Developing a remote, off-grid surveillance Raspberry Pi-3, powered by solar panels, has its challenges. See how products from Alchemy Power Inc.® helped its customer.

One of Alchemy Power Inc.®’s customer, based in Malaysia, who chooses to remain anonymous, needed a remote Raspberry Pi with a Pi Camera all powered by solar panels. The challenges were:

1. Use a solar panel to power a Pi and charge a battery to provide power to the Pi and camera when the sun does not shine.
2. Solar panel input voltage varies from appx 7 V to 19V. This variable V needs to be converted to steady 5V USB power. The 5V power should power the Raspberry Pi charge a battery backup.
3. The battery backup should last at least 8 hours and power the Pi.
4. The battery should be fully charged during the day time.
5. The system should be shutdown properly when battery runs low. The battery level should be monitored for proper battery level.
6. (Other) a remote reset switch to reboot the Pi after shutdown.

The solution was made up using Pi-BB-RPS and Pi-UpTime UPS boards.  A solar panel is connected to Pi-BB-RPS and the voltage varies from 7V to 19V. The DC-DC input of Pi-BB-RPS converts this variable Voltage. It provides steady 5V for the Pi and Pi-UpTime UPS board. During sunshine hours, when the solar panel is active, Pi-BB-RPS charges the battery on Pi-UpTime UPS and provides power to the Pi. When the sun goes down, or the solar panel cannot provide enough power, the Pi-UpTime UPS provides the power to the Pi. Using building blocks from Alchemy Power Inc.® a verified customer of Alchemy Power Inc.®, has created a solution for a remote Pi with solar panels.

Alchemy Power’s HATs are easy to connect and wire to makes your applications come alive.

Other supporting documents: See PDF for solar panel solution

Editor’s note: Alchemy Power Inc.® does not test or validate solutions created by customers. Alchemy Power Inc.® provides a forum to enable customers to show-case their solutions as-is and foster customer-customer communications.