Solar Panel Battery Charger
(first year)
Designed and built a compact solar-powered system capable of charging a rechargeable battery and reporting key electrical parameters. The primary objective was to develop and assemble a complete hardware solution that harvests energy from a solar panel, manages power safely and efficiently, stores energy in a battery, and displays real-time status and measurements on an LCD screen.
Components
Microcontroller board – coordinates measurements and controls the display.
INA219 measurement board – reads the solar panel and load voltage and current.
Charge controller – safely charges the 3.7 V, 1200 mA battery.
Character LCD – displays system status and measured values.
6 V solar panel – provides the primary energy source.
Breadboard wiring – connects and prototypes all components together.
Skills Learned
Writing and organizing microcontroller firmware to coordinate sensors and system outputs.
Setting up I²C communication between the microcontroller and the INA219 measurement board.
Controlling a character LCD and updating the display with real-time measurements and system status.
Implementing control logic for charging modes and status notifications.
Debugging embedded hardware and software together using serial output and targeted test cases.
Developing CircuitPython code to integrate sensor readings, charging behavior, and LCD updates.
Converting engineering requirements into clear, testable behavior within the code.
Video of circuit fully charged and the message that is displayed.
(not enough sunlight for the LCD to display message that it is. fully charged, so a USB-C charging port was used to show the message).
Video of circuit being charged with the sunlight and the message that is displayed.