Summer quickly approaches and sun is starting to shine really bright. I found some old 0,5W solar panels in my drawer.
These panels are really good at full brightness you can get 6V and 80mA. So I’ve been thinking what I could possibly do with them. Recently I’ve been using arduino just for some small applications like reading an analog input of some sensor. While reading input arduino have small power consumption. So I’ve bought 4 AAA rechargeable batteries and put together a portable self rechargeable power source. Batteries have 900mAh capacity so they can be fully charged in 10-12 hours which is not the best time, but as I’ve mentioned arduino have small power consumption (if you’re not using motors or etc.). So this device can be actually useful and also you can buy stronger panel and 9V rechargeable battery.
