Workshop: Solar 101

We had a great time at the 'Solar 101' workshop -- despite the weather! Greg Nelson (our friend, and one of the crew at otherWise), Mike Beach (our friend, and one of the crew at Artisan's Asylum), and some other local folks (both kids and adults) helped to make it a very productive and fun gathering.

Although we weren't able to get a useful current from the panels on such a cloudy day, we were able to use batteries to drive a bunch of motors (toy wheels, drills, greenhouse side rollers), and used some low-cost voltage and current metres to learn a bit about current, voltage, and power requirements for various DC applications.

The solar panels we had (100W and 260W) for testing and experimentation.

The flyer we put out for the workshop!

Diagram comparing energies for various forms of generation, storage, and applications. You can find the original poster here.

Greg and Mike testing the panels. Spoiler: on such a cloudy day, no useful current!

Compact sensor device

Some of Greg's kit.

Some of the assorted electronics for experimentation: toy motors, LEDs and coin cells, a multimeter, DC-DC converters, and an inexpensive current + voltage meter.

Circuit diagram for an inexpensive voltage and current monitor. Turns out the manufacturer's diagram was mislabeled!

A picnic feast of electronics.

We connected a 24V greenhouse roll-up connected to a deep cycle battery

Experimenting with the motors -- connecting one motor to two others to make a 'bad tractor' (TM, Mike Beach).

Assessing the battery voltage with the cheap current + voltage meter.

Running a 12V drill off a battery and assessing the current requirements.