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Power Raspberry PI using Solar Panel

feiticeir0

Hi all.

Following a project - AllSky - taking photos all night at the sky - I want to place the PI - Raspberry PI 4 B+ 4GB memory using a SSD NVMe 512GB  - where I don't have a power outlet.

I've the following setup:

- Solar Panel -

  • max power: 20W
  • Vmpp: 18.2V
  • Voc: 22.6V
  • Impp: 1.12A
  • short-circuit: 1.18A

image

That connects to a Waveshare Solar Power Manager (C), that is powered by 3x 18650 batteries - each battery has 3350mAh - NCR18650B.

imageimage

I've set the setup voltage switch for 12V - the same as the solar panel.

image

I don't have a problem with the charging. It charges very well, to full charge.

My problem is, it just wont last all night.

Starting to take pictures at 21:30 (9pm), it only lasts to (the last picture taken) 3:44 (3:44am) . Just over 6h.. This can't be right.

My question is - what can I do to make it last longer. Should I buy more powerful batteries - like 5000mAh or more ? Chose other solar charger ?

I have the Raspberry PI Lite version - and I've disabled some unwanted services like - bluetooth, avahi-daemon, triggerhappy, etc.. I even disabled the status LEDS... Slight smile

Any idea would be great.

Thank you

Parents

  • What's the time interval like between image captures ? Can you shut the power-hungry R-Pi 4 down between images and then use an ultra low power microcontroller to wake it up before the next one is due ?

    Looks like AllSky can run on a lower-powered R-Pi:

    "A Raspberry Pi (Zero 2, 2, 3, 4) running Pi OS."

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    It looks like the default for that AllSky software may be 10-second exposures, every 10 seconds, so it's possible the Pi cannot be shut down unless there are boring intervals (e.g. if one is only interested between certain times of the night maybe). A lower power Pi is definitely a good idea! I think Pi 3B used a lot less power than Pi 4 (from memory), so that would squeeze out another hour or two.

Reply
  • in reply to beacon_dave

    It looks like the default for that AllSky software may be 10-second exposures, every 10 seconds, so it's possible the Pi cannot be shut down unless there are boring intervals (e.g. if one is only interested between certain times of the night maybe). A lower power Pi is definitely a good idea! I think Pi 3B used a lot less power than Pi 4 (from memory), so that would squeeze out another hour or two.

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