Intro: Review Solar Panel 10W With Arduino and Node-RED

For a long time I had planned to make some application with photovoltaic panel or common solar panel, in this opportunity I have acquired a monocrystalline solar panel of 10w perfect to power the devices we use in our tutorials.

Although this is in design, we will perform a meterological station - Gateway later, and this panel a set of batteries and a constant load circuit will feed our module ESP8266 or ESP32.

We will make a quick review ...

Since there is a lot of documentation in the network about solar panels, I will not emphasize on the subject, we will do a quick test.

Solar Panel: Source wikipedia
Photovoltaics: Source wikipedia

Complete Documentation PDAControl

Review Solar Panel 10W with Arduino and Node-RED

http://pdacontrolen.com/review-solar-panel-10w-wit...

Measuring DC Voltage with Arduino and Node-RED

http://pdacontrolen.com/measuring-dc-voltage-with-...

Installation Node-RED Platform

http://pdacontrolen.com/installation-node-red-plat...

STEP 1: Caracteristics

Caracteristics

This solar panel according to its characteristics guarantees 10 Watts.

Maximum Voltage: 18 V

Maximum Current: 0.5A = 500 mA

Cost in my country Colombia is 40,000 COP = 13.5 USD aprox, I consider it a very favorable price, although it also influences that these technologies are increasingly more accessible, that they think, comment.

STEP 2: Very Cheaps!!!

Materials Very cheaps!!!

STEP 3: Video Review Panel Solar 10W Con Arduino & Node-RED

We have performed a basic measurement test, and we have also added the Voltage measurement with an Arduino MEGA 2560 R3 board and visualization and data collection with Node-RED and Node-RED Dashboard.

Complete Tutorial:Measurement of DC Voltage with Arduino and visualization in Node-RED.

STEP 4: DC Voltage Measurement - Medicion De Voltaje DC Arduino & Node-RED

DC Voltage Measurement - Medicion de voltaje DC Arduino & Node-RED

Many will say to measure DC voltage in Arduino easily, but in this case I bring a relatively safe method for our circuits and maybe precise, you can see it working in this Dashboard in Emoncms.

STEP 5: View From Node-RED Dashboard

View from Node-RED Dashboard

STEP 6: Simple Installation Node-RED IoT Platform Connections

Simple installation Node-RED IoT Platform connections

STEP 7: Outdoor Measurement

Outdoor Measurement

At sun of 10:30am the maximum value of the solar panel is 21v, although the characteristics indicate and guarantee 18v Max, without connected load it is normal that it generates 21v.

STEP 8: Conclusions, Documentation & Downloads

Conclusions

I consider that the primordial thing of a solar panel is how much voltage it can generate in days of high cloudiness, that is to say there are some panels that only generate Voltage with the sun at all full.

Documentation & Downloads