Design And Construction Of A Solar Powered Automatic Battery Charger With Charging Monitoring System Using Arduino

ABSTRACT

This project is on solar powered automatic battery charger with charging monitoring system, charging process and battery full cut-off indicator and display using designed to charge any acid battery.

In this work, a voltage sensor circuit is incorporated to sense the voltage of the battery under charge. The charger has the ability to automatically indicate charging process, low battery indicator, battery full cut-off- which stops the battery from charging whenever the battery voltage reaches the required optimum.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION
• AIM/OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
• APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT
• LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT
• ADVANTAGES OF AUTOMATIC CHARGER
• SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
• PROBLEM OF THE PROJECT
• PROJECT WORK ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER TWO

2.0      LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1      BACKGROUND LITERATURE SURVEY

2.2      HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF SOLAR CELLS

2.3      THEORY OF SOLAR CELLS

2.4      EFFICIENCIES OF SOLAR PANEL

2.5      BENEFITS OF SOLAR BATTERY CHARGERS

2.6      HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF BATTERY CHARGER

2.7      REVIEW OF BATTERY CHARGER

2.8     DIFFERENT TYPES OF BATTERY CHARGERS

CHAPTER THREE

3.0      CONSTRUCTION METHODOLOGY

3.1      BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE SYSTEM

3.2      CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

3.3      CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION

3.4      SYSTEM OPERATION

3.5      CHARGING DATA SERIAL MONITOR

3.6      PARTS LIST

3.7      HOW TO OPERATE THIS AUTOMATIC BATTERY CHARGER CIRCUIT

3.8      WOODEN ENCLOSURE PARTS

3.9      TOOLS USED

3.10   SOLAR PANEL CONNECTION PROCEDURES.

3.11   SOLAR PANEL MOUNTING SYSTEMS

CHAPTER FOUR

4.1            RESULT ANALYSIS

4.1      CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE AND TESTING

4.2      CASING AND PACKAGING

4.3      ASSEMBLING OF SECTIONS

4.4      TESTING OF SYSTEM OPERATION OBSERVATIONS

4.6     DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED ON THE SYSTEM

CHAPTER FIVE

• SUMMARY
• CONCLUSIONS

5.3     REFERENCES

CHAPTER ONE

1.1                                                     INTRODUCTION

Given the current energy crisis and increasing need for sustainable energy, we endeavored to create a cost-effective, small-scale electrical generator which could be used to power consumer electronics. Solar energy has proven its worth as an alternative energy source because it is low-impact and emission-free. It has been implemented with much success for power grids with hundreds of acres of enormous solar concentrates. In the small-scale, solar energy has been harvested through the use of photovoltaic (PV) panels and have been used to power anything from an iPod to a residential home. Although PV systems are considered part of the green energy revolution, materials utilized for its construction (like silicon) are extremely dangerous to the environment and much care must be taken to ensure that they are recycled properly. PV cells also only utilize the energy stored in specific wavelengths of light and therefore have an approximate efficiency between 14-19%. Sunlight, however, produces immense amounts of heat which only serves to heat up the surface of the solar cell. Although there are some PV cells that have reached efficiency levels over 40% (world record is 41.6%), they are enormously complex and expensive. Concentrated solar power (CSP) works differently because it focuses solar energy in its entirety rather than absorb it. Ultimately, our group will be designing and producing a Solar Powered Battery

Solar battery charger is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect. Solar chargers use solar panels to charge batteries. They are an alternative to conventional electrical battery chargers. This work is based on solar battery charger with monitoring and cutoff or stop charging system.

1.2                                        OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

Solar Energy is a clean and renewable power resource and is on its way to high level penetration in the world electricity energy basket. However, the objective of the project is to design a solar device that will recharge 12v lead acid battery when discharged. The device has the ability to indicate charging process, low battery and fully charge levels through digital display.

1.3                                      SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

This device charges 12v acid battery mainly, however, if the output voltages are adjusted can be used to charge battery of lower or higher voltages.

Apart from charging batteries, this device can also be used as a battery level monitor due to the battery level indicators and digital display feature it contains.

The charging progress indicator allows the user to be able to troubleshoot system, meaning that the user can use the monitoring system to know when the system is faulty or not.

1.3                                           PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT

It is designed to meet up with the higher demand of power supply needed to keep our battery charged.

1.4                                       APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT

Battery charger is used in the following devices for the purpose of recharging device batteries:

1. It is used in inverter
2. It is used in cellphone
3. It is used in Solar energy system
4. It is used in vehicles
5. It can be used as voltage monitor
6. It is used in an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), etc.

1.5                                        LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT

The only problem with this device is that it takes longer time to recharge car battery because of the low current output, and it is design only for a 12 battery.

1.6                            ADVANTAGES OF AUTOMATIC CHARGER

Features of this automatic battery charger made it more advantageous than other types and they are as below:

• Automatic battery charger has an indicator or display to indicate when the battery is fully charged
• Built in Indications for showing Full, Empty Levels of any type of battery
• It has a manually operated switch that is used to ON and OFF the entire system.
• It composes of in-built active components which stop charging process when the battery is fully charged.
• It consumed less current but generate high current to the load.

1.7                                              SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The idea of a solar charger is an excellent one in that it’s meant to allow you an option for charging your battery-powered appliances when you’re in a remote area or just don’t have access to an electrical outlet or car charger. This work is on designing and development of a low cost, micro controller based, solar powered battery charging and monitoring system. The developed system incorporates (i) solar panel (ii) Arduino Uno interface for battery management functions Arduino Uno interface, (iii) LCD display for information to the user about the system regarding the systems overall capacity to charge at any given time and LED indicator.

1.8                                              PROBLEM OF THE PROJECT

There are some problems to solar chargers powered by the sun. The most obvious of course is that if it’s a cloudy or overcast day, your solar powered charger isn’t going to be able to garner the energy it needs from the sun in order to function. Usually, it needs direct sun in order to charge the battery to work efficiently.

Another problem to the current solar chargers is that the amount of power they are capable of generating isn’t always enough to keep up with the amount of power required by today’s highly functional appliances.

Some analysts say that in order to meet and exceed the power needs of most battery-powered appliances, the solar charger will have to be larger in order to capture more of the sun’s energy more quickly. However, this poses a problem when it comes to the transport and convenience of the charger.

Another problem is that solar chargers are not typically able to generate enough power for a full charge.

1.9                                        PROJECT WORK ORGANIZATION

The various stages involved in the development of this project have been properly put into five chapters to enhance comprehensive and concise reading. In this project thesis, the project is organized sequentially as follows:

Chapter one of this work is on the introduction to this study. In this chapter, the background, significance, objective limitation and problem of to this study were discussed.

Chapter two is on literature review of this study. In this chapter, all the literature pertaining to this work was reviewed.

Chapter three is on design methodology. In this chapter all the method involved during the design and construction were discussed.

Chapter four is on testing analysis. All testing that result accurate functionality was analyzed.

Chapter five is on conclusion, recommendation and references.