37 Comments

1. Is the SunAir Solar Power available to shipping to in Germany ?

   • Yes it is available to ship internationally.

2. Hi, John!
   congratulations for the projects and the switchdoc initiatives in general.

   I wanted to try the solar power capabilities of the Raspberry Pi. I’ve ordered most of the components required for that use case. However, a really important question has risen – how to connect the Adafruit solar panel to the Raspberry board?

   Your help on this is highly appreciated! I am asking because I could not find a tutorial anywhere in the posts neither on this website nor in the MagPi magazine.

   Thanks in advance for your feedback!

   • Hello Zhino,

     In order to connect a Solar Panel to the Pi, you need to use a solar charge controller like SunAir. https://www.switchdoc.com/sunair-solar-power-controller-raspberry-pi-arduino/

     You can’t just wire it up directly. You need to use a battery and SunAir.

     John

3. Thanks for the prompt reply, John.

   What I wanted to ask you as well is – what it the role of the motors/servos that can be added to the whole infrastructure? Can they move slightly the angle of the solar panels to catch the light more efficiently during sunlight or they are rather for the SunAir resistors to analyze when the sunlight is at its peak and therefore, to command a more intensive re-charge rate?

   Thanks for the reply in advance!

4. Hi Zhino,

   Adding a sun tracking system (supported by SunAir) is all about the angle of the panels to the sun. Over the course of a normal day, tracking the sun will add about 30% to the power available for charging and running the device. The idea of the photoresistors is to determine where the sun is and then use a stepper motor or servo motor to rotate the panels to match it.

   Here’s a link to see the SunTracker using the SunAir controller in action.
   https://youtu.be/plWw5_TBwUM

   The SunAir controller analyzes the instantatenous solar output and approximates MPPT (Maximum Power Transfer Tracking).

   It is the purpose of the MPPT system to sample the instantaneous output of the cells and apply the proper resistance (load) to obtain maximum power for any given battery and temperature conditions.

   The new SwitchDoc SunRover project will be using this mechanism to keep the panels in the sun, even when the Rover is moving. It will be fun to watch.

   • Thanks for the reply, will try it out and test myself the difference in endurance with and without tracking on days with similar sunny hours and will give you some feedback when done.

     When is the new gadget you’re referring to expected to be released?

     • SunRover will be built starting in March, 2015. It is being done as a five part article series for MagPi magazine. Lots of work ahead!
       John

5. I see a SunAir and a SunAirPlus Solar Controller on Amazon, what are the differences between the two versions?

   • SunAir is a basic Solar Power Controller with full functionality, but limited data gathering features. SunAirPlus adds current and voltage monitoring of the battery / Solar Panels / Computer as well as a higher quality ADC function for the optional photoresistors.

     John

     • Just what I am looking for. Thanks for the fast response, just placed my Amazon order for a SunAirPlus! Delivery in late Feb looks like. Looking forward to building my own Solar control system.

     • Do you happen to have any plans for an Android compatible version of your RasPiConnect software in the near future?

       • I asked BP at MiloCreek.com about this and they are talking about a conversion later this year.

6. I am psyched to have finally gotten my board. Great job getting it out. I haven’t found the link to download the 3D printed case files. Did I miss that somewhere?

   • Glad it made it! I’ll email you the files that we have right now. They aren’t totally finished yet, so we will be posting them later this month.

     John

     • Hi, John!

       I’ve ordered both the SunAir and the SunAir+ several weeks ago.
       Could you please send me the files for 3D printing the case via e-mail ?

       Thanks in advance!

7. Oh if you’re posting them later in the month, I can certainly wait. You may want to put something on the website (as there are many references to the files in text/images) that they are forthcoming…

   • Will do! Thanks Henry. I emailed you the current files.

8. From Laird Popkin:

   I’ve got the SunAir, a little solar panel, a LiPo battery, and some stepper motors. Are there any specific instructions, or a forum for discussions? I think I can pretty much figure it out from the photo’s, but of course it’d be nice to have a little more info just to make sure that I don’t do anything too damaging to it – I am more of a software than hardware guy. And the OpenSCAD files would be awesome, of course.
   Thanks for such a neat little project!

   • Hi Laird,

     Drop me your email address in a private message on google+ and I’ll send you the current OpenSCAD files. They are pretty much done, but we are waiting for the SunAirPlus boards to test it out with that board.

     I’d suggest plugging in your LiPo battery and plug in a charger in the micro USB port and then check the output voltage to see if you get 5V!

     If you have sun, you can test it with the solar panel too. I usually set up a test by supplying 5.5V into the Solar Power port with a variable power supply and check out the output voltage (VDD5).

     If your battery is charged, then you should get 5V out if you have the switch pushed to the right.

     John

9. Hi John! I have order the SunAir Plus board and I have specs question about the board. What is the maximum power supply that could be gained? Am I right for the 2.5W?

   • Hi Stefan,

     We are now shipping SunAirPlus boards. They are going out this next week. SunAirPlus is rated for 1000ma which means it outputs ~5W.

     SunAir is rated 2.5W.

     John

     • Thanks John for the fast reply!

       I would appreciate if you could provide any specs list for the SunAirPlus board then. My apologize if you done this already and I couldn’t find it!

       • Stefan,

         The SunAirPlus specification was just published today! Had to work through the weekend. Laurel (our President) is a tough taskmaster, but hey, we did have a big company party on Friday!

         Here you go (it is on the product page):
         https://www.switchdoc.com/sunairplus-solar-power-controllerdata-collector/

         Best regards,

         John C. Shovic, PhD
         CTO
         SwitchDoc Labs

10. Hi John. I have the SunAir and the INA3221 Breakout Board. Can I use these both at the same time to basically get the data functions of the SunAir+? If so, can you give me a brief description of the wiring. For example, do I first hook the solar panel and battery into the ina3221 then to the SunAir? Thanks for your help!

    • Mark,

      Yes, you can. There are two ways to do this. One is put each channel in line with the solar panel, battery and power to the computer.

      The other way is a bit trickier. You can cut the traces on the INA3221 Board (disabling the on-board 0.1 Ohm resistors) and wire up each channel to the appropriate pins of JP2 on the SunAir board.

      John

11. Looking at deploying a Raspberry pi on solar. Anyone who has put one of these out there, what sort of run times are you getting on your batteries and what size battery do you have? I’ll be needing mine to run 24×7, with wifi on etc.

    Are there any limits to solar panel size or battery size?

    Anyone used a 12v solar panel with a 12v to 6v converter to power one of these boards? I have some 5w and 10w 12 volt solar panels spare. So hoping to reuse them rather than buying a new panel.

    Thanks heaps

    • Hi,

      You will need to calculate the amount of power you are using. take a look at this table: https://www.switchdoc.com/2015/03/ina3221-raspberry-pi-and-arduino-power-consumption/

      That sets your battery size (Assume you can discharge your LiPo battery to say 20%). Then you need to calculate a reserve (i.e. there are clouds sometimes).

      That being said, you WILL run out of power sometime. You need to pay a lot of attention to shutdown and startup procedures with your Pi or you will kill your SD Card.
      https://www.switchdoc.com/2015/04/turning-the-pi-on-and-off-weatherpi-solar-power/

      No limits to panels or battery size but you are limited to 1A charge rate per SunAirPlus, 500ma with SunAir.

      I have done something similar to what you are talking about with the 12V to 6V and then using SunAirPlus. I used a 17V-12V to 6V converter with a wind turbine. https://www.switchdoc.com/2014/12/using-sunair-wind-power-control/

      You probably don’t need the voltage limiting circuitry.

      SDL

12. Hallo Sir

    I received my SunAir and INA3221 boards today in the post. Thanks

    You have the below listed in the features of this board however I cant find it in the App store.

    “Comes with a iPhone / iPad based Control Panel App ($2 on App Store – SunAirPiConnect / SunAirArduinoConnect)”

    Thanks

    Gerard
    South Africa

    • Hello Gerard,

      The app is not released yet. 🙁 It’s at least another month….

      If you don’t want to wait, the full version of the app by Milocreek (RasPiConnect or ArduinoConnect) will work fine.

      SDL

13. Wondering if you can make the SunAirPlus solar tracker 3d-printed case available for those those are not able to print it?
    I have a printer, but thats gonna take a whole lotta juice to print 🙁

    • We can print them, but it costs about $200 as there are three long prints.

      If you really need one, contact us via email.

      SDL

14. Hi, Amazon does not ship hardware to South Africa. Is there any other way we can buy boards?

    • Andre,
      Yes. Go to http://www.tindie.com to order. We have had some issues lately shipping to South Africa because of the postal system backlog in South Africa, so we only ship via fully trackable USPS Priority Mail International. This is reflected at Tindie.com

      SDL

15. Andre

    I have ordered items from SDL via Tindie. Took approx. 3 weeks to be delivered to me in South Africa. Current problem is the collapse of our postal service.
    Hope this helps.

16. Hi,
    I am looking to use the SunAirPlus for moving a box from east to west direction based on sun movements and the flap of the box (which has a mirror) to reflect back on the mirror place on the box (I believe north to south or vise a versa). Will SunAirplus be able to help in this? Also would I need one or two since I need to move both ways

    Thanks for your response in advance.

    • Harmeet,

      Yes, SunAirPlus can do this for you. SunAirPlus supports one stepper motor directly (with the optional chip soldered in) or two servo motors. You can move the servo motor both ways, so it looks like you would just need one. Not sure if you want to move the mirror too. If you do, then you need two stepper motor controllers.

      Best regards,

      SDL

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