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What's Your Pi Plan??

Former Member over 13 years ago

Hi!

Just curious about what people were planning on using their Raspberry Pi's for once they started getting them!??

Current plan- SFF Media PC / NAS etc mounted onto the VESA on the back of my TV

Later plan- Replace car stereo etc with RPi

Probably not the most origional use there but still, godda start somewhere!

Parents

Former Member over 13 years ago

Thinking to power it up with a solar cell 6V 500mA (3W) solar panel. Could powering RPi with solar cell be too risky to the chip or the whole system itself?
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Former Member over 13 years ago

Thinking to power it up with a solar cell 6V 500mA (3W) solar panel. Could powering RPi with solar cell be too risky to the chip or the whole system itself?
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

It should be possible to power the RPi from a solar cell - BUT you really need to regulate the voltage down to between 4.75 and 5.25 volts - plenty of LDO Regulators on element14 that would do that. Something with an output accuracy of 5% or better. Ideally you want some form of power storage otherwise passing clouds could give you a brownout!

The 5V on the USB micro USB port goes straight into the processor - so 6V could be uncomfortable - we don't want you to toast it! There is a resetable fuse and a 5V Transil but importantly there is no reverse voltage protection diode as such - so please take care when wiring up.

You can also feed power to the board through the GPIO connector (P1) - Pins 2 & 4 are wired to +5.
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Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

With correct regulation (http://www.national.com/mpf/LM/LM2937.html#Overview) it should not be a problem. i assume there will a battery involved (For when there is no sun).
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notdodgy over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

I would suggest getting one of those mobile phone rechargable battery packs and connect it in parrallel to even out the supply.
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