sir, you have summarized the learning of multiple weeks to minutes . great video

Hello Andreas, just discovered your channel. How great it is that you are giving all this theoretical background before trying to build something. This is what more people should do. Good work, subscribed.

Very informative and well organized video. Thanks Andreas for the offering!

Andreas, your videos just keep getting better!! Great info and fun.

Ja ist denn schon wieder Sonntag :-). Vielen Dank Andreas für die sehr gut strukturierte Vorgehensweise, sowie Deinen Berechnungen und Erklärungen. Freue mich schon auf die Fortsetzung... :-)

Thank You for your time. I was also making some tests. Here we have more sun. 10W 5V panel + TP4506 + one 18650 + ESP8266 with deep sleep. Not that efficient but is working well so far. Looking forward for the next video.

Andreas, Your videos, and this one in particular, is excellent. Pitched at just the right pace, and level for me anyway. I like the structure, and the order. These are some of the most informative, and useful, videos I have seen. Grateful thanks from SanFran.

Andreas, I really enjoy your videos, you obviously put a lot of thought into their structure and order. This makes for some outstandingly informative stuff!!! Many thanks from this very grateful Welshman.

Thank you. I have been looking at videos with similar content for the past few days and I yours has been the most helpful. I hope you continue to provide more. Wish I could give you two thumbs up

I have almost certainly watched this video before but I didn't have any specific interest in solar power then. Now I do and I searched your channel for a video on exactly this topic. As is so often the case, your video gave me exactly the information I needed, avoided unnecessary and irrelevant detail and explained everything clearly. As we say in England, it was spot on. Thank you.

Thanks for the calculations! You saved me months of learning! Greetings from Turkey!

Thank you so much Andreas. You are doing an amazing job. Your videos are simply perfect.

Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

Like your videos. They always start out with what you are trying to solve. That is very important. i often get lost in the weeds and forget about the original intent. I often don't need the projects you are working on BUT I always listen to learn. Great teacher!

This is awesome. thank you for producing this video. I learned a ton, am going to apply the knowledge right away, and I know it took you a lot of work to do this.

Great video, thanks. I've been running an ESP-07 (all LED's removed) for more than a year now here on the Prairies in Canada where temperatures during the winter drop quite often below -35C. I used trial and error to figure out how long to put the ESP to sleep such that it wouldn't kill the battery during a worse case winter scenario. I will have to watch your video again and then apply these new learnings to see how much margin I was playing with. :) I am using a 1800mAh Li-on battery from a Sony PS3 Controller (rated at max charging current of 400mA and max charging voltage of 4.2 volts) and a 5V- 200mW 4.3cm X 3.4cm solar panel. When I tested the solar panel the maximum voltage I could get was 40mA and about 4.5V so I took a chance and connected it directly to the battery (so far so good and it's been more than a year!). I use only a diode to drop the voltage to the ESP and it has never gone above 3.4V. The ESP is on a 200s sleep cycle. As I said it has been working flawlessly for over a year but tomorrow I want to run this through your math. Thanks again for another wonderful and informative tutorial!

"In the middle I had to stop to drink a beer". This made my day! I really enjoy your videos/tutorials. They are always very informative and full of very useful knowledge as well as great results. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you Andreas, I was smiling a lot watching this video.

I was just wondering about this....and my favorite Swiss vlogger comes through

Wow! Thanks for sharing your efforts! I may have to make a solar charged battery pack now!

Thank you for yet another interesting video. Some things you might want to look into, if you don't get the expected efficiency are: Angle of the panel (I noticed your panel laid flat on the table, which is not optimal), and temperature (cool panels are more efficient than hot panels).

Great informative video, I was hoping this would cover the circuits needed to charge and regulate the voltage to 5v and 3.3v but still a great video

As always a great and instructive video, I don't know how you find the time but am really glad that you do

Love your videos! Can't wait until I can begin using solar panels myself

Thanks so much. This is quite helpful

Fantastic! It is as if you could see that I was experimenting with a solar panel and Li-On battery today & yesterday way on the other side of the planet. Plus I was trying to calculate panel and cell sizing too. Perfect timing and great spot-on content. Thanks. AND tomorrow is the Summer Solstice - optimal conditions for experimenting. I'm addicted to your videos.

These videos are wonderful treasures Andreas - Thank You!

Wonderful video! I've saved it for future research purposes. Thank you for making it! :)

Thank you! Very interesting. I've been thinking of doing some solar energy experiments myself, sadly northern Sweden is lacking in sun hours most of the year. :)

Super useful. I need to work through the maths for my scenarios. Andreas you are a national treasure for, probably Switzerland, but where ever, most excellent.

Great detail, appreciate the info. Yes, I agree with other comments, a well organised video. Thanks again Andreas.

Great video. Really simple common sense calculations. I think anyone dabbling should be able to figure out this themselves but if not you would have helped. What I like best about your channel is the clear straight engineering without any BS. No lies or faked stuff. Too much of the internet and social media is being invaded by persons peddling fake information. Please do keep up the good work. I will keep watching.

Cool, great topic! Interesting info and very informative video! I have a solar-powered network node laying in my window sill for about a year now. It's a 6V 1W panel connected to a ESP-07 module via a 650 mAh li-ion battery with a charger/protection module. It wakes up for ten seconds every 15 minutes, day and night. It survived summer, but stopped in the winter because it didn't get enough sun. It's only for testing/learning now, but in the future I want to make a solar-powered node for my automated garden project, so plenty work left.

Wonderful narrative style, Andreas!

One of the best explanation in the whole youtube. Giving easy explanations to easy concept is an uncommon skill. This is real engineering: i'm sure the beer helps! Greetings from Italy

Loved the recap!

Epic video, thank you and cheers!

I agree with the positive comments. You are an excellent tutor. Thanks for your efforts.

Great video, I'm working on a project for a solar powered sensor, and this was very helpful. Thank you very much!

Good technical information. Quite thorough and incisive. I look forward to the next video.

like like.. ! thank you so much for your time and explaining the things so properly ... haply building

Many thanks for your reviews and tests!

Wow! Really good video, very nicely done. I can't wait to watch the next in the series, haha.

I look forward to your controller video. Many of them have a USB connector. They claim up to 5V @ 2A, which is enough to power a Raspberry Pi 3. Of course there is no need to start a discussion on how big the batteries would need to be for that application, since we are talking about an ESP8266 & 18650 batteries. Possibly/probably a small single board controller would be sufficient. I'm now going to watch your video #64 again, about batteries appropriate for the ESP8266. Thanks for your videos.

Excellent video as usual. Thanks for your time.

Hi Andreas, the charging unit is very important part of this project I guess. I can't wait to watch your video on that. Thank you

Thank you Andreas, VERY informative ! I am waiting for the solar controller ! 🙂

Oh Andreas😀 A superb video, full of useful information and there is going to be a follow up too🙏 It's wonderful that you explain the math and importantly your thought process. I believe you managed to link together a number of things that I thought I understood. So very happy to see things more clearly. As always I am very appreciative of your time and efforts and just how concise you are. The project I am about to start is solar 2 axis for a 160 x 160 solar panel. So this is a great help. Bless you Andreas 👐

Looking forward very much to the next video especially cutting off charging the battery at 4.2v and at the low voltage point. This should solve issues I've been having using the piZero and the sparkfun sunny buddy MPPT controller.

Very infomative and entertaining at the same time. I see a good use for a INA219 I2C module to measure voltage/current...

Thanks a Lot Andreas! If I ever get a chance to come to Basel, I'll definitely drop by!

Another very useful video (tutorial). Looking forward to the next.

Sir, since discover your channel, I like it very much and with your kind guidance, I learn a lot!!!! Thank you very much.

Thanks. Great works. (I will come back to this video when I will be ready to study this field).

Thank you for yet another interesting video!

Andreas very useful video. I have been trying to do a similar thing for my esp8266 could not decide on a charge controller. Looking forward to the next episode.

Love it, very useful. I'm working on IoT device that will send data only once per 20mins, then in sleep mode.

Simply amazing!!!! Great job sir

Great tutorial. This open up so many applications. Im more I treated in the charging units. If there is bigger, smaller and also if you can order them online

Very very educational. Thanks for your knowledge, Andreas.

Always a great video, congratulations !!!

This is my favorite video of yours to date. The fact that someone was kind enough to translate it to Portuguese also means I can scare my father (who thinks solar panels probably aren't much harder than connecting panel, battery and an LED lamp in parallel) all under the guise of a friendly 15min video. Not gonna lie I still don't get why MPPT is a $100 device instead of a little board that you buy in packs of 50.

Tollen Video, ich freue mich schon auf die Fortsetzungen....

Sr, this information is extremely valuable, thanks a lot. I am looking forward for the charger video

Super structured video. Awesome. Thanks. Waiting for next episode)

Complimenti!Spiegazione Chiara ed esaustiva

Great video! Thanks for sharing such a good lesson like this one!

This man makes me happy, Keep making great videos! you inspire me :) I want to learn how to make cool things like this ^

This is great, thanks for the info!

I drank that beer when I was in Switzerland! It's really good!

Great explanation Andreas! Looking forward to part two... ;-)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for another interesting video with good notes.

Thanks Andreas! Much appreciated. I have an interest in running a home automation project from solar.

Thanks Andreas you saves my times and moneys . Very helpful and experimental video Great job.I hope God gives you a more healthy and long life.Best Regards

Hi Andreas, good information, thank you. I am running an arduino based weather station with solar power in Zurich. I made good experience with a charger module. This is the one: 03962a / TP4056. but there are two versions, one with dedicated battery connectors and one with shared ones. I prefer the newer version with dedicated connectors. Cheers SJ

Great video ! You're my hero !

Great information and great project.

Thank you, it was very helpful study!

Very good. Very very good. I live in Brasil, Mato Grosso state, very warm and have very sun, and was thinking about and esp8266 for solar weather station, and this video will help me very much, thank you!

Certainly your channel deserves more subs.

Very helpful, thank you! Have been considering making my weather station solar powered, or at least including a method to charge the two AA batteries it runs from. This will help greatly! :-)

Hi Andreas, first thanks a lot for all the good videos! For a cheap MPP tracker I can recommend a simple TP 4056 Lipo charging board. My setup works as follows: 5V Solar Panel, the charging board (w/ cell protection) and a LiPo battery. As long as the light is very dim, the voltage from the panel is too low for the charging board and no current flows. When there’s more light, the PV voltage climbs over the battery voltage and the charging board starts to charge the battery. If the charging current is too high, the PV voltage drops and so does the current - the PV voltage can climb again. So the charge controller will always keep the PV voltage at the point where it can draw the maximum power from the panel. Two things have to be taken care of: - . - To keep the system from oscillating, I put a capacitor parallel to the panel- The maximum input voltage of the TP4056 is 8V. When the battery is fully charged, no more current is drawn from the panel and the PV voltage will rise to the open circuit voltage. This should not be higher than these 8V

"Because this is boring we do some tests outside..."... Cool, wirklich nicht schlecht eingebaut. Der Beitrag war aber so oder so sehr belehrend, vor allem die Fakten über die Sonneneinstrahlung und wieviel Energie man nun effektiv abzapfen kann. Besten Dank.

Thanks for sharing I learned a lot from this and your videos. I am building a weather station using ESP8266 and this is spot for my power requirements. I live in Malta so solar irradiance should be similar to that of Dubai. Many thanks.

Wonderful solar video thanks Andreas

Sir your explanation is awesome...!! Thankyou..and we need more videos from you.

Composite systems are quite good at this implementation; There are two power sources, one is solar and one is backup power from the mains electricity. It works just like you expect when conditions are alright; charge the battery in daytime and use it in nighttime. But when solar panel voltage drops too much and battery voltage is below threshold, the device turns to backup power so the device doesn't die.

mini solar produce constant power you can use( buck converter) or( boost converter) first then you storage power to battery . the milliamps and voltage change all the time when you produce power and you can change it at any ratio you like , to make it more efficient.

I love Your videos. You are encountering and describing with easy words (and tests!) many of problems with building IoT devices. Not only simple "Hello World" projects. :)

you explained that quite clearly

I'm doing something similar. I switched from the ESP8266 to the ESP32 so I can more easily monitor battery voltage and sensor voltages. One thing I noticed though was that the MPP charge controllers are expensive. So expensive, I just opted to buy more solar cells, which are comparatively cheap, and use a TP.4056 charge module (very cheap) It would have been a better idea for me to have done a proper economic analysis though. Looking forward to your analysis! Keep up the great work!

Interesting video and very nice explanation. For the next episode for the mppt, pwm, etc chargers please take into account that mppt chargers usually draw much more current than the other ones and that it might not be as good as a pwm one especially for low power situations.

Excellent! Thanks Andreas!

Thank you!! ☀️

Outstanding, thank you.

Great video as always! :D Thanks!

Andreas, great video I am waiting for the next step;)

wonderful video. very clear and full of informations thank you

I bought a small solar panel from AliExpress sold as "5V 400mA". I measured the open circuit voltage at 6.5V and short circuit current at close to 150mA. I determined the MPPT of the solar panel to be about 300mW at 5.8V and 50mA (measured while adjusting a 10k rheostat in series with the panel). Does this mean I should replaced the resistor on the TP4056 to only draw 50mA?

Very useful and interesting! You deserve them beers on a hot day sir!