LED CIRCUIT:

The circuit is configured as two parallel strings of three LEDs each in series. The working voltage of a white LED is around 3.3V to 3.6V. In this project, all the LEDs used are of 0.5W each rating. The average consumption of each LED string is around 150 mA. Thus the total consumption of the circuit is about 300mA @ 12v equals 3.6 watts. The rest 0.6 watt is dissipated as heat.

CHARGE CONTROLLER CIRCUIT:

This circuit essentially consists of the following main sections: 1. Power supply section: This contains two diodes in series 1N4007 to reduce the input voltage to approx. 4.5V and one 10uF electrolytic capacitors connected at output of the diodes for smoothening of the DC voltages as well as to minimize the external noise and interference. The value of the capacitors is chosen arbitrarily and is not of much importance. Therefore any value can be taken. 5V DC is suitable for operating the microcontroller/LCD and other circuitry. The bridge rectifier circuit is optionally added for powering the circuit externally with an AC transformer in case where the battery management is of more importance. The five 0.1uF capacitors are to be connected near power pins of each IC to minimize the interference. 2. Microcontroller section: This includes one microcontroller ATMEGA 8 from Atmel, one crystal oscillator of 8 MHz, and two ceramic non polar capacitors of 33pF. The crystal connected provides the clock pulses to the microcontroller. The microcontroller executes the code burned in its flash memory and manages the various inputs and outputs of the circuit. In this circuit, Port PD.5 to PD.7 are configured as output port for giving

the status of the systems and to control the MOSFETs. There may be other choice also for selecting the output ports as required. The PORT c is a 6 channel 10 bit ADC input which takes analog signals from the battery and solar panel and converts them into digital values. The 10K multi turn presets at the input of these ports forms the voltage divider circuit and adjusts the input level of the ADC channels. The microcontroller is reset when the pin 1 of it is pulled low. Therefore the 10K resistor connected at this pin pulls it to high level for normal operation and the switch resets the microcontroller when pressed. The crystal used to supply/generate the clock pulses for the microcontroller while the capacitors (33pF) connected stabilizes the frequency of the crystal. The output port D.7 is configured as low battery indicator and a LED is connected to it through a current limiting resistor of 1K. This resistor controls the current to about 2mA. Similarly other outputs are also fed to a LED circuit to indicate the charging status as well as load status. The outputs D.5 is also fed to a N Channel MOSFET which turns on or off the load according the day/night condition or battery charge condition. The output from the port D.6 is connected to a NPN transistor which in turn controls the P Channel MOSFET. This MOSFET turns on or off the charging of the battery as per the light conditions. The reason for selecting the P Channel MOSFET for charging is to simplify the design of the circuit. A normal N channel MOSFET could also be employed in this case. The diode connected between B+ terminal and MOSFET is for preventing battery discharge during night and also for preventing wrong solar panel connection. LCD section: This includes one LCD JHD162 which has two rows of 16 characters. The LCD is connected to Port PB.0-PB.5 is used to visually indicate the status of the system as well as current battery voltage. The 10K variable resistor connected with the LCD pin3 controls the contrast level of the LCD.

SOLAR ALIGNMENT CIRCUIT:

This circuit essentially consists of the following main sections:

1. Power supply section: This contains two diodes in series 1N4007 to reduce the input voltage to approx. 4.5V and one 10uF electrolytic capacitors connected at output of the diodes for smoothening of the DC voltages as well as to minimize the external noise and interference. The value of the capacitors is chosen arbitrarily and is not of much importance. Therefore any value can be taken. 5V DC is suitable for operating the microcontroller/LCD and other circuitry. The bridge rectifier circuit is optionally added for powering the circuit externally with an AC transformer in case where the battery management is of more importance. The five 0.1uF capacitors are to be connected near power pins of each IC to minimize the interference. Solar sensor section: This is an auxiliary circuit which is compromised of two LDRs separated by a wooden strip. The main purpose of the wooden strip is to cast a shadow on one of the LRD when the direction of the sun changes. This causes the resistance of one LRD to increase due to the shadow. The difference between the resistances of the LRS is compared by the comparator IC LM339 and accordingly logic HIGH or LOW signal is generated at

its output. These logic signals are sensed by the microcontroller and then relevant signals are given to the motor driver IC L293D which in turns drives a DC motor of 3.5 RPM to align the panel accordingly. The variable resistor of 10K sets the tripping point of the comparator. These may be required to adjust as per the available light conditions. The two LEDs connected at the output of the comparator IC are for setting the tripping point of the comparators. The motor section is powered directly from the 6 V battery supply, whereas the rest section is driven from the 5 V. 2. Microcontroller section: this section is much similar to the solar charge controller circuit except there are only two inputs and two outputs are configured. The outputs are also connected to the two LEDs in series of a resistor for visually indication of the direction of motor.