raspberry pi 2 for solar pannels?

Hi James,

The answer depends upon the system design you are using.

An RPi can take digital data inputs, so if you have encoders on your solar panels and they move, the RPi could keep track of their pointing angle, provided you have a sun sensor input so that it can track the sun accurately.

You could also use the RPi to track your local time and calculate the track angles to drive your solar panels.

So in general, the RPi has the capability, but it depends upon your implementation.

DAB

The real question is whether or not you need something as powerful as a Raspberry Pi to do this.

Well Paul, I'd say that modern people would after gathering the data want to present it to the user in a usable way. If possible "from anywhere". That would mean "network" and tcpip stack. Then a "complete linux system" becomes very attractive. Just present the info as a web page, all the rest is "standard" (poke a hole in the router, etc).

(The "other" way would be to use an arduino with and SD card. That would mean regular "walk up to the thing, take the SD card, download the data, plug it back in". Way less convenient. Or equip the arduino with an ethernet shield. Then you run into codesize problems if you program the webserver yourself there. Or you need another computer to log and present the data. A raspberry pi for instance.... )

This is very true. But the Raspberry Pi's lack of native ADC support would cause me to look at other avenues as well.

This is one of many occasions where the host hardware has been selected as the solution before the question has been fully considered.

Some basic research (using a term such as "raspberry pi solar panel monitor") yielded 152,000 in 0.40 seconds, so the question about wether it has been done yet is basically null and void.

There are plenty of articles out there such as:

https://hackaday.io/project/2333-my-off-grid-solar-system-monitoring

http://www.briandorey.com/post/Raspberry-Pi-Solar-Data-Logger.aspx

http://ictoblog.nl/raspberry-pi/raspberrypi-pvoutput

https://binaryfury.wann.net/2014/04/solarbatteryload-power-logging-with-raspberry-pi-and-ina219/

http://www.switchdoc.com/project-curacao-solar-power-subsystem-part-2/

http://www.monkeysandgorillas.com/index.php/2013/10/24/raspberry-pi-setup-to-monitor-aurora-pvi-5000-solar-inverter-part-3/

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/125937/solar-power-monitoring-with-raspberry-pi

The other, other way would be to use a simple micro (Arduino if you like) and a little WiFi adapter board (about £2-3 from China).

MK

I'm not so worried about the "analog inputs" issue. First there are plenty of analog input addons for raspberry pi. Second: you most likely don't have analog interfaces to the solar panels anyway. Most likely you have a serial connection from the inverter that gives you regular updates on what the solar panels  are doing.

@michael: .... and then you can use a raspberry pi to collect and store the data.... ??? :-)

No, I'll use a PC or a MAC or a phone or a BBB or a clay tablet - anything but a PI !

More seriously it all rather depends on the application - if it's a one off for fun then use whatever you know best, Pi or Arduino - neither is ideal but cheapness and familiarity count for  a lot  - if it has to be reliable, manufactureable, maintainable and secure then neither Pi or Arduino is a good choice.

MK

https://github.com/Nurgak/Electricity-usage-monitor

Not a Pi in sight.

Answer's obviously yes, also an RPi is far from the most economical way of doing it.

The cheap Arduino clones would be more capable with more I/O and Analog inputs. In fact you could use say an ESP8266 and not even use any extra I/O depending on what exactly you are intending to do while getting  the project onto the LAN via  WIFI

You could use some I2C peripherals to interface it to the solar panel and connect it to a rpi. I've done it.  Have a look at my Smarter Life articles where I created a HAT for a similar purpose.

When combined with OpenHAB you'll be able to control your solar panels around the planet from anywhere in the planet via the Internet if you so desire.