Solar: Microcontroller Basics

I sucessfully powered an Arudino with a solar panel. I hooked up wires to the barrel of one of the panels in the solar cart. Then, I pressed the on button for the power strip powering the grow light.

However, I tried to give power to a circuit from my PComp final last semester, but it did not seem to power the LCD screen nor its animation.

I noticed in the video directly above that the screen did turn on but the animation did not trigger. This same circuit works when powered normally from a power box and USB-C to USB-micro cord.

I measured the voltage of the solar panel into the microcontroller. The multimeter showed 6 Volts.

I tried measuring current (without shorting the panel, I did not want to break it), but I had no luck/success in doing so. I forgot to use the USB Reader from the shop and did not remember that until I was home. I could try using that some time in the near future to get a good reading from the panel and microcontroller.

I plan to work on my solar project with Surya and Will. I feel good between the three of us that we can measure power and come up with a great project together.

We want to do something based on LoRa radio communication and explore low power communication.