NiMH, NiCd, Li-ion, lead acid Solar Powered Battery Charger

This is the NiMH, NiCd, Li-ion, lead acid Solar Powered Battery Charger Circuit Diagram. solar battery charger that will charge a variety of batteries: NiMH, NiCd, Li-ion, lead acid. Although there are solar battery chargers on the market, most are only for one application: cell phone, NiMH batteries, etc. Our charger will have the user input the battery type, capacity, and voltage. It will display the charge status and incorporate various safety systems, including temperature monitoring and battery polarity checking.

NiMH, NiCd, Li-ion, lead acid Solar Powered Battery Charger

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Solar Enrgy and What is Solar Power ?

Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly using concentrated solar power (CSP) Solar energy is energy generated from heat or light from the sun, which can be used to produce heat, light, hot water, electricity, and cooling in a wide range of applications. When we say that something from the solar panels, we mean that the energy it uses has been converted directly from solar energy or sunlight. Solar energy is often called "alternative energy" sources of energy to fossil fuels such as oil and coal.

History of photovoltaic technology

We used the Sun for drying clothes and food for thousands of years, but only recently have we been able to use it to produce electricity.

History of photovoltaic technology has more than a hundred years, but it was not until the mid-20th century that scientists at the Bell Telephone discovered that an element called silicon produced an electric charge when exposed to sunlight. However, the earliest solar batteries have been expensive and not very efficient, only a part of the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Today, solar panel technology has greatly improved efficiency.

What is solar energy supply, which makes it such an attractive source of energy?

• Solar energy is completely free and inexhaustible source of fuel

• No fuel, waste or pollution is expelled in its use.

• In remote areas or small villages, solar energy can be a saving grace. Sometimes it is the only real way to produce energy in a place that is not capable of drawing energy from other sources.

• It can be used for low-power, as well as larger-from chargers, pocket calculators and solar garden lights to the air-conditioned vehicles and satellites.

• Solar energy can be an integral part of any combination of clean, renewable energy to meet the country's electricity needs while reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

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Controller of Solar charger Circuit Diagram

 This is the simple Controller of Solar charger Circuit Diagram .When connecting a solar panel to a rechargeable battery, it is usually necessary to use a charge controller circuit to prevent the battery from overcharging. Charge control can be performed with a number of different circuit types. Lower power solar systems can use a series analog charge controller. Series regulators control the charging current by interrupting the flow of current from the solar panel to the battery when the battery reaches a preset full voltage. MPPT controllers use an inductor for energy storage and a high frequency switching circuit to transfer the energy to the battery.

This circuit is for a shunt-mode charge controller. In a shunt-mode circuit, the solar panel is permanently connected to the battery via a series diode. When the solar panel charges the battery up to the desired full voltage, the shunt circuit connects a resistive load across the battery to absorb the excess power from the solar panel. The main advantage of shunt-mode solar regulation is the lack of a switching transistor in the power path between the solar panel and battery. Switching transistors are non-perfect devices, they waste a percentage of available solar power as heat. Inefficiency in the shunt-mode controller’s switching transistor does not effect charging efficiency, it only turns on when excess power is purposely being wasted.

Controller of Solar charger Circuit Diagram 

Solar power is routed from the PV panel through the 1N5818 Schottky diode to the battery. When the battery reaches the full setpoint, the output on the lower half of the TLC2272 dual op-amp turns on. This activates the IRFD110 MOSFET transistor and connects the 68 ohm 3W load resistor to the battery. The load across the battery causes the battery voltage to drop, and the comparator circuit turns back off. This oscillation continues while solar power is available. The 300nF capacitor across the op-amp slows the oscillation frequency down to a few hertz. The two 100K resistors in series provide a regulated 4.5V reference point for use as comparator reference points.

The 2N3906 transistor is wired with a zener diode in its base circuit, when the PV voltage is above 12V, the 2N3906 transistor turns on and enables the comparator circuit. The upper half of the TLC2272 op-amp inverts the dump load control signal, this is used to power the high intensity red LED. The LED turns on when the battery reaches the full setpoint. The LED does not waste any useful charging power since it only turns on when the battery is full.

The 78L09 IC provides 9V regulated power to the comparator circuitry. Operational power for this circuit is provided entirely from the PV panel, there is virtually no power taken from the battery at night.

This circuit can be modified for higher amperage by replacing the 1N5818 diode, 68 ohm load resistor and IRFD110 MOSFET with higher power components. If the load resistor is connected directly across the PV panel at noon on a sunny day, the PV output voltage should drop to 12V or less. Higher power PV panels will require a resistor with lower ohms and a higher wattage rating. In cold climates, it may be useful to use the load resistor’s heat to keep the battery warm.

Operation of a high power version of this circuit with a wind generator should be possible, although the author has not tried this. For a 20 amp version of this circuit, the IRFD110 MOSFET should be replaced with an IRFZ44N and the 1N5818 schottky diode should be replaced with a 20L15T. Both of these parts should have large heat sinks. The 68 ohm/3W resistor should be changed to a much larger resistor, An 0.6 ohm/250W resistor would be able to handle 20 amps at 12V.

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Simple Solar cell battery charger Circuit Diagram

The Simple Solar cell battery charger Circuit Diagram charges a 9-V battery at about 30 mA per input ampere at 0.4 V. Ul, a quad Schmitt trigger, operate as an astable multivibrator to drive push-pull TMOS devices Ql and Q2. Power for Ul is derived from the 9-V battery via D4; power for Ql and Q2 is supplied by the solar cell. The multivibrator frequency, determined by R2-C1, is set to 180 Hz for maximum efficiency from a 6.3-V filament transformer, Tl. 

The secondary of the transformer is applied to a full wave bridge rectifier, Dl, which is connected to the batteries being charged. The small Ni-Cad battery is a fail-safe excitation supply to allow the system to recover if the 9-V battery becomes fully discharged. A CdS photocell shuts off the oscillator in darkness to preserve the fail-safe battery during shipping and storage, or prolonged darkness.

Simple Solar cell battery charger Circuit Diagram

Simple Solar cell battery charger Circuit Diagram

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