The project is to have a remote station–either low power sensing or camera enabled that periodically communicates with a base station. The remote station would be powered by a solar panel, and store power either in a lithium-ion battery or in a super-capacitor. The battery solution would be higher power. A supercap solution would be very low power, storing energy and then periodically waking up to take a reading and send the data to the base station. The supercap solution could potentially last for decades, while a battery solution would need a new battery after a year or so, and would have poor performance in the cold.<\/p>\n
Potential projects:
\n1) Solar powered camera. Solar panel, supercap, Raspberry Pi Zero, camera, and wifi. Wakes up periodically, if there is sufficient charge, takes a picture, connects to wifi, sends the picture.<\/p>\n
2) Garage temperature monitor. This one could run off battery alone.<\/p>\n
The hardest part of this project is figuring out the power requirements, and how to charge the supercap or battery. The Raspberry Pi draws a lot of current when it starts up, and wifi requires a lot of power.<\/p>\n
Low power projects done by others:
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\nLinux Throwie: Powering a Linux Server with a 0.3W Solar Panel<\/a><\/p>\n