Today after 28 days of successful solar testing using the 10K mAh battery and the Raspberry Pi Zero W. I decided to change the Pi to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+. Luckily I still have a few Raspberry Pis around from when you could still purchase them for MSRP. I have two of the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+. If the solar test runs well, I can change out the bench test unit. The second Pi is in my Raspberry Pi museum. For now, I will use a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B as the bench test.
I decided to change out the Pi because I am having trouble connecting the serial bus server interface to the USB connection of the Raspberry Pi Zero W. I can’t get enough power for the Pi to boot. Thus it’s time to try out the A+. The last time I tried the Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, the solar test did not work. I don’t have my notes. I think, it only lasted a few days.
This time I have a larger battery and a single charger. I am using four solar panels, each will deliver 5v @ 5 watts, in direct daylight. Solar test 16 is only consuming 3W when waiting for a command and charging, and 4.8 under heavy load or boot. I hope that having more solar panels than needed on paper will keep the battery charged.
Programming and wiring are the same. I just swapped out the Pi and the camera cable.
Hopefully this works so I can start programming the servos and get the four-wheeled version working