Since they have to be lit up at night, the advantages of using independent solar modules and inbuilt battery have many advantages.
Solar Signage Board
V.G.Abraham | Solartroniks
Solar signage boards are acrylic box boards meant for brand advertising or important message notice boards which are illuminated at night in a public place powered by Solar modules.
Since they have to be lit up at night, the advantages of using independent solar modules and inbuilt battery have the following advantages.
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Commercial electricity rates being exorbitantly high, using free energy from the sun has a great advantage.
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Laying of cable by digging the ground in a public place needs special permission and (probably license too) from the local government.
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Cost of cable to be laid and its maintenance is a major factor in the operational cost of the signage board advertisement project.
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Commercial and conventional electricity is sourced from unclean sources of power like burning of fossil fuel, etc, which is already a step in polluting this planet further and making it unlivable.
We started by contracting the job of a sample board to the acrylic fabricator who was a specialist in evenly cutting and joining acrylic parts, after he got the design job done at a laser engraver workshop or a vinyl sticker laser cut as per design selected by us.
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Solar signage board raw board without led lit
The board size was determined by the acrylic fabricator in consultation with us on the basis of the number of letter involved.
Electrical Design Buildup
1W Power LEDs were selected up to 4 numbers to be connected in parallel and powered by a Lithium ion battery of 3.7 Volts and 2300 maH (Model number 18650). 1 A Lithium with protection circuit chargers were used to charge the battery from the solar modules of 6V, 450 Ma or above. The advantage of using these 1A chargers is that they can be powered using conventional mobile chargers with micro USB connector outputs. The battery was placed in a battery compartment (available in the market). LED optics and lenses were used suitably wherever required on a case to case basis.
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Lithium battery 18650, battery case, 1 watt led, 1A micro usb lithium charger and led optics
The Solar module was connected to the input of the Lithium charger and the output to the battery and the LED Load was taken from the output end. (In case of Lithium charger with protection circuit, the two outputs are isolated separately)
Day Night Switching circuit for Solar charging battery
The circuit was designed keeping in mind that the brightness on the LEDs do not reduce because of power consumed by this circuit and current limited due to the semiconductors selected in designing this circuit.
Day Night Switching circuit for Solar charging battery
The operation and switching of the LED Lights during the day or night can be viewed in this YouTube link
You can also see how this circuit operates in this YouTube Link while we were building our Solar Signage Board.
The Final product is ready and can be seen in a few of our picture collection below.
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The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of AltEnergyMag
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