The more popular raspberry pi 4 s supply is recommended to be at 5v 2 2 5a current.
Solar charge controller raspberry pi.
The pi consumes 5w or so and that is a lot of power to be wasting on a solar charge controller.
Look up the ucn2906 lead acid charge controller ic.
Connecting the solar panel to the pi zero.
I think that a microcontroller is as is so often the case here a much better idea than using a pi.
In this video i just quickly.
This is the ultimate solar panel controller for raspberry pi and arduino projects.
My victron solar charge controller and victron battery monitor are bluetooth only.
I still think you should email the manufacturer of the solar charge controller to be sure you have the correct pinout of the 8 pin rj45 socket and the specification for the output voltage.
A few years ago lukas fässler needed a solar charge controller and made his own which he has been improving ever since.
They might not reply or they might say no but you should try.
I used one of these usb to rs485 adapters.
However the pi zero needs only 1 1 5a so make sure to adjust accordingly.
More information below.
This tutorial demonstrates how to use serial communication on a raspberry pi to connect to a solar charge controller and transmit the data using a python web.
They re cheap and you can buy them anywhere.
These boards are designed with a lot of flexibility for you to innovate your design.
Most solar panels in the market today are 9v.
Or more accurately firmware that emulates their color control gx venus gx monitoring devices and it runs on a raspberry pi.
A venus gx costs nearly 300 and a raspberry pi costs about 30.
New solar panels on top of the project curacao box weatherrack in background.
Another thing you can do when you get another pi is to try a usb ttl serial adapter.
I chose an old raspberry pi model a because it doesn t consume very much electricity and although it s under powered it can easily handle the 2 tasks of serial communication and web serving.
The epsolar tracer2210a charge controller including their bn range has an rj45 port which can be used to connect an optional monitor or to windows monitoring software.
The design is now mature and the high efficiency mppt solar charger is.
Buck regulator design isn t too difficult.
I was able to make the raspberry pi communicate with the charge controller using the pymodbus library and a cheap usb to rs485 adapter.
