Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Solar Mobile Charger Project Report Final
Solar Mobile Charger Project Report Final
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The innovation of solar chargers for mobile phones as a
product of research and development has been prompted by the
challenge to uncover other possible means of charging mobile phones
especially where and when power supply becomes erratic or totally
inaccessible. This challenge has made solar charging which is one of the
expedient alternative methods for charging mobile devices a necessity.
Although this charging idea at present has not been widely known and
accepted in this part of the world: specifically in Nigeria, it is the solution
to the erratic and incessant interruption of power supply to technological
equipments – mobile phones being our focus. This fact is further
substantiated by the simple fact that Nigeria is located in the tropics,
which are areas that are typically known to have an abundant supply of
sunlight all year round. The solar phone charger is inevitable in Nigeria
as a case study, considering the facts that Nigeria is located in the
tropics and at present, many parts of the country are suffering from an
unstable, unreliable, erratic and severely unavailability electric power
supply which poses a great deal of danger to electronic and electrical
appliances and consequently shortens their life span, or incapacitates
them at the most critical moments when they are needed to perform the
functions why they were invented or manufactured in the first place. An
electric phone charger (referred to as from now onwards as a ‘regular
charger’) is a device used to “force” current into the battery of a mobile
phone by converting pulsating ac (alternating current) from an ac supply
outlet, to dc (direct current) which is the type of current required by a
mobile phone. In a solar mobile phone charger, the ac supply outlet is
eliminated, since the required current and voltage is supplied by a dc cell
known as a solar cell, which converts solar energy into electricity.
2
HISTORY
The term "photovoltaic" comes from the Greek φῶς (phōs)
meaning "light", and "voltaic", meaning electric, from the name of the
Italian physicist Volta, after whom a unit of electro-motive force, the volt,
is named. The term "photo-voltaic" has been in use in English since
1849. The photovoltaic effect was first recognized in 1839 by French
physicist A. E. Becquerel. However, it was not until 1883 that the first
solar cell was built, by Charles Fritts, who coated the semiconductor
selenium with an extremely thin layer of gold to form the junctions. The
device was only around 1% efficient. Subsequently Russian physicist
Aleksandra Stoletov built the first solar cell based on the outer
photoelectric effect (discovered by Heinrich Hertz earlier in 1887). Albert
Einstein explained the photoelectric effect in 1905 for which he received
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. Russell Ohl patented the modern
junction semiconductor solar cell in 1946, which was discovered while
working on the series of advances that would lead to the transistor. The
highly efficient solar cell was first developed by Chapin, Fuller and
Pearson in 1954 using a diffused silicon p-n junction. In the past four
decades, remarkable progress has been made, with Megawatt solar power
generating plants having now been built. A solar panel (photovoltaic
module or photovoltaic panel) is a packaged interconnected assembly of
solar cell, also known as photovoltaic cell. The solar panel is used as a
component in a larger photovoltaic system to offer electricity for
commercial and residential applications. Because a single solar panel
can only produce a limited amount of power, many installations contain
several panels. This is known as a photovoltaic array. A photovoltaic
7
CHAPTER 2
1k Ω
1000k Ω
Fig.2.1.Resistors
13
2.2.2 CAPICITOR(100µF,1000µF):
sufficiently long, the current through the source circuit ceases. If a time-
varying voltage is applied across the leads of the capacitor, the source
experiences an ongoing current due to the charging and discharging
cycles of the capacitor.
100 Microfarad
1000 Microfarad
Fig.2.2.Capacitors
Fig.2.3.Solar Panel
2.2.4 BATTERY(12V):
Fig.2.4.Battery 12 V
on the Arduino website. Layout and production files for some versions of
the hardware are also available. The word "Uno" means "one"
in Italian and was chosen to mark the initial release of the Arduino
Software. The Uno board is the first in a series of USB-based Arduino
boards, and it and version 1.0 of the Arduino IDE were the reference
versions of Arduino, now evolved to newer releases. The ATmega328 on
the board comes preprogrammed with a bootloader that allows uploading
new code to it without the use of an external hardware programmer.
While the Uno communicates using the original STK500 protocol, it
differs from all preceding boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-
serial driver chip. Instead, it uses the Atmega16U2 (Atmega8U2 up to
version R2) programmed as a USB-to serial converter.
Fig.2.6.Voltage Sensor
2.2.7 LCD:
LCD (liquid crystal display) is the technology used for
displays in notebook and other smaller computers. Like light-emitting
diode (LED) and gas-plasma technologies, LCDs allow displays to be
much thinner than cathode ray tube (CRT) technology. LCDs consume
much less power than LED and gas-display displays because they work
on the principle of blocking light rather than emitting it. An LCD is made
with either a passive matrix or an active matrix display grid. The active
matrix LCD is also known as a thin film transistor (TFT) display. The
passive matrix LCD has a grid of conductors with pixels located at each
intersection in the grid. A current is sent across two conductors on the
grid to control the light for any pixel. An active matrix has a transistor
located at each pixel intersection, requiring less current to control the
luminance of a pixel. For this reason, the current in an active matrix
display can be switched on and off more frequently; improving the screen
refresh time (your mouse will appear to move more smoothly across the
screen, for example). Some passive matrix LCD's have dual scanning,
19
meaning that they scan the grid twice with current in the same time that
it took for one scan in the original technology. However, active matrix is
still a superior technology.
Fig.2.7.LCD
2.3.4 REGULATOR:
CHAPTER 3
CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:
The circuit diagram of the Solar Mobile Charger shown in fig.3. The
circuit comprises of an arduino uno board,LCD
panel,Resistors,Capacitors,Battery,Regulator,Voltage Control circuit.
You can power the arduino board using 7V to 12V wall wart or
plug in adapter or solar panel
Fig.3.1.Circuit Diagram
25
CHAPTER 4
SOFTWARE REQUIRED:
ARDUINO 1.8.9
1. If you have a reliable Internet connection, you should use
the online IDE (Arduino Web Editor). It will allow you to save your
sketches in the cloud, having them available from any device and
backed up. You will always have the most up-to-date version of the
IDE without the need to install updates.
2. If you would rather work offline, you should use the latest version
of the desktop IDE.
3. Arduino first and foremost is an open-source computer hardware
and software company. The Arduino Communityrefers to the
project and user community that designs and utilizes
microcontroller-based development boards. These development
boards are known as Arduino Modules, which are open-source
prototyping platforms. The simplified microcontroller board comes
in a variety of development board packages.
Fig.4.1.Arduino Symbol
26
This is the Arduino IDE once it’s been opened. It opens into a blank
sketch where you can start programming immediately. First, we should
configure the board and port settings to allow us to upload code. Connect
your Arduino board to the PC via the USB cable.
You have to tell the Arduino IDE what board you are uploading to. Select
the Toolspulldown menu and go to Board.This list is populated by default
27
program. Note: the Arduino Uno occupies the next available COM port; it
will not always be COM3. At this point, your board should be set up for
programming, and you can begin writing and uploading code.
uploading code. Open the “Blink” sketch and press the “Upload” button
in the upper-left corner to upload “Blink” to the board.
4.5.Guide Summary:
4.6.Atmega328P:
Pin Description:
CHAPTER 5
5.1.CODE:
int sensorPin = A0; // select the input pin for the potentiometer
int ledPin = 13; // select the pin for the LED
int sensorValue = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the
sensor
// include the library code:
#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
// initialize the library by associating any needed LCD interface pin
// with the arduino pin number it is connected to
const int rs = 12, en = 11, d4 = 5, d5 = 4, d6 = 3, d7 = 2;
LiquidCrystallcd(rs, en, d4, d5, d6, d7);
void setup() {
// set up the LCD's number of columns and rows:
lcd.begin(16, 2);
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
// Print a message to the LCD.
lcd.print("SOLAR CHARGER");
}
void loop() {
sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);
// turn the ledPin on
lcd.print(sensorValue);
Serial.print(sensorValue);
digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);
// stop the program for <sensorValue> milliseconds:
delay(sensorValue);
34
widely accepted, how much less, solar charging a mobile phone, it has
been proven that it is very possible, flexible and cost effective to charge
mobile phones using solar chargers, without totally relying on utility
power. It is an obvious fact that the tropics enjoy more sunlight round
the year and fortunately, Nigeria is one of such countries located in the
tropics, which means there is abundant sunlight available for use all
round the year. Another fact that cannot be ignored, that serves as a
major factor that encourages the use of solar mobile chargers is the fact
that at present Nigeria suffers greatly from gross unavailability of
electricity. With these facts in mind, it is seen that there is an urgent
need to tap into the abundantly available energy of the sun, not only in
charging mobile phones, but in every other aspect of technology that
requires constant supply of electricity.
Some measures of precaution were taken and it would not be
wise to conclude without mentioning them. Circuit design and
construction tasks require that components be installed with the correct
polarity observed and the positive terminal connected to the highest
potential. Whenever an equivalent component is incorporated into a
circuit, even though there are readily available alternatives, care should
be taken that they have characteristics closely matched with those
required. Transistor legs are fragile and can easily break off, if twisted
unnecessarily. More so, since they are heat sensitive devices, heat
produced by soldering iron should not be excessive and the correct
biasing rules should be borne in mind. Dry joints (circuit connections
which appear physically connected but core not electronically connected)
should be eliminated as much as possible since these can waste a lot of
precious construction time and leads to unnecessary troubleshooting of
circuit. Extra caution should be taken to ensure that hot soldering leads
do not drop in between connecting foils on the circuit board as this can
bridge circuit connections and produce either a total deviation from
expected result or damage to the design.
36
REFERENCES