Solar Energy industry has been growing so fast and you can now buy a solar panel or solar powered gadgets almost anywhere. I have been looking to design a solar power system for my home but I can’t find time or I can’t find the best solution to do it. Recently I have been ask to design a high power flashlight for a bike and when I am looking for a charger IC, I stumbled on this one and luckily it is also perfect for solar power applications.
About The IC
The Charger is from Linear Technology’s LTC4015 – Multichemistry Buck Battery Charger Controller with Digital Telemetry System. It has a I2C communication port that can be use to monitor voltages, current, temperatures and battery health. You can also set the charging current and voltage via I2C. You can also use it as a standalone charging IC and wont require any programming. But it is best to use this feature, this will save you space and parts count because you wont be needing an additional current sensors for your application to monitor battery and input current.
Application Circuit
Sample Program
You can download the sample program for arduino and other platform below.
Downloads:
LT4015 Datasheet
LT4015 Sample Program