How To Build A Solar Powered Phone Charger

Nov 20, 2015

How to build a solar-powered USB charger for phones and other pocket-sized devices

correspondent: Netia McCray

Part Two in a 2-function series. Office I: How to build a solar-powered electronic circuit .

Terminal year, our squad at Mbadika was working on an idea to help aspiring young innovators and entrepreneurs larn the basics of product design and evolution. Based on our feel, hands-on learning of hardware and electronics were the lessons that stuck with usa. Nosotros've spent the past year developing a DIY (do-it-yourself) kit for youth to proceeds hands-on experience with electronics and hardware.

Our countdown DIY kit is a Solar USB Charger to innovate youth to electronics prototyping and solar engineering science.

Kids in a Mbadika Workshop assemble their Solar USB Charger.

We've spent the past few months testing our Solar USB Chargers with youth in South Africa, which is how we met EduGreen and started our partnership. Later on receiving amazing feedback from our workshop participants, we've decided to further develop our Solar USB Charger kit in order to launch in South Africa afterwards this yr.

The following is a stride by step guide to building the Solar USB Charger we debuted at Maker Faire Africa 2014 in Johannesburg.

Materials

• 0.5 Watt Solar Panel
• Mini Breadboard
• DC to DC Booster Circuit: 0.9V to 5V Circuit
• Mini Slide Switch SPDT
• 2xAA Battery Holder
• 2xAA Rechargeable Batteries
• N914 Diode
• (6) Jumper Wires (Recommended Length: 125mm)
• (2) 3mm LEDs
• Optional: Solid Core Wire

This is the layout of Mbadika Solar USB Charger components.

Hint: Components with an asterisk (*) should exist prepared for apply with a breadboard by soldering solid core wire leads to the positive (anode) and negative (cathode) leads of the electronic component. Our Solar USB Charger kits include electronic components with jumper wires soldered and hot glued instead of a typical solid core wire.

WE DO Non RECOMMEND using jumper wires, despite being bang-up to utilize with breadboards, because if the soldering fe touched the plastic component of the jumper wire, it tin release toxic fumes.

Give your Solar Panel a Examination Run

Nosotros will be using a LED in order to test our Solar Panel.

A basic LED has two leads, a positive (anode) and negative (cathode) lead. In social club to place the positive and negative leads of a LED, ane atomic number 82 is shorter than the other. The longer lead is the positive (anode) lead and the shorter lead is the negative (cathode) lead.

Illustration i. Breadboard layout for testing Solar Panel.

Place the breadboard in the mural orientation, as shown in Illustration 1.

If your Solar Console does not already have exposed solid core wire ends, adhere solid core wires to the positive and negative leads of the solar panel via soldering in order to insert the Solar Panel into the breadboard electronic circuit.

For the purpose of our kits, nosotros use Solar Panels with a wire connexion component. The wire connectedness component allows the user to extend the positive and negative leads of the Solar Panel via the insertion of jumper wires in the corresponding holes.

Place your Solar Panel and LED leads in the holes of the breadboard, every bit shown in Illustration 2. If your LED lights upwardly, your Solar Panel is performance.

Step 1: The DC to DC USB Booster Excursion

The DC to DC USB Booster Circuit will permit for you lot to charge your USB powered device through increasing the DC Voltage from 2.4V to 5V, which is platonic for charging modest electronic devices such as basic smartphones, mobile players, and feature phones.

Notation:I AA battery is 1.2V. Since our circuit uses 2 AA batteries, our circuit voltage is 2.4V.

Illustration 2

Place your DC to DC USB Booster Circuit leads in the holes of the breadboard as shown in Illustration two.

Breadboard layout with USB DC to DC Booster Excursion.

As shown in the photo, your breadboard layout should exist adequately simple.

Hint: When inserting electronic components in a breadboard, it is ideal to place the leads of your electronic components in the same row. Placing your electronic components in the same row allows for easy trouble-shooting in the futurity.

Hint: If y'all are comfortable you can arrange your electronic component in whichever column or row. However, the electronic component leads illustrated in a particular column in the following illustrations must be in THE SAME COLUMN and on the Same SIDE (below or above the hollowed heart section) of the breadboard for the electronic circuit to function.

Mini Slide Switch setup with soldered jumper wires and hot mucilage.

Footstep 2: The Switch

The Mini Slide Switch is an electronic component that will allow for you to control when your Solar USB Charger device is on or off.

This step can exist a bit tricky in terms of identifying the middle pin and the end pivot. As the photo shows, the middle pin is the middle component of the mini slide switch while the stop pivot is either the left or correct pin.

Illustration 3

Once yous have your Mini Slide Switch pivot and leads selected and prepared, place your Mini Slide Switch in the breadboard as shown in Illustration 3.

Breadboard layout with Mini Slide Switch.

At this stage, your breadboard should expect like the one in this photograph.

Step 3: The Battery Holder

The Bombardment Holder will exist the private storage facility for the ability accumulated from the Solar Console as well equally a fill-in power source when your Solar Panel cannot charge your USB powered device directly.

Illustration four. Breadboard layout for 2xAA Bombardment Holder.

Identify your Battery Holder as shown in Illustration four.

Now your breadboard should start to look like this.

Footstep 4: The N914 Diode

The N914 Diode is a signal diode is an electronic component that prevents current in your Solar USB Charger excursion to travel in the reverse management or in essence un-charge your electronic device.The N914 Diode is recognizable considering it has a ruddy central body with a thin black line on i end.

Analogy 5

Identify the N914 Diode in your breadboard equally shown in Illustration five.

Analogy half dozen. Breadboard layout with N914 Diode.

Ensure the Negative Pivot (the terminate of the electronic component with a thin black line) of the N914 Diode is in the same column as the positive lead of the Battery Holder and DC to DC USB Booster Circuit, as shown.

At present, you are prepare for the last step in your Solar USB Charger build.

Pace five: The Solar Panel

Place your Solar Panel in your breadboard as shown in Illustration six.

Illustration seven

DOUBLE Bank check YOUR CIRCUIT.

Make sure your circuit matches the breadboard circuit diagram in Illustration seven and looks similar to the one pictured hither.

DOUBLE Cheque YOUR Circuit I Final Fourth dimension.

Step 6: Examination Driving your Solar USB Charger

Identify your AA Rechargeable Batteries in your Bombardment Holder.

WARNING: If your circuit begins to fume or the plastic components in the circuit first to melt, IMMEDIATELY remove all of the components from the breadboard as chop-chop as possible and if possible remove the rechargeable batteries from the battery holder.

Now…slide your Mini Slide Switch…the red LED on your DC to DC USB Booster Circuit will turn on and…Voila!

You are set to plug in your USB cablevision and charge your pocket-sized electronic device.

Our first Solar USB Charger prototype comes to life.

Note: The Solar USB Charger will not power Apple devices, smartphones with large lithium ion batteries, or tablets.

Mbadika Solar USB Charger for Mobile Devices Acrylic and Plywood versions.

Further Steps

You can build an enclosure for your Solar USB Charger like these that we make.

For our Solar USB Charger Kits for youth, nosotros use a laser cutter on MIT campus in society to cutting LEGO inspired enclosures from plywood and acrylic. If you have access to a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutter, you tin can find tons of open up-source laser cut files (typically Adobe Illustrator or Corel Describe files) to download and utilise to create fun enclosures for your Solar USB Charger. However, we are aware the majority of the planet does not take access to such facilities and at that place are other solutions to showcase your new solar build.

Our favorites are fabricated from pocket-size plastic storage containers or Altoids tins. A young man MIT alum, Ladyada of Adafruit Industries developed a Altoids Can enclosed USB Charger Kit called the MintyBoost that has get a huge hit in the maker customs. If your solar console is small plenty, yous tin have the solar panel exist attached on the outside of the Altoids Tin for charging and stored in the tin when non in utilize.

Given the solar enclosure will exist exposed to big amounts of sunlight, we would not suggest using cardboard or a paper-based production equally your solar enclosure.

Soldering

As our Solar USB Charger kit is focused on introducing youth to electronic prototyping via a breadboard, we endeavour to minimize soldering as much as possible.

If you would like to create a more permanent Solar USB Charger through soldering your components, Joshua Zimmerman has an excellent Instructables on a soldered version of the Solar USB Charger we've illustrated above.

Are you shopping for components to make your very own? Here are some places to purchase materials:

• Chocolate-brown Canis familiaris Gadgets
• SparkFun Electronics

If you need a little more than help to get started, check out the Solar USB Kit 1.0 by BrownDog Gadgets.

More resources

• SparkFun Electronics Tutorials on Diodes
• SparkFun Electronics Tutorials on Resistors
• SparkFun Electronics Tutorials on Capacitors
• SparkFun Electronics Tutorials on Transistors

tags : construction guide, construction transmission, DIY, do-it-yourself guide, phone, smartphone, solar, solar charger, Solar Power, solar USB charger

How To Build A Solar Powered Phone Charger,

Source: https://www.engineeringforchange.org/news/how-to-build-a-solar-powered-usb-charger-for-phones-and-other-small-devices/

Posted by: vollmerflualinte78.blogspot.com

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