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
Graphing the Data
A picture is always much easier to understand, so you can also use your
spreadsheet to draw a graph of the data to help you visualise the charge and
discharge cycles. Select column A in the spreadsheet then use INSERT/ CHART
from the menu. Choose a line graph without points and press FINISH, and you will
see something like this:
In the above graph, you can see a charge cycle, a discharge cycle, and a second
charge cycle. In the experiment that we did, it was a bit shady outside the first time
it charged, but the sun came out the second time, which is why it took longer for the
first charge compared to the second charge.
Results
Parameter Value Note
Bottom of Charge reading (BOC) Range 0..1023
Top of Charge reading (TOC) Range 0..1023
Time from TOC to BOC seconds
Time from BOC to TOC seconds
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