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Although, if you are interested in powering things by ambient light, there are a few options besides 'traditional' solar panels. Like non-traditional solar pan
by leggomylibro 9y ago
Although, if you are interested in powering things by ambient light, there are a few options besides 'traditional' solar panels.
Like non-traditional solar panels; a company called Ixys has some interesting small "solar bits"[1] which are what they sound like. Or old-school amorphous solar cells, like the kind that used to power calculators. They're not very efficient, but they perform okay in indoor lighting and they're cheap.
Also, PIN photodiodes[2] are intended for detecting whether an object is in light or not, but they can actually deliver around 25 microAmps @ 5V in less than 5 sq. mm. Not much, but it could charge something ambiently for short bursts of usage. (Edit: and I'd be remiss if I didn't point to the project that made me aware of this: https://hackaday.io/project/21342-bpw34-solar-powered-led-watch https://hackaday.io/project/21342-bpw34-solar-powered-led-wa...)
So, you know. Hop to, everyone.
[1]: http://ixapps.ixys.com/DataSheet/KXOB22-04X3F_Nov16.pdf http://ixapps.ixys.com/DataSheet/KXOB22-04X3F_Nov16.pdf
[2]: https://www.fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/QS/QSB34.pdf https://www.fairchildsemi.com/datasheets/QS/QSB34.pdf