solar energy charger

1. SOLAR CHARGE CONTROLLER
A solar charge controller is fundamentally a voltage or current controller to charge the
battery and keep electric cells from overcharging. It directs the voltage and current
hailing from the solar panels setting off to the electric cell (Battery).
The most essential charge controller basically controls the device voltage and opens
the circuit, halting the charging, when the battery voltage ascents to a certain level.
More charge controllers utilized a switching devices such as MOSFET to open or
shut the circuit, halting or beginning power heading off to the electric storage devices

2. Major components
The following are the major components of the solar charge controller;
i)Microcontroller.
ii)Voltage sensors.
iii)Buck converter .
iv)Relay.
V)Liquid crystal display.
vi)LED.

3. Features of solar charge controller
a) Protects the battery from overcharging
b) Reduces system maintenance and increases battery lifetime
c) Auto charged indication
d) High reliability
e) Range of charging current
f) Monitors the reverse current flow

4. Microcontroller
A microcontroller is a compact integrated circuit designed to govern a specific
operation in an embedded system. A typical microcontroller includes a processor,
memory and input/output (I/O) peripherals on a single chip. For this project I decide
to us ATmega328P.
Specifications
IC type: AVR microcontroller.
Core size: 8-bit.
Speed: up to 20MHz.
Number of I/O: 23.
Program memory size: 32Kb (16K x 16)
Program memory type: Flash.
EEPROM size: 1K x 8.
RAM size: 2K x 8.

5. Voltage sensor
The voltage sensor module has 5 pins, 2 on the front side and 3 on the backside.
VCC: Positive terminal of the External voltage source (0-25V)
GND: Negative terminal of the External voltage source
S: Analog pin connected to Analog pin of the microcontroller
+: Not Connected
-: Ground Pin connected to GND of microcontroller

6. Liquid crystal display.
A flat-panel display technology known as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) produces
visual output using liquid crystals. It is commonly utilized in a wide range of
electronic devices, including digital clocks, cellphones, computer monitors,
televisions, and many more uses that call for the visual display of information. It may
display a digital clock as a string, numbers, or a 7-segment display. Compared to a
CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), an LCD screen is more effective and can be disposed off
more safely. There are various varieties of LCDs; for my project, I choose to use a
16x2 LCD to connect to the ATMEGA 328P Microcontroller

7. Relay
Relay is an electromagnetic device for remote or automatic control that is actuated
by variation in conditions of an electric circuit and that operates in turn other devices
(such as switches) in the same or a different circuit.

8. Buck converter
A buck converter or step-down converter is a DC-to-DC converter which steps down
voltage from the solar panel (while stepping up current) from its input (supply) to its
output (load) battery to be charged. It is a class of switched-mode power supply.

9. LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when an
electric current is passed through it. Light is produced when the particles that carry
the current (known as electrons and holes) combine together within the
semiconductor material