5 ms·

Building a Raspberry Pi based server powered 100% by solar energy

66 points by 666_howitzer 13y ago

thejosh 13y ago
142 days uptime is pretty cool!
stephengillie 13y ago
This kind of research is nice to see. Too bad your setup needs a less-powerful system (Arduino) and a more powerful system (RRD host) to operate the charging. What about using the RasPi's GPIO pins instead of the Arduino? And why wouldn't an SD card be able to manage that many writes? What about a ram drive?
platz 13y ago
I think he could have halved the size of his solar kit and still not have had to worry about power interruptions. http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.volts http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.volts
- idupree 13y ago
  Evidence shows the solar panels are important: He doubled the number of solar panels in November after the initial panels weren't enough to power the RPi in the winter. http://pi.qcontinuum.com/failure2.html http://pi.qcontinuum.com/failure2.html (The graph also shows the voltage dip below 10V in Nov, probably representing that failure, though it's hard to see the details in the "last year" graph.) Maybe they could be pointed towards the sun more efficiently, or been a more expensive & efficient model - but the story says why he chose his porch and cheap solar panels.
  - astrodust 13y ago
    Adding some kind of rotation mechanism to the panel would increase efficiency, and I'm sure the Pi or Arduino could handle this.
csense 13y ago
What are "the RRD tools"? What does RRD stand for? Also, if you're worried about an application which does a lot of SD writes, you could: (1) Try it, see if the SD card holds up. If it does, great. If it doesn't, well, SD cards are cheap, and you did make a backup, right? (2) Write to a RAM disk (3) Write to a network drive
- danellis 13y ago
  http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/ http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/ It's literally the first hit in Google. He probably doesn't explain it because it's a fairly well-known tool.
- AaronBBrown 13y ago
  Round Robin Database.
- VLM 13y ago
  I implemented option 4 on a linux based router a couple years ago: 4) Write to a disposable USB stick. Assuming recovery from lost data is simpler and faster than a complete wipe/install/customize by using disposable sd cards. I my situation the CF root would last forever because of basically no writes, and when the USB flash drive melts down I'd lose some logs and /tmp and some /var/cache/ stuff, oh well no big deal compared to a complete reinstall and reconfigure.
SpacemanSpiff 13y ago
Excellent project, but the shading on the solar panels from the railings is more than likely severely reducing the output of the panels at lower sun angles. Even shading a single cell on a series connected panel effectively reduces the output of ALL cells. Also having peak power tracking would increase panel utilization. I really like the power monitoring using the Arduino though.
vinhboy 13y ago
I wish there were more pictures and descriptions of how to hook up the battery to the raspberry pi. That is the biggest unknown to me.
- yesbabyyes 13y ago
  I don't know what the author used, but you should be able to build something similar with these products/kits from Adafruit: - MintyBoost Kit http://www.adafruit.com/products/14 - USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger http://www.adafruit.com/products/390 - Li-Ion Batteries / Solar Panels http://www.adafruit.com/category/67
brackin 13y ago
Interesting. Looks similar to this project. http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/48-pandaboards-chained-together-in-solar-powered-arm-cluster/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/48-pandaboards-chained-to...
jrabone 13y ago
45W sounds like overkill for an RPi - I live in Scotland (55.95N) and I have a 50W panel charging a 110Ah battery in my garden shed. The battery is used to power a 1kW Invertek 250V inverter (150A fuses are impressive BTW) which I use to run a lawnmower, power tools, soldering station and lights (not all at once!). The lawnmower is the biggest drain (900W) and is really pushing the envelope - but in the summer I can cut 55 sq. metres of lawn once a week without any charge problems. In the winter the grass doesn't grow :) but I can run the other tools just fine. I was very surprised at just how well this system worked, but then I did splash out on a high end 50W Kyocera panel when I designed this. My only alternative would have been to bury an SWA cable across common ground and somehow run it to my consumer unit in a 1st floor flat, so I was prepared to spend £300 (as it was then) on the panel. They're a lot cheaper now.
- tocomment 13y ago
  How much did the system cost?
  - jrabone 13y ago
    In total about £600 (this was 2 years ago); £250 for the panel, £120 for the battery, £150 for the inverter (Ebay, 2nd hand) and the rest on sundries like cable & connectors (also Ebay in most cases). I used http://www.midsummerenergy.co.uk/ http://www.midsummerenergy.co.uk/ for a lot of the bits. Note you can now get a 135W panel for £190, which is some indication of the falling cost over the last 24 months - the 50W Kyocera panel is now £80!
    - tocomment 13y ago
      So what kind of battery is it? I might want to try this. Do you have any other details? A blog post perhaps :-)
      - jrabone 13y ago
        It was an Elecsol 100Ah leisure battery. The equivalent would be http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/Sealed-Batteries/PM-110.html http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/Sealed-Batteries/PM-110.htm... Other bits were a Morningstar SunSaver solar regulator SS10 and a Nasa Clipper BM1 Battery Monitor (unnecessary extravagence - don't bother!). I also added a couple of 12V fluorescent lights powered from the SS10 so I didn't need the inverter running just for light. It's a pretty simple set up, the hardest part is making up the high current battery cables - the clamps, fuse holder and connector to the inverter are pretty substantial to handle 100A. I mounted the panel on the roof of the Apex shed with simple aluminium brackets. The wiring is pretty simple (more complicated by the battery monitor which has a 100A shunt resistor in the negative lead to monitor the load current). I uploaded a pictorial wiring diagram at http://i.imgur.com/UX4Y29o.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/UX4Y29o.jpg?1 for you.
fosap 13y ago
I was investigating today into something similar. The concusion of my research: - Model A uses a way less (about 33%) electricity, because it does not have a lan controller. So it will be useless as a server, but for my application this is the choice. - The RPi does work with 3.3 Volts, but then the USB does not work. Yet again, for me good enough. - Undervolting (the core and ram) and downclocking do not make much sense. It does save nearly nothing and make the board absurd slow. - The biggest powersink seems to be the GPU, but AFAIK it can't sleep. - The most inefficient component are the voltage regulators. Replacing them with dc-dc converters was discussed, i have no experimental results. The easies way is to convert the input to 3.3V without replaying and board components. - Displays use very much power. But they can be turned of if not needed. It seems the solar panel can be significantly smaller, but not for a webserver.
garysweaver 13y ago
Network traffic graph currently showing what it is like to be HN'd: http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.pi.main http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.pi.main http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-day.png http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-day.png http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-week.png http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-week.png
- turshija 13y ago
  And the allmighty raspberry pi is surviving traffic like a baws :)
AaronBBrown 13y ago
I've been wanting to hack on a few projects that involve small amounts of electrical knowledge, but am not sure where to get the bare minimum information to avoid killing myself or others. What is the best way to get practical background knowledge about this type of electrical project?
MrDOS 13y ago
> see how many years I could keep it running without a reboot > I decided set up the panels on the deck facing west. There seems to be some disparity between his goals and the stability of the environment in which he's placed the equipment.

66 points by 666_howitzer 13y ago

142 days uptime is pretty cool!

This kind of research is nice to see. Too bad your setup needs a less-powerful system (Arduino) and a more powerful system (RRD host) to operate the charging. What about using the RasPi's GPIO pins instead of the Arduino? And why wouldn't an SD card be able to manage that many writes? What about a ram drive?

platz 13y ago

I think he could have halved the size of his solar kit and still not have had to worry about power interruptions. http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.volts http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.volts

idupree 13y ago
Evidence shows the solar panels are important: He doubled the number of solar panels in November after the initial panels weren't enough to power the RPi in the winter. http://pi.qcontinuum.com/failure2.html http://pi.qcontinuum.com/failure2.html (The graph also shows the voltage dip below 10V in Nov, probably representing that failure, though it's hard to see the details in the "last year" graph.) Maybe they could be pointed towards the sun more efficiently, or been a more expensive & efficient model - but the story says why he chose his porch and cheap solar panels.
- astrodust 13y ago
  Adding some kind of rotation mechanism to the panel would increase efficiency, and I'm sure the Pi or Arduino could handle this.

csense 13y ago

What are "the RRD tools"? What does RRD stand for? Also, if you're worried about an application which does a lot of SD writes, you could: (1) Try it, see if the SD card holds up. If it does, great. If it doesn't, well, SD cards are cheap, and you did make a backup, right? (2) Write to a RAM disk (3) Write to a network drive

danellis 13y ago
http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/ http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/ It's literally the first hit in Google. He probably doesn't explain it because it's a fairly well-known tool.
AaronBBrown 13y ago
Round Robin Database.
VLM 13y ago
I implemented option 4 on a linux based router a couple years ago: 4) Write to a disposable USB stick. Assuming recovery from lost data is simpler and faster than a complete wipe/install/customize by using disposable sd cards. I my situation the CF root would last forever because of basically no writes, and when the USB flash drive melts down I'd lose some logs and /tmp and some /var/cache/ stuff, oh well no big deal compared to a complete reinstall and reconfigure.

SpacemanSpiff 13y ago

Excellent project, but the shading on the solar panels from the railings is more than likely severely reducing the output of the panels at lower sun angles. Even shading a single cell on a series connected panel effectively reduces the output of ALL cells. Also having peak power tracking would increase panel utilization. I really like the power monitoring using the Arduino though.

vinhboy 13y ago

I wish there were more pictures and descriptions of how to hook up the battery to the raspberry pi. That is the biggest unknown to me.

yesbabyyes 13y ago
I don't know what the author used, but you should be able to build something similar with these products/kits from Adafruit: - MintyBoost Kit http://www.adafruit.com/products/14 - USB / DC / Solar Lithium Ion/Polymer charger http://www.adafruit.com/products/390 - Li-Ion Batteries / Solar Panels http://www.adafruit.com/category/67

brackin 13y ago

Interesting. Looks similar to this project. http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/48-pandaboards-chained-together-in-solar-powered-arm-cluster/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/20/48-pandaboards-chained-to...

jrabone 13y ago

45W sounds like overkill for an RPi - I live in Scotland (55.95N) and I have a 50W panel charging a 110Ah battery in my garden shed. The battery is used to power a 1kW Invertek 250V inverter (150A fuses are impressive BTW) which I use to run a lawnmower, power tools, soldering station and lights (not all at once!). The lawnmower is the biggest drain (900W) and is really pushing the envelope - but in the summer I can cut 55 sq. metres of lawn once a week without any charge problems. In the winter the grass doesn't grow :) but I can run the other tools just fine. I was very surprised at just how well this system worked, but then I did splash out on a high end 50W Kyocera panel when I designed this. My only alternative would have been to bury an SWA cable across common ground and somehow run it to my consumer unit in a 1st floor flat, so I was prepared to spend £300 (as it was then) on the panel. They're a lot cheaper now.

tocomment 13y ago
How much did the system cost?
- jrabone 13y ago
  In total about £600 (this was 2 years ago); £250 for the panel, £120 for the battery, £150 for the inverter (Ebay, 2nd hand) and the rest on sundries like cable & connectors (also Ebay in most cases). I used http://www.midsummerenergy.co.uk/ http://www.midsummerenergy.co.uk/ for a lot of the bits. Note you can now get a 135W panel for £190, which is some indication of the falling cost over the last 24 months - the 50W Kyocera panel is now £80!
  - tocomment 13y ago
    So what kind of battery is it? I might want to try this. Do you have any other details? A blog post perhaps :-)
    - jrabone 13y ago
      It was an Elecsol 100Ah leisure battery. The equivalent would be http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/Sealed-Batteries/PM-110.html http://midsummerenergy.co.uk/buy/Sealed-Batteries/PM-110.htm... Other bits were a Morningstar SunSaver solar regulator SS10 and a Nasa Clipper BM1 Battery Monitor (unnecessary extravagence - don't bother!). I also added a couple of 12V fluorescent lights powered from the SS10 so I didn't need the inverter running just for light. It's a pretty simple set up, the hardest part is making up the high current battery cables - the clamps, fuse holder and connector to the inverter are pretty substantial to handle 100A. I mounted the panel on the roof of the Apex shed with simple aluminium brackets. The wiring is pretty simple (more complicated by the battery monitor which has a 100A shunt resistor in the negative lead to monitor the load current). I uploaded a pictorial wiring diagram at http://i.imgur.com/UX4Y29o.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/UX4Y29o.jpg?1 for you.

fosap 13y ago

I was investigating today into something similar. The concusion of my research: - Model A uses a way less (about 33%) electricity, because it does not have a lan controller. So it will be useless as a server, but for my application this is the choice. - The RPi does work with 3.3 Volts, but then the USB does not work. Yet again, for me good enough. - Undervolting (the core and ram) and downclocking do not make much sense. It does save nearly nothing and make the board absurd slow. - The biggest powersink seems to be the GPU, but AFAIK it can't sleep. - The most inefficient component are the voltage regulators. Replacing them with dc-dc converters was discussed, i have no experimental results. The easies way is to convert the input to 3.3V without replaying and board components. - Displays use very much power. But they can be turned of if not needed. It seems the solar panel can be significantly smaller, but not for a webserver.

garysweaver 13y ago

Network traffic graph currently showing what it is like to be HN'd: http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.pi.main http://pi.qcontinuum.com/cgi-bin/rrd/rrdgraph.pi.main http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-day.png http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-day.png http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-week.png http://pi.qcontinuum.com/rrd/pi-traffic-week.png

turshija 13y ago
And the allmighty raspberry pi is surviving traffic like a baws :)

AaronBBrown 13y ago

I've been wanting to hack on a few projects that involve small amounts of electrical knowledge, but am not sure where to get the bare minimum information to avoid killing myself or others. What is the best way to get practical background knowledge about this type of electrical project?

MrDOS 13y ago

> see how many years I could keep it running without a reboot > I decided set up the panels on the deck facing west. There seems to be some disparity between his goals and the stability of the environment in which he's placed the equipment.