Instructions
Table Of Contents
- Introduction
- Parts
- Using Alligator Clips
- Solar Board Reference
- Project 1 – Sun Finder
- Project 2 – Garden Light
- Project 3 – Self Charging Cooling Fan
- The BBC micro:bit
- Getting Code to Run on the micro:bit
- Project 4 – Adding an Energy Meter
- Project 5 – Energy Logger
- Connecting Up
- Code for the Energy Logger (MakeCode)
- How it works
- Connecting to Your PC
- Pairing Your micro:bit With MakeCode
- Showing the Device Console Graph
- Capturing Data From a Charge and Discharge Cycle
- Downloading Data
- Getting Data into a Spreadsheet Program
- Analysing the Data
- Graphing the Data
- Results
- Understanding the Data
- Understanding Duty Cycle
- How the Solar Store Works
- Project 6 – Intelligent Cooling Fan
- Troubleshooting
- About the Author
- Learning
- Monk Makes Kits
Experiments
1. Try different light sources. How bright a light is needed before the CHARGING
indicator lights up?
2. When you have a lot of charge stored, press the B button to turn the fan on. How
long does it take before the DISCHARGING indicator appears?
3. Leave the fan running for at least 10 seconds then press the A button to stop the
fan. How long does it take before the DISCHARGING indicator disappears?
4. Is it possible in bright sunlight with the fan running, to see anything other than the
CHARGING indicator? Why do you think this is/isn't possible?
5. Experiment with the SIGNIFICANT variable and the number in the range(10)
line, and see if you can improve the stability and accuracy of the trend analyser.
6. Paste your code into the web editor at https://python.microbit.org then press the
CONNECT button, then FLASH the code to the micro:bit and finally press the
OPEN SERIAL button. You should see numbers printed to the screen every
second. Watch the last number on the line change as you switch the fan on and off
or shine bright sunlight on the solar panel.
Results
1
2
3
4
5
6
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