Low Power Battery Charger with Solar Panel Input, the Electronic Circuit

Abstract

This paper presents an electronic circuit to be used as interface between a low-power (20W) low voltage (6V) solar panel and a lead-acid Li-Ion 12V battery. A low-cost microcontroller drives a boost circuit, connected between the solar panel and the battery, to maintain the battery in fully charged state as long as possible. All aspects regarding hardware design are presented together with experimental results that confirm the ability of the circuit to perform the task.