suggested Pier 3 as the best location. After scouting the area, we found a spot where the device could meet all the installation requirements, would be easy for us to install, and would allow for facing the panel south (for optimal sun). After receiving the permit, we set about installing the gauge on the southwest corner of Pier 3, at across from the Marina:

Gauge installed at 40.697, -74.001

Our plan included attaching two connected unistruts along the length of an existing wooden plank on the river side of the Pier 3 fence using stainless steel hardware that matched the installation of the beacon already installed on the same corner.

Installation next to beacon

Sensor attached to Unistrut

Finding south

Installing gauge and tightening all bolts

The sensor comes with a built in level to ensure proper installation

Dashboard shows sensor (including battery voltage) was working properly after installation

Within 24 hours our dashboard was live and public. For the first 35 days, only “d2w” (distance to water) measurements are available. This is the minimum amount of time needed for calculations to stabilize in translating “d2w” data to other DATUM’s such as MLLW.

Our goal with the sensor was to identify tidal high and low waters from the observed water level data and provide that data to the park and the public.

Have an application that can benefit from solar?

The Sun Fuels Their Imagination: Students Create Solar-powered Art

Lizabeth Arum — Sat, 18 May 2024 18:04:18 +0000

NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) is a two-year graduate program that has been described as both an art school for engineers and an engineering school for artists.

Voltaic Systems has supported students from Jeff Feddersen’s ITP Energy class over the years. Last year the class visited the office and warehouse and one student used Voltaic products for his Wind-Vane-Cam.

However, this year was different. With the approval of NewLab, which is located in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and is home to the Voltaic Systems office, we were able to offer small solar panels and Always On battery packs, as well as, but more significantly, project space for the Energy 2024 class. While some might balk at exhibition space next to a garbage skip in a parking lot, outside project space is in short supply. What Voltaic Systems and NewLab offered the ITP students was space for students to install, test, and iterate on their ideas over time.

Skip to the Projects

Feddersen came up with a preliminary sketch for how the “SkyLab” projects could be displayed. He visited the site to assess the sun’s path and he made a plan for incorporating the “exhibition” space into the spring syllabus.

Jeff Feddersen’s original idea

Voltaic’s suggestions

Students assembling SkyLab structure

Onsite presentation on April 18

Starting in week six of the Spring semester, the students of the ITP Energy Class divided themselves into teams to create “off-grid” projects powered by solar. These projects were required to:

Run continuously for 5 or more days on solar power.
Mount securely to a structure and survive outside.
Report, at a minimum, status information such as battery and/or panel voltage to a central data site.
Run a payload of their design – this could be a sensor, art installation, or really anything, as long as students had a realistic energy budget for the payload and it was matched to the available solar power.

The first time the class met onsite was on March 7. The initial idea was to keep the projects small and have them completed by April 4. However, in keeping with ITP tradition, the projects became bigger, weirder, and more ambitious. It soon became apparent that more time would be needed to do these projects justice. SkyLab transformed from a quick mid-semester assignment to the final class project with an onsite presentation followed by a final in-class presentation two weeks later.

April 18th’s class and another day in the rain

In addition to team projects, each student was required to take on an additional role, participating in one of four groups to support SkyLab.

Group names and descriptions:

Data & Documentation: This group analyzed the site for energy potential and shading issues; and provided photos and videos for ITP social feeds and class documentation.
Support Structure Construction: This group was in charge of the structure that supported the projects safely outside for the duration of the project.
Equipment & Coordination: This group interfaced with Voltaic, Feddersen, and the department on equipment needs, and was the point of contact for scheduling time on site.
Networking: This group ensured that all projects on site could report data.

While the objectives for the course were what you might expect from an energy class, the final projects were anything but.

Course Objectives

Appreciate the sun as ultimate origin of almost all terrestrial fuels and energy sources
Touch on nuclear fusion and fission
Know the value of the solar constant and AM1.5 solar flux value
Learn basics of photovoltaic (PV) conversion of light to electricity
Learn about specific materials and considerations that affect PV
Learn about emerging technologies in PV such as perovskites and quantum dots
Learn about the difference between grid-tied and off-grid PV
Learn about the additional components needed for both types of PV
Learn about energy storage in batteries
Apply energy storage concepts from capacitors to batteries (specific energy, etc)
Learn about different battery chemistries and other factors that affect battery performance
Learn about grid-scale battery energy storage
Learn about grid-scale PV installations
Appreciate difference between PV and solar-thermal power
Build a realistic power budget for a project
Apply methods for reducing the energy consumption of your projects
Design projects that tolerate intermittent or irregular power supplies without faults
Design a project that can realistically survive outdoors
Test solar panels using concepts of OCV and SCC
Understand MPP in PV and Jeff’s rule-of-thumb for MPP

Power Consumption

Students measured and tested their components in the lab and then deployed their projects on SkyLab. In the process they learned about the challenges of solar-powering projects: Power is weather dependent and the systems need to survive consecutive cloudy days, rainy days, shade from pre-existing structures, mounting challenges, and connectivity issues.

Each group developed a daily energy budget for their project.

Project	Current	Watts	Wh per day
SunWatcher 1	0,03-0,04A	0,15W	3,6Wh
LumiQual	0.00015A, 0.08A	0.40075W	1.75Wh
Take Me There	0.380A, 0.02A	1.9W, .1W	21.24Wh
Crack of Dawn	0.21A	1.062W	25.4Wh
Light Room	0.145A	0.725 watts	17.4Wh
Light Room’s Beam circuit	0.04 amps	0.2 watts	4.8Wh

Figures do not account for the battery’s Always On mode’s self consumption of 7mA.

For the projects that were underpowered, they ran until the batteries were depleted and then sporadically awoke in fits and starts when the panels produced power. System failures provided insight into why properly sizing a system is important.

The Projects

Project Name: SunWatcher 1

Designers: Henrique Stockler and Zongze Chen

Project Description:

SunWatcher 1 is a tiny robot that reports weather data from the eerie depths of the parking lot at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to the ITP Floor.

The project is made of two parts: the robot and the computer. The robot has four weather-related sensors and sends its report over the Internet to the computer that sits on the ITP floor, which live streams it, and prints it on thermal paper.

Arduino Nano 33 IoT installed in Small Solar Ready Enclosure

Circuit survived the elements throughout the duration of the two-week installation

Project Name: LumiQual

Designers: Yizhi Liu and Sao Ohtake

Project Description:

The project is an air quality detection sensor light that is powered by a solar panel. The outdoor air quality sensor is solar-powered and uploads data every ten minutes. The indoor sensor light illuminates when touched, and displays the current air quality using different colors.

[The] concept involves creating an indoor indicator light that syncs with a solar-powered air quality sensor. Imagine living in a post-apocalyptic world where a personal air quality monitor becomes critical, helping individuals make informed decisions about their environment. The user-friendly design ensures that the light illuminates various colors with a simple tap; each color signifies different data readings. [The team] chose a light for data display to offer a rapid, intuitive, and straightforward method of understanding air quality at a glance.

Circuit with Adafruit’s NeoPixel Jewel below the lucite cube

Project installed onsite

Project Name: Solar Instrument

Designers: Sarah Mok and Nakyung Youn

Project Description:

Solar sound sculpture, composes audible tunes influenced by the direction and intensity of sunlight.

Studio shot of architecture-inspired instrument

The circuit with an Arduino Nano 33 Iot at the center

The instrument installed

Project Name: Rainshine

Designers: Jo Suk and Anvay Kantak

Project Description:

A solar-powered sound sculpture that emulates the sound of rain.

It is a sound sculpture that uses solar power to bring nature’s tranquility into urban spaces. It uses a solar panel connected to a microcontroller, with attached volume sensors that senses the surrounding noise level. A connected motor spins inside a metal structure when the on-site volume drops below a certain point. Attached to this motor is a metal rod with various small objects making different sounds. As the motor turns, these objects drop onto a metal base, mimicking the sound of raindrops hitting a tin roof.

Rainshine in lab

Rainshine installed onsite

Rainshine detail

Project Name: Take Me There

Designers: Kai (An-Kai Cheng) and Chumou Zhang

Project Description:

This project captures solar and kinetic energy to measure the migration distances of hummingbirds. [The] data visualization component further analyzes the energy expenditure of these birds during their migration, providing key insights into their energetic needs!!⚡️

The initial sketch

3D model for mounting projects on speed rails

Diagram of system

3D printed bracket to connect project to speed rail

The project installed onsite, but missing the companion mechanical laser cut hummingbird wings

Project Name: Crack of Dawn

Designers: Jaxon (Zi-Dong) Wang and Teresa Wang

Project Description:

Crack of Dawn performs a gentle intervention of solar energy’s role in plant growth. Photovoltaic solar cells currently operate at an efficiency of 25%. By converting solar energy to power grow lights for plants that already reside outside this project highlights the inefficiency of our current methodologies to harness available energy.

Envisioning a future where the ironic device is embedded in a natural environment

Project Name: Sundrops

Designers: Michal Shoshan and Andrés Franco

Project Description:

[The team] wanted to take something invisible and make it visible: sunlight. [They] pondered the vast variety of sunlight, contrasting how we, as humans, perceive it with its true complexity. [They] considered its different manifestations throughout the day and under various circumstances.

Using an RGB sensor, a microcontroller, four servo motors, four bottles of paint, and four hoses, [the designers] created a mechanical painting sculpture that drops four colors onto a paper sheet based on their relative percentage of the current ambient light. This sculpture utilizes a solar panel and battery to power the microcontroller and motors, employs gravity to release the paint onto the paper, and harnesses wind as an input for the random movement of the paper sheet.

Building the animatronic device in the lab

Sundrops detail

Art produced by the solar-powered art machine

Project Name: Light Room

Designers: Tom Xia & Jasmine Nackash

Project Description:

This solar-powered project operates like a camera that captures the passage of time through sunlight and culminates in a series of prints that trace the sun’s intensity and movement throughout the day

At the heart of Light Room is a mechanism featuring a shutter-like and a rolling film-like system, all powered by solar energy. [The designers were] using solar panels that not only power the device but also dictate its operations. The device houses a Cyanotype-covered paper that changes its color when exposed to sunlight. As the shutter periodically opens throughout the day, this paper captures the sun’s trajectory, creating prints that reflect variations in solar intensity and patterns over time.

The rolling mechanism activates when there’s insufficient sunlight, essentially “rolling the film” in preparation for the next exposure. Additionally, [the team used] a microcontroller to manage the opening and closing of the shutter at regular intervals during peak sun hours.

Light Room is a nod to the traditional darkroom used in photography. However, instead of developing photos in the dark, it invites the sun in to “develop” images of itself.

Exploded View

Inside look at Light Room

Testing Beam circuit in the lab

Light Room making use of 3D model contributed by another team

The project installed onsite

Take Aways

An impressive aspect of this experiment was the students’ ability to collaborate. None of the projects would have been possible within the time frame if it hadn’t been for their ability to coordinate and assist each other. The teams all benefited from sharing:

Technical information with each other (from the path of the sun to the sharing of a 3D model used to stabilize projects on the display structure
Project documentation (including creating graphically elegant and unifying signage)
Part transport and SkyLab construction
Networking setup for all projects

Shared 3D Bracket model

Sharing information with each other (from the path of the sun to the sharing of a 3D model used to stabilize projects on the display structure)
Documenting the projects (including creating graphically elegant and unifying signage)
Transporting the parts and constructing the display structure, coordinating passes and supplies
Setting up networking for all projects

We had an especially rainy April this year in New York and even the low power projects were challenged by the amount of available sunlight. Nevertheless, through designing, building, testing, and deploying their projects, the students learned about power management, panel orientation, in-lab testing versus real-world conditions, installation challenges, and the importance of testing devices after deployment.

A+

Are you a student with a solar project idea that you need help with or a project you want to show off?

Share a Project

Solar Powered LoRaWAN Node + Lithium Capacitor

Voltaic Systems — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 20:02:51 +0000

We recently deployed a solar-powered Things Industries’ Generic Node in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It connects via LoRa to a Things Network solar powered gateway. Using the Generic Node’s onboard sensors to collect data, the readings are published on a Datacake Dashboard. We will be testing the system performance with different power loads and in different lighting conditions.

Components for Solar Powered Node

Generic Node
Antenna
Cable straps
0.3 Watt 3.3 Volt Solar Power System with Lithium Ion Capacitor

Waterproof enclosure with integrated solar panel, Lithium Ion Capacitor, Generic Node and antenna.

A couple things that struck us during this process:

Apart from some initial configuration issues, it was pretty straightforward to connect the node to the network and the network to an IoT platform
The Things Network’s available documentation made debugging the Generic Node simple and provided relevant instruction
The low power mode is very good – we’re transmitting every 10 minutes and the Lithium Capacitor is staying full – more details to come here

Data Transmission and Power Consumption

View the live feed here.
We are currently transmitting capacitor voltage, temperature and humidity to Datacake every 10 minutes via a webhook from The Things Stack. With this configuration we are barely seeing any fluctuation in battery capacity. We expect the system to perform in less optimal conditions (shady for all or part of the day), but it will be relatively straightforward to test.

Battery voltage, humidity and temperature reported by Generic Node

Node and Gateway Location

The node is currently deployed on the Brooklyn Grange and the Gateway is northeast by about 1km.

Location of Solar Powered Gateway and Node in the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Generic Node with the East River and Manhattan in the background.

Things Network Presentation – Using Solar to Power a LoRa Node

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 20:51:18 +0000

Voltaic Systems presented recently at the Things Conference Embedded 2022. The Things Network launched the Generic Node at the conference and Voltaic used the opportunity to focus on the design process for a solar powered, low consumption device. We show the calculations and thinking behind a product we’re developing which uses a 0.3 Watt mini solar panel paired with a Lithium Ion Capacitor to provide continuous power to a node.

The full presentation is below:

Why Solar for LoRa Devices?

Anyone who works with LoRa nodes knows that they can be incredibly power efficient. In many cases, primary batteries can be used to run a node for 1 – 10 years depending on the capacity of the cells and the actual device power consumption.

Switching to solar can make sense if you are looking to reduce the waste, physical cost and labor cost of replacing those primary cells.

For example, if you’re consuming 200μA on average with four AA batteries (~6Wh per year) , that’s going to last about 2 years. At that point, you will have go to the deployment site, remove the device and swap out the batteries. Solar + storage can mean that you can deploy and forget.

Sensedge has deployed these air quality sensors powered by Voltaic’s 1 Watt panel (P124) plus hybrid capacitors.

Why Lithium Ion Capacitors for Storage

In the presentation, we talk through these steps in designing a solar powered device, including:

Measure daily power consumption
Estimate power production at device location(s)
Select storage chemistry and capacity
Build an efficient enough circuit to match targeted lifetime
Test and qualify extensively

In particular, we propose using a Lithium Ion Capacitor (LIC) as the storage device for very low powered devices which we are considering as 350μA at 3.3V average power consumption. Although LICs cost more per Watt hour and are less energy dense than Lithium Ion batteries, they have a much broader temperature range, will perform for far more cycles and don’t have any of the safety issues. This means that the system will stay running longer, especially in extreme conditions. We also have a lot less to worry about when it comes to shipping the system.

Lithium Ion Battery vs Lithium Ion Capacitor

	Lithium Ion Battery	Lithium Ion Capacitor
Operating Temperature	0-45C (charge), -20-60C (discharge)	-40-70C
Price ($/Watt Hour)	<$0.2	~$8
Charge Cycles	500-1,000	100k
Safety Circuit Required	Yes	Minimal
Dangerous Goods (Shipping)	Yes	No
Energy Density (Wh/kg)	250	30-50

We look forward to sharing the new solar for LoRa nodes charge circuit with you soon.

Schedule an IoT Consultation

How to Put an ESP32 into Deep Sleep

Voltaic Systems — Sun, 30 Jan 2022 18:28:30 +0000

Why Use Deep Sleep in the ESP32

When IoT devices are plugged in, power consumption is often not a primary engineering consideration. However, in remote, battery or solar-powered solutions the power consumption of your devices is often the first requirement.

In this post, we provide code to put your ESP32 into Deep Sleep. The ESP32 from Espressif is extremely popular in IoT applications, and by leveraging its first-class support for Deep Sleep (as well as other sleep modes) you can:

Lower maintenance costs by extending time between battery replacements
Lower deployment costs by using a small solar panel, mounting bracket, battery and enclosure

What is Deep Sleep?

The ESP32 Datasheet explains the different sleep modes available, and provides a great table explaining the power consumption of those different modes. The different sleep modes have different functions. RTC below stands for “Real Time Clock” and ULP for “Ultra Low Power.”

Active mode: The chip radio is powered on. The chip can receive, transmit, or listen.
Modem-sleep mode: The CPU is operational and the clock is configurable. The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth baseband and radio are disabled.
Light-sleep mode: The CPU is paused. The RTC memory and RTC peripherals, as well as the ULP co-processor are running. Any wake-up events (MAC host, RTC timer, or external interrupts) will wake up the chip.
Deep-sleep mode: Only the RTC memory and RTC peripherals are powered on. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection data are stored in the RTC memory. The ULP co-processor is functional.
Hibernation mode: The internal 8-MHz oscillator and ULP co-processor are disabled. The RTC recovery memory is powered down. Only one RTC timer on the slow clock and certain RTC GPIOs are active. The RTC timer or the RTC GPIOs can wake up the chip from the Hibernation mode.

Here’s a chart provided by Espressif that covers the power consumption of the ESP32 chipset in different sleep modes:

Now that we know the difference between the sleep modes available to the ESP32, let’s take a look at how to put an ESP32 in Deep Sleep.

How to Deep Sleep the ESP32

For this example, we’ll be using the ESP-IDF. The ESP-IDF is the Integrated Development Environment provided by Espressif (the makers of the ESP32) for development with the ESP32. If you need guidance on getting the ESP-IDF set up and working with your ESP32 Device, you can check out this guide.

Getting the ESP32 into Deep Sleep mode is relatively easy. Here’s the code that puts the device to sleep:

[code lang=”arduino”]#include "esp_sleep.h"
const int wakeup_time_sec = 900; // 900 seconds is 15 minutes
esp_sleep_enable_timer_wakeup(wakeup_time_sec * 1000000);
esp_deep_sleep_start();[/code]

That’s it! These three lines, along with the esp_sleep.h header file, and ta-da, your ESP32 is sleeping deeply! So, after 900 seconds, or 15 minutes, the board restarts and the main() function is called again, restarting the process as if the board was just powered on.

In the current configuration using the breakout board, the system went from using 40mA in standby mode to 6.4mA in Deep Sleep. Given the pulses to send data only last 0.5s, this system change drive the power consumption per day down by 84%. In a solar powered example, you could switch from a 3 Watt solar panel down to a 0.6 or 1 Watt solar panel.

We would expect to go far lower in power consumption in a production application where we could shut down the voltage regulator, UART controller, etc.

	No Deep Sleep	Deep Sleep
Standard Current	40mA	6.4mA
Pulse Current	100mA	100mA
Pulse Duration	500ms	500ms
Duty Cycle	0.0056%	0.0056%
Watt Hours Per Day	3.6Wh	0.57Wh

Send IoT Data to an MQTT Broker

In solar-powered use cases, it is often important to know the current status of your battery. If the battery reaches a low capacity threshold, you can reduce the measurement and transmission duty cycle or identify potential problems in the field. Customers have used battery measurements to have end users re-orient solar panels to the South and increase power production.

Connecting and maintaining a WiFi or cellular connection, an MQTT connection, and sending messages are power-intensive processes. By having a device make its connections, send its data, and then go to sleep, you can greatly reduce the total power consumption for your IoT solution and extend battery life.

So, for this example, we’ll check the voltage of a battery and send it to an MQTT Broker. In this example, we’ll be using the MQTT Broker provided by the Losant IoT Platform.

Here’s what you’ll need:

The Huzzah32 has both a JST connector for LiPo batteries, and a Mirco-USB port. This means that are two ways to power the board. When the USB is powered, the board will automatically switch over to USB to power the board, as well as start charging the battery. You can read more from Adafruit on this automatic power switching. This means we can plug a solar panel from Voltaic Systems into the Micro-USB port that will both power the board and charge the battery. So, when the solar panel isn’t receiving any sunlight, the board is still powered.

Here are the steps we’ll be following for this example:

Connect to WiFi & Losant
Read battery voltage
Report to the Losant MQTT Broker
Go to sleep for 15 minutes

You can grab our example code in the Github Repository, but there are 3 specific parts of this code that you should pay special attention.

First, the very top:

[code lang=”arduino”]
#define LOSANT_DEVICE_ID ""
#define LOSANT_ACCESS_KEY ""
#define LOSANT_ACCESS_SECRET ""

#define EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_SSID ""
#define EXAMPLE_ESP_WIFI_PASS ""
[/code]
These are #defines that will be used throughout the code. The first three are your Losant Device credentials. You’ll need to create a device and an access key.

The next two lines are for your WiFi Connection. You’ll input your WiFi SSID and password so that the device can connect to the internet.

[code lang=”arduino”]
void read_bat_and_publish(void *client)
{
adc1_config_width(ADC_WIDTH_BIT_12);
adc1_config_channel_atten(ADC1_GPIO35_CHANNEL, ADC_ATTEN_11db);

adc_chars = calloc(1, sizeof(esp_adc_cal_characteristics_t));
esp_adc_cal_value_t val_type = esp_adc_cal_characterize(ADC_UNIT_1, ADC_ATTEN_11db, ADC_WIDTH_BIT_12, DEFAULT_VREF, adc_chars);
print_char_val_type(val_type);

//build state topic
char state_topic[128];
sprintf(state_topic, "losant/%s/state", LOSANT_DEVICE_ID);

int adc_reading = adc1_get_raw(ADC1_GPIO35_CHANNEL);
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Raw: %d", adc_reading);

// This board has voltage divider, so need to multiply by 2.
uint32_t voltage = esp_adc_cal_raw_to_voltage(adc_reading, adc_chars) * 2;
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Voltage: %d", voltage);

cJSON *payload = cJSON_CreateObject();
cJSON *data = cJSON_AddObjectToObject(payload, "data");
cJSON_AddNumberToObject(data, "battery_voltage", voltage);

esp_mqtt_client_publish(client, state_topic, cJSON_Print(payload), 0, 0, 0);
}[/code]

This function reads the battery voltage, multiples it by two (since the Huzzah32 has a voltage divider built in), and publishes the value to Losant via the MQTT state topic. This all happens within the app_main() function when the device is powered on or wakes up from sleep.

[code lang=”arduino”]
void app_main(void)
{
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "[APP] Startup..");
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "[APP] Free memory: %d bytes", esp_get_free_heap_size());
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "[APP] IDF version: %s", esp_get_idf_version());

esp_log_level_set("*", ESP_LOG_INFO);
esp_log_level_set("MQTT_CLIENT", ESP_LOG_VERBOSE);
esp_log_level_set("MQTT_EXAMPLE", ESP_LOG_VERBOSE);
esp_log_level_set("TRANSPORT_TCP", ESP_LOG_VERBOSE);
esp_log_level_set("TRANSPORT_SSL", ESP_LOG_VERBOSE);
esp_log_level_set("TRANSPORT", ESP_LOG_VERBOSE);
esp_log_level_set("OUTBOX", ESP_LOG_VERBOSE);

ESP_ERROR_CHECK(nvs_flash_init());

// start wifi
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "ESP_WIFI_MODE_STA");
wifi_init_sta();

esp_mqtt_client_handle_t client = mqtt_app_start();

if (client) {
read_bat_and_publish(client);
vTaskDelay(pdMS_TO_TICKS(5000)); // wait 5 seconds
// disconnect from MQTT client
esp_mqtt_client_disconnect(client);
vTaskDelay(pdMS_TO_TICKS(5000)); // wait 5 seconds
}

const int wakeup_time_sec = 900; // 900 seconds = 15 minutes
ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Enabling timer wakeup, %ds\n", wakeup_time_sec);
esp_sleep_enable_timer_wakeup(wakeup_time_sec * 1000000);

ESP_LOGI(TAG, "Entering deep sleep\n");
esp_deep_sleep_start();
}[/code]

In this main function, we are outputting some information about the device we are using, and then setting the log levels.

Next we start WiFi, then start the MQTT connection, and then call the read_bat_and_publish function to read the battery voltage and publishing the value to an MQTT topic.

Finally we set the length for how long we want the Huzzah32 to sleep, and then go to sleep with esp_deep_sleep_start().

When in Deep Sleep, the ESP32 uses the Real Time Clock to keep track of how much time has passed. Now, after 15 minutes has passed, your ESP32 board will “wake up,” meaning that the board restarts itself and your program begins again with app_main() where it will reconnect to WiFi, read the battery voltage, report that value via MQTT, and then go back to sleep.

Extending Functionality Further

Collecting just battery voltage alone doesn’t have much meaning on its own, but this combined with other information like GPS coordinates or air quality can be the start of a solar-powered IoT application. You can use the battery voltage level to adjust the data collection and transmission parameters and maintain high uptime levels.

Schedule an IoT Consultation

Testing Solar Charging Efficiency for IoT Devices

admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2021 12:01:42 +0000

Optimizing the energy consumption of your solar-powered IoT device can be a daunting task. We’re here to help. This blog post will walk you through testing your circuit to ensure that you are getting the most possible power from the solar panel into your battery. There are three tests:

Measuring power into your circuit at different light levels – your circuit may perform more or less efficiently in shady and sunny conditions
Measuring power into your circuit over a charge cycle – this will determine how long it takes to charge your battery from start to finish
Calculating circuit efficiency – you need to calculate how much of the power into your circuit gets to the cells

Preparing for the Experiment

Required Tools and Equipment

If you are just getting started and have no idea where to begin, you can schedule an IoT consultation. If you’re not sure how big of a solar panel you will need, read how to Estimate Solar Irradiance for an IoT Device.

To begin, you will need the following:

Download the spreadsheet. Log in to your Google account and click here to make your own copy of the document. You’ll be presented with a couple of tables: the first is intended to document some basic information about your experiment; the second is where you will record your experimental data.
Solar panel: check out our in-stock standard panels or talk to us about a custom solar panel
Your device
A handheld or inline USB multimeter: we like the Makerhawk
Solar power meter: we recommend the TES-1333
(Optional) Thermometer: useful when fine-tuning a system in extreme temperatures

Information About the Experiment

While it is not strictly necessary to complete this table, it will help us aid you with any troubleshooting and it will also help you to remember these details down the road.

Go ahead and fill in all of the fields marked in italics and select your battery and solar panel from the drop-down cells. If you are using a non-Voltaic battery, feel free to head over to the last sheet on the document and edit the dictionary definition for Other Battery.

Measuring Solar Intensity and Solar Power Into an IoT Device

The goal of this first test is to see how much power is delivered by the panel into your circuit at different light intensities (AKA brightness, flux, irradiance), from shady conditions to bright sunlight. With this data, we can spot problems in your circuit and make recommendations on how to improve. These changes can improve the performance of your device, especially during the lowest light periods of the year.

Before we start, ensure that your battery is around 50% full. You can record the battery voltage along the way, but each of the measurements will be relatively quick–so the battery should stay at this level throughout.

Example setup of a 3.5W panel using the Particle Boron circuit to charge a LiPo battery.

Begin by orienting the solar panel directly toward the sun. Mount your solar power meter along the same axis so that you are measuring the intensity of the light falling onto the panel. Note that even a small discrepancy in the angles can throw off your experimental results, so you’ll want to make sure that the panel and the solar meter are closely aligned. Connect your multimeter to the panel, but leave your circuit disconnected.

Solar intensity reading. Note the panel and the light meter are pointed the same direction.

Delete the example data marked in italics and record your first line by noting the solar intensity and open-circuit voltage. Next, connect your device to the panel with the multimeter inline. Ensure that the solar intensity has not changed–it can fluctuate quite rapidly–and record the voltage and current. The panel power will be calculated in the next column. The final column scales the power to a nominal solar intensity of 1000 watts per square meter.

Repeat the process at a variety of light levels. You can alter the amount of incident light by angling the panel away from the sun, moving into the shade, or waiting for clouds to pass overhead. Once you have gathered data at a variety of light levels you can plot the results and get a graph that looks something like this:

Measuring Battery Voltage Across a Charge Cycle

The second sheet of the document contains a similar table that will help you understand how long it takes the circuit to charge from solar. This test will work best on a clear, sunny day. Find a spot with clear access to the sun.

Beginning with an empty battery, follow the same procedure as above, taking measurements at time intervals rather than at different light intensities. The experiment can be run at a fixed solar intensity, or left in the open for a more realistic exposure cycle. Measurements should be concentrated towards the second half of the cycle when the input starts to taper off. The two output graphs should look something like the following:

Calculating Circuit Efficiency

The third sheet contains the final experiment, and can be more complicated. It is designed to test the relationship of the power flowing from the panel to the power flowing into your device’s battery. It can be done with a solar panel or with a DC power supply. The ratio of the two is the efficiency of that circuit which can be tweaked by adjusting the MPP voltage. For more information, see the article How to Select MPP Voltage on a Solar Charge Controller.

For this experiment you will need to measure the power flowing at both points in the circuit. It is best to have two separate multimeters, but everything can be accomplished taking measurements one at a time. You can get creative here and perform any number of specific experiments with parameters (e.g. limiting current, battery state-of-charge) at various levels.

Setup to measure voltage and current from a charge circuit into LiIon 18650 cells.

Tweaking the MPP voltage and optimizing your circuit’s power consumption requires focused engineering efforts that will pay off by ensuring that your device will operate for extended periods of time in inclement weather. This spreadsheet should help you get started on the process. Reach out to us for engineering support or advice and we will help you get your project up and running!

Schedule an IoT Consultation

Use VHB to Attach Your Solar Panel to an Enclosure

Voltaic Systems — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 20:23:08 +0000

It is amazing how many times we suggest 3M VHB and other high bonding tapes as a method to attach a small solar panel to an enclosure. At first look, you think this is just double sided tape, but it is really so much more.

Below, we show examples of waterproof gaskets, how to properly apply the tape and which electronic enclosures match up best with each of our solar panels.

Use of High Bonding Tapes on Solar Panels

Voltaic provides waterproof gaskets for our 0.3 and 0.6 Watt solar panels. A continuous perimeter of high bonding tape, if properly applied, will securely bond and and create a waterproof seal between the solar panel and enclosure. You might have seen them on GoPro cameras, but VHB is used to attach windows to buildings and also by a large number of our customers in high vibration, industrial environments.

VHB can be purchased in rolls to be cut into thin strips or sheets to be cut into gaskets. You can cut VHB to almost any shape via a fabricator or your own laser cutter.

High Bonding Tape Examples

Here is an example of a large gaskets for sealing the panel to the enclosure.

This is a smaller piece we made for creating a waterproof seal between a custom plug and enclosure.

If you do not need the waterproofing element, using simple VHB strips will significantly reduce the costs.

Applying a High Bonding Gasket

Here are the steps we use to attach the VHB gasket to one of our panels.

1. Clean the surface with a 50/50 isopropyl alcohol and water mix

2. Peel back one edge of the backing paper

3. Apply the exposed edge to the panel

4. Slide the paper backing out from underneath the gasket, ensuring smooth and even application without wrinkles or air bubbles

Other Tips for Using VHB on Solar Panels

1. When applying pressure to the panel insert very soft foam between your press and the panel – this will distribute the weight evenly and prevent damage to the panel. The 3M VHB design guide recommends briefly applying 15 psi of pressure to activate the chemical bond. The bond will gradually strengthen over time, reaching 100% after 72 hours.

2. While there are many different VHB tapes suited for a variety of applications, we have extensively tested 5952 and achieved strong waterproof seals between our panels and a variety of substrates.

3. For low-surface energy materials or critical applications, be sure to use the recommended surface primers.

4. Take some before / after EL images of the solar panel (Voltaic can help with this) to confirm your process works.

Get a Custom Solar Panel Quote

Recommended Enclosures for our Solar Panels

Hammond Enclosures are well made and several of them come with handy mounting flanges and a recessed inlay. The panels fit neatly inside that inlay. Depending on which panel you choose and the dimensions of your electronics, there are several good options to choose from.

Enclosure Compatibility

Hammond Enclosure	0.3W 2V	0.3W 6V	0.6W 6V	1.2W 6V	2W 6V
	P121	P122	P123	P124	P126
1555EF17GY	X	X
1555EF42GY	X	X
1555CF22GY	X	X
1555CF42GY	X	X
1555FF17GY	X	X	X
1555FF42GY	X	X	X
1555NF17GY	X	X	X	X
1555NF42GY	X	X	X	X
1555JF17GY	X	X	X	X
1555JF42GY	X	X	X	X
1555RF17GY	X	X	X	X	X
1555RF42GY	X	X	X	X	X
1555HF17GY	X	X	X	X	X
1555HF42GY	X	X	X	X	X