hi i have a question about useing a raspberry pi 2 for looking on and keeping track of some solar pannel and if it can or has been done yet ?
hi i have a question about useing a raspberry pi 2 for looking on and keeping track of some solar pannel and if it can or has been done yet ?
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://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
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