The Zero Volt Diode (ZVD) is a circuit useful in a variety of applications including solar chargers of all types. It is a novel circuit in which a power MOSFET acts like a very low voltage drop diode that switches state at 0V and which is used to conduct negative current from drain to source. In D1 type solar engines, a low loss diode can be used
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to charge a cap to the open circuit voltage of the solar cell and used in solar battery chargers, the battery is charged at the maximum rate when the source voltage is highest. The diode must be used in series with the solar panel or else the cap or battery would discharge through the solar panel when the panel voltage drops below the stored voltage. The diode or equivalent polarity sensitive switch is therefore essential to solar chargers. Most diodes used in BEAM SEs and solar chargers are Silicon diodes like the 1N4001 which have a voltage drop of 0. 6V to 1V at currents up to 1A. More efficient diodes for currents form >100mA to tens of amps applications are the Schottky type rectifiers with a voltage drop of from 200mV to 1000mV depending on the current level. For <100mA applications a Germanium diode can used with 200mV or less drop. This voltage drop issue is important in competition solar engines since you would like to have the maximum voltage to charge the cap and supply the load (low diode drop) and keep the charge stored on the cap when the lightlevel drops (leakage current cut off) and the SE triggers. Moreover, since the energy in the cap is proportional to the square of the voltage even the small voltage drop of a diode reduces available energy. One obvious simple improvement over the original D1 design is to substitute a Ge 1N34A diode (Radio Shack) instead of the Si 1N4001 diode. An ideal diode would have...
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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