Hi,

I just wanted to introduce myself and our open-source project SolarNetwork. We collect data from kWh meters, solar inverters, solar charge controllers, industrial switches, weather sources and other items. We really like the look of the Orange Pi zero as a SolarNode target board - that is our client software application.  Anyway here is a recent post about how we are using SolarNode to collect data from a thermopile pyranometer using our generic Modbus Device plugin:

http://solarnetwork.net/v4/testing-the-modbus-device-plugin/

Thanks! John

I made this script for arduino uno, you connect  a battery + to pin a0 and - to gnd and it tells you the battery percent left if you want to check your solar charged battery level:

int lowest_level=1024;
int read_battery_level=0;
int battery_percent=100;
int temp_math=0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop(){
read_battery_level=analogRead(A0);
if(read_battery_level<lowest_level){
lowest_level=read_battery_level;
temp_math=int(String(read_battery_level/1024.0).indexOf('.'));
if(int(read_battery_level/1024)!=1){
Serial.println(String(read_battery_level/1024.0).substring(2,4) + "%");
battery_percent=String(read_battery_level/1024.0).substring(2,4).toInt();
}else{
Serial.println("100%");
battery_percent=100;
}
}
}

Hi that is good, I put a panel that collects about 10v on top of my car with a wire that goes into the radio din if I ever need it. If you want some of the source code I am writing it is all here: https://rpguy.weebly.com/

Right now I am writing an operating system graphics library in flash that will be a quick port when I write it in c because it goes through each pixel one by one.

So far you can draw basic shapes and swap there depths and move the shapes around its a big process going through each pixel, next I will add alpha support and rotation and its ready to port after that to be used as an os.

OK Cool - I don't know enough about flash and c but gathering data from solar panels often involves parsing data from serial device connections so less low level than what you are doing.

Well the thermopile in the picture kind of looks like a ufo that's what I have to say about it and speaking of rs485 I bought this rs232 connector that I thought was a vga cable to bring color video to the orange pi zero but no its missing like one whole row of pins -.-