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Project Notes

#684 Engineer’s Mini-Notebook Solar Cell Projects

Book notes: Engineer’s Mini-Notebook Solar Cell Projects, by Forrest M. Mims III. First published January 1, 1999.

Build

Notes

See also:

Contents

  • INTRODUCTION
  • SOLAR ENERGY MILE STONES
  • ENERGY FROM THE SUN
  • THE SOLAR CONSTANT
    • SOLAR CONSTANT TABLE
  • SUNLIGHT AND ATMOSPHERE
  • SOLAR CELLS
    • HOW SOLAR CELLS WORK
    • SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY
    • SILICON SOLAR CELL RATINGS
    • SILICON SOLAR CELL VOLTAGE
    • INCREASING SOLAR CELL VOLTAGE
    • SILICON SOLAR CELL CURRENT
    • INCREASING SOLAR CELL CURRENT
    • SOLDERING LEADS TO SOLAR CELLS
    • MOUNTING SOLAR CELLS
    • ADUANTAGES OF MOUNTED CELLS
    • INSTALLING CELLS IN AN ENCLOSURE
    • MOUNTING SOLAR CELLS ON A PANEL
  • SOLAR CELL CONCENTRATORS
    • PARABOLIC REFLECTOR
    • FRESNEL LENS
    • TROUGH CONCENTRATOR
    • BOX CONCENTRATOR
  • SOLAR CELL BATTERY CHARGERS
    • STORAGE BATTERY PRECAUTIONS
    • SOLAR CELL BATTERY CHARGER
    • MONITORING A SOLAR CHARGER
  • TAKE A SOLAR CELL INTO SPACE
  • SOLAR POWERED MOTORS
    • BASIC SOLAR POWERED MOTOR
    • HIGHER POWER SOLAR MOTOR
    • REVERSIBLE SOLAR MOTOR
    • SOLAR MOTOR WITH BATTERY BACKUP
  • SOLAR ACTUATED MOTORS
    • POWER FET ACTUATOR (1)
    • TRANSISTOR ACTUATOR
    • POWER FET ACTUATOR (2)
    • OP AMP-POWER FET ACTUATOR
  • SOLAR CELL LIGHT METERS
    • LIGHT METER (VOLTAGE TYPE)
    • LIGHTMETER (CURRENT TYPE)
    • SOLAR CELL RADIOMETER
  • SUNLIGHT ACTUATED RELAY
  • LIGHT ACTUATED RELAY
  • BREAK-BEAM DETECTION
    • STEADY-STATE BREAK-BEAM SYSTEM
    • PULSED BREAK-BEAM SYSTEM
    • PULSED BREAK-BEAM TRANSMITTER
    • PULSED BREAK-BEAM RECEIVER
  • SUN POWERED TONE GENERATORS
    • SOLAR POWERED PIEZO BUZZER
    • SOLAR POWERED DUAL GATE OSCILLATOR
    • SOLAR POWERED S55 OSCILLATOR
    • SOLAR POWERED CLICKERS
  • LIGHT CONTROLLED TONE
    • LIGHT CONTROLLED 555 OSCILLATOR
    • HIGH-GAIN LIGHT CONTROLLED TONE
  • IR REMOTE CONTROL TESTERS
    • PIEZO AND MAGNETIC TESTERS
    • TRANSISTOR REMOTE CONTROL TESTER
    • OP AMP REMOTE CONTROL TESTER
  • SOLAR POWERED NIGHT LIGHT
About LEAP#684 Books

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

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About LEAP

LEAP is my personal collection of electronics projects - usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting.

Projects are often inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the many great electronics podcasts and YouTube channels. Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know or send a pull-request.

NOTE: For a while I included various scale modelling projects here too, but I've now split them off into a new repository: check out LittleModelArt if you are looking for these projects.

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