Instructions

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction................................................................................................................ 2
Parts........................................................................................................................... 3
Using Alligator Clips...................................................................................................4
Solar Board Reference...............................................................................................5
Project 1 – Sun Finder............................................................................................... 6
Project 2 – Garden Light............................................................................................8
Project 3 – Self Charging Cooling Fan.....................................................................10
The BBC micro:bit....................................................................................................12
Getting Code to Run on the micro:bit.......................................................................12
Project 4 – Adding an Energy Meter........................................................................14
Project 5 – Energy Logger.......................................................................................22
How the Solar Store Works......................................................................................29
Project 6 – Intelligent Cooling Fan ..........................................................................30
Troubleshooting....................................................................................................... 38
About the Author......................................................................................................39
Learning...................................................................................................................39
Monk Makes Kits...................................................................................................... 40
INTRODUCTION
The MonkMakes Solar Experimenters Kit for micro:bit is a project kit that allows you
to experiment with harvesting energy from the sun and other light sources. It
consists of a solar panel to harvest the energy, a solar store that stores the
harvested energy, and a low energy light bulb and a motor that can be driven with
the energy that you harvest.
There are three projects that introduce energy harvesting without the micro:bit,
followed by 3 bigger projects that use the micro:bit (not provided) as an intelligent
controller. The micro:bit monitors and manages the charging and discharging of the
solar store.
With this project kit you will learn all about how tiny amounts of energy can be
harvested from the sun and stored for later use, using a practical and experiment-
led approach.
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