Overview
CanAirIO now have power saving settings thanks to the collaboration and feedback from the community. With these modes and the addition of minimal hardware we could have a solar station. Please note that the current status of this solution is testing but we have two stations working well.
Power saving settings
Sleep time mode
With this mode enable, it only suspend the sensors each sleep time seconds. The screen, WiFi and Bluetoot will still on.
Eco mode
Or solar mode. With this mode enable, the complete device is suspended each sleep time seconds.
This mode only will be enter on operation when you leave the Android app (Bluetooth disconnection).
If you want reconnected to the device, maybe the more easy way is: unpair -> scan -> wait for that the device appears again -> connect to it.
Schematic
Design and image credits by @Roberbike
Components
Main parts that you need are the next, but maybe you could have this components in different shops.
| Part Ref | Quantaty | Shop |
|---|---|---|
| Solar panel 5W or 10W or similar * | 1 | Amazon |
| Solar controller | 1 | Aliexpress |
| Sensirion SPS30 or GCJA-5 I2C sensor ** | 1 | Aliexpress, Mouser |
| AM2320 or similar I2C sensor | 1 | Mouser |
| Step Up DC-DC to 5v with enable | 1 | Aliexpress |
| Battery 650-800 mAh 3.7v or bigger *** | 1 | Aliexpress |
* Maybe for some zones on the earth with 5W it is enough but maybe 10W will be works fine on all places
** is possible a different sensors via UART for example Plantower sensors
*** With more capacity maybe it works fine on weeks without any sun radiation
Tested boards
We are testing some comercial and cheapers boards, for example the TTGO T7 v1.5 its a good board because you only need remove the power LED to have a good performance.
| Board | Firmware rev | A (Deep sleep) | A (Execution) | A (pico) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TTGO TDisplay | rev940 (Solar) | 179uA | ~160mA | 280mA |
| TTGO TDisplay | rev877 (Prod) | 180uA | ~240mA | 300mA |
| TTGO TDisplay | rev882 (Dev) | 183uA | ~240mA | 340mA |
| ESP32 WROOM-32 | rev940 (Solar) | 56uA | ~70mA | 110mA |
| TTGO T7 v1.3 | rev940 (Solar) | 5mA | ~80mA | 110mA |
| TTGO T7 v1.3 No-LED | rev940 (Solar) | 4.7mA | ~80mA | 330mA |
| TTGO T7 v1.5 No-LED | rev906 (dev) | 135uA | ~80mA | 110mA |
| TTGO T-OI PLUS No-LED | rev906 (dev) | 22uA | ~80mA | 110maA |
| ESP32F | rev906 (dev) | 11uA | 50-60 mA | 180 mA |
| M5STACK STAMP PICO | rev906 (dev) | 474uA | 60-80 mA | 140 mA |
3DPrint models
Photos
Thanks to
Special thank to @Roberbike for the collaboration of this version of CanAirIO.
Disclaimer
For review our disclaimer, policy privacy and warranty of CanAirIO devices. please enter here