Hey everyone,
can anybody give me a professional opinion wether modding a crazyflie with one of these solarpanels http://www.flexsolarcells.com/index_fil ... T36-75.php or their RC variants is possible?
thx
A possible Solarmod?
Re: A possible Solarmod?
Hi,
Those solar panel looks nice and light! The main issue here will be the voltage: solar panel voltage fluctuate a lot with illumination. The Crazyflie can charge at 4.5V (maybe a bit less) so the panel would need to be connected to some kind of power harvesting chip that outputs a constant 4.5V when possible.
Electrically the crazyflie has VUSB on connector P8 (not populated, its two holes on the PCB). Thats where the charger can be connected.
On the software side, currently the Crazyflie has its CPU running at 72MHz, LED are blinking and one blue LED is always ON even when charging, this is not a bit issue when charging from USB but when charging with low current you might end up having this system IDLE current over the available solar current. Most of that can be fixed in software (CPU in sleep mode and LEDs OFF), and if the blue LED is an issue its resistor will have to be changed or it can be de-soldered.
Of course with the available area on the Crazyflie it is not possible to fly only from solar power. What is possible is to land and then charge (slowly) from the sun to take off again later.
Regards,
Arnaud
Those solar panel looks nice and light! The main issue here will be the voltage: solar panel voltage fluctuate a lot with illumination. The Crazyflie can charge at 4.5V (maybe a bit less) so the panel would need to be connected to some kind of power harvesting chip that outputs a constant 4.5V when possible.
Electrically the crazyflie has VUSB on connector P8 (not populated, its two holes on the PCB). Thats where the charger can be connected.
On the software side, currently the Crazyflie has its CPU running at 72MHz, LED are blinking and one blue LED is always ON even when charging, this is not a bit issue when charging from USB but when charging with low current you might end up having this system IDLE current over the available solar current. Most of that can be fixed in software (CPU in sleep mode and LEDs OFF), and if the blue LED is an issue its resistor will have to be changed or it can be de-soldered.
Of course with the available area on the Crazyflie it is not possible to fly only from solar power. What is possible is to land and then charge (slowly) from the sun to take off again later.
Regards,
Arnaud
Re: A possible Solarmod?
Thanks for your input Arnaud that sounds like it might be possible
Re: A possible Solarmod?
power harvesting chip that outputs
Re: A possible Solarmod?
Hi,
It's not really a solar mod, but I tried charging the Crazyflie with a solar cell that I have laying around. It's a 7W module that outputs 5V at 1.5V.
On a sunny day with some occasional clouds it took roughly one hour to charge the Crazyflie. In perfect sunny weather it' should be even faster.
So it's definitely possible to power the Crazyflie with clean energy. It just takes a little bit of time.
Regards,
Fred
It's not really a solar mod, but I tried charging the Crazyflie with a solar cell that I have laying around. It's a 7W module that outputs 5V at 1.5V.
On a sunny day with some occasional clouds it took roughly one hour to charge the Crazyflie. In perfect sunny weather it' should be even faster.
So it's definitely possible to power the Crazyflie with clean energy. It just takes a little bit of time.
Regards,
Fred
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