Originally published at: Creating an off-grid, solar powered Bluetooth-to-Cloud gateway - The Golioth Developer Blog
What happens when you’re ready to utilize Bluetooth-to-Cloud, but are far from a power point and network connection and want to ensure your data still shows up on the cloud? Utilize the power of the sun! I combined a range of different Golioth capabilities and examples to not only power a device, but also monitor the received solar energy. Let’s take a look at how it all fits together. Solar + Cellular + Bluetooth Hardware This setup is built on top of the Aludel Elixir, our open source hardware cellular platform. It takes advantage of the multiple types of connectivity onboard, including the Nordic Semiconductor nRF9160 cellular modem and the Espressif ESP32-C3. The former is the main processor running Zephyr (more on that below) and the latter is set up as an HCI interface for Bluetooth connections. There are also two Mikrobus Click slots onboard and we have a VCP Click plugged in there. That is an INA260 chip from Texas Instruments, the same that we used on the DC Power Monitor Reference Design to measure incoming DC power. Aludel Elixir with a VCP monitor click plugged into slot 1 I wired up a 6V solar panel through the VCP click, though I would do better with a 12V panel; the click can handle up to 36V relative to its ground and the high voltage regulator is rated for 5.5V to 40V on the Elixir. That means we only are really charging the system with this particular panel in full sun, and there’s no real notion of MPPT or other energy harvesting. The panel is plugged into the “supply” terminal block inputs of the click, and the “load” terminal block…