Hybrid Solar Charger ficleney of a solar charging Perenseresconis wee conatons, Usally the solar pana ges four to five hours of bight Sunlight ina day the weather i loud or vain, affects the charg ing proves ae the ater does not Sth fal charge This simple hvbeld solar charger can solve the problem tS itean charge te battery es buh re, DWIVED! solar power as well as AC mains sup- ply. When output from the solar panel is above 12 volts, the battery charges using the solar power. When the out- put drops below 12 volts, the battery ‘charges through AC mains supply. Fig 1 shows the author's prototype. Circuit and working Fig. 2 shows circuit for the hybrid solar charger, which is built around a 12V, 10W solar panel (connected at SPI), operational ampli- fier CA3130 (ICI), transistor BC547 (TI), 12V single changeover relay (RL1), step-down transformer X1 and a few other compo- nents. In bright sun- light, the 12V, 10W solar panel provides up to 17 volts DC with 0.6-ampere current. Diode D1 B circuit pea Seniors casio opamp Dips | INI007 elie diode trp + 5mm green LED zi LIV, O5W zener diode tt CSA? np tania Resistors Yt, 5% cra RLRSRS = Lkilo-ohm Cipacters GhCE”™ e700 55 sictiyic LS LuV celtic Mita © rechargeable battery sr = RV star pet Ra 2V, 1C/O relay x "BW AC primary av.n-s¥, soma, Test Points Po v.GN0 1 Solr panel votag (12V t0 17 ependeg on sun's) re Hin (when soar ota above ey) 13 45V to 18V when mains s connected provides reverse polarity protection and capacitor C1 buffers voltage from the solar panel. ICI is used as a simple voltage comparator. Zener diode ZD1 provides a reference volt Pt = 12, 10W GOLAA PANEL age of 11 volts to the verting input of ICL, while the IC’s non-inverting i put gets voltage from the solar panel through R1. Working of the circuit is simple, When output from the solar panel is 12 volts or more, zener diode ZD1 conducts and provides 11 volts to the inverting terminal of ICL Fig. 2: Hybrid solar charger circuit Since its non-inverting PLETE MAGAZINE ON OPEN SOURCE uice Your favourite Magazine on CSRS CR CL Linux UT) eee ee