Solar Shrub by mikesoniat

太阳能盆栽

原文链接：http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Shrub/?ALLSTEPS
原作：Mike Soniat

译者：Kalimov

I'm a solar energy advocate, tinkerer, and enthusiast, but let's face it; solar panels are ugly!
洒家乃一名太阳能提倡者和狂热者，鼓捣小玩意的。但面对这个事实吧，太阳能板“吃欧丑”、“勒欧陋”！

Flat, rectangular panels can only be arranged in so many ways and always look industrial, boring, and out of place. So I decided to build a functional, but more aesthetically pleasing version of a USB solar charger.
平面、巨型的太阳能板能以多种方法整合在一起，看起来总是工业风、呆板的，还占地。于是我打算做一个具备功能的，但更具美学的USB太阳能充电器。

I call my creation the "Solar Shrub". It's designed to resemble a round-leafed plant in a flower pot, but unlike a real plant, this one can charge my iPod, iPhone, and any other USB chargeable device!
我将其称为太阳能盆栽。它设计为在花盆里的类似圆形叶片的植物，但不同真的植物，这个能为我的iPod、iPhone和其他USB设备充电。

I used eight 1.5 Volt round solar cells (leaves) attached to shrink-wrapped wires and clothes hangers (stems) to create an array capable of producing 5 Volts at about 300mA. I wired two sets of four cells in series (to get the voltage) and then wired the two arrays together in parallel (to get the current). I stabilized the power by building a 5 Volt Regulator circuit, then added an on/off switch, power LED, and female USB connector.
我用了8块1.5伏圆形太阳能电池（叶片），加上热缩管封装的导线和衣架（作为茎部），做了个5伏约300毫安的电源阵列。我将两组各4块电池串联（得到所需电压），然后再把这样两个阵列并联起来（得到所需电流）。为了稳压，我做了个5伏稳压电路，然后加上开关、电源LED和USB插座。

Now you can build one too! Just follow these instructions, then put it in sunlight, flip the toggle switch, and plug in your favorite USB device!
只需跟着这些教程，你也能做出一个！然后把它放在阳光下，拨开关，接上USB设备充电吧！

Step 1: Materials and Tools Used

一、使用材料和工具

Materials for Power Circuit:
电源电路所需材料：

1 - 7805 Voltage Regulator (Radio Shack #276-1770)
1 - Heat sink for the 7805 (Radio Shack #276-1368)
1 - Hea sink mounting hardware(Radio Shack #276-1373)
1 - Red LED(Radio Shack #276-041)
1 - SPST mini toggle switch(Radio Shack #275-0324)
1 - 22uf capacitor(Radio Shack #272-1026)
1 - .01uf capacitor(Radio Shack #272-1065)
1 - 220 ohm resistor(Radio Shack #271-1313)
1 - 4.7k ohm resistor(Radio Shack #271-1124)
1 - 3.3k ohm resistor(Radio Shack #271-1122)
1 - USB extension cable (Male to Female)
1 - Blocking Diode (1N4001)(Radio Shack #276-1101)
1 - Round Proto Board (Radio Shack #276-004)

7805稳压器及散热器、散热支架
红色LED
SPST迷你滑动开关
22微法电容
0.01微法电容
220欧电阻
4.7千欧电阻
3.3千欧电阻
USB延长线
整流二极管（1N4001）
圆型开发板
以上元件各需一个。

Materials for Leaves and Stems:
叶片和茎部需要的材料：

8 - Round solar cells (hacked from solar garden lights) (Lowe's #379421)
8 - Wire clothes hangers
1 - Roll each of red and black 22 AWG wire (Radio Shack #278-1224)
2 - Pkgs of assorted shrink wrap (Radio Shack #278-1610)
10 - Small wire ties
1 - Can green spray paint

8片太阳能板（从太阳能花园灯上拆下来）
8根晾衣架铁丝
22码导线，红色和黑色各一卷
2包各种热缩管
10条电线扎带
1罐绿色喷漆

Misc Materials:
其他材料：

1 - 6" Clay Plastic Self-Watering flower pot (Lowe's #285869)
2 - Metal angle brackets
1 - CD
2 - Plastic standoffs(Radio Shack #276-1381)
1个6英寸陶土外表塑料自灌溉花盆
2个金属角铁架子
1张CD光盘
2根压铆螺母柱

Tools:
工具：

Soldering Iron
Solder
Wire strippers
Side cutters
Dremel
电烙铁
焊锡
剥线钳
裁边剪
角磨机

Step 2: Building the Power Circuit

二、制作电源电路

Most USB devices will charge with 5 Volts and ground delivered on the red and black wires of the USB connector. As I learned from Adafruit's wonderful video at (http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/08/03/the-mysteries-of-apple-device-charging-video/), Apple devices won't. You have to trick them by providing specific voltages on the other two wires. In this case, I'm sending approximately 2 Volts on the green and yellow data wires.
大多数USB设备用在USB接头里的红黑导线——5伏和接地线充电。但是我从Adafruit的视频教程中得知，苹果设备则不。你只能在另外两条导线上提供特定的电压来瞒过系统。在这种情况下，我在绿色和黄色数据线上送出约2伏电压。

I used a round proto board to go with the round theme of the project, but you can just as easily use a square, boring board. I also decided to use jumper wires for the switch and LED so I could easily disconnect them from the circuit board after they were mounted to the flower pot. (What a strange sounding sentence.) You could just as easily hard-wire them to the board.

The circuit is a simple one based on the 7805 5 Volt Regulator with supporting components and a voltage divider to supply the 2 Volts mentioned above.

Assembly:

1. Solder the red wire (this will eventually connect to the positive terminal of the cell array) to the circuit board and to one side of a double-pin plug (for the power switch).
2. Solder in another double-pin plug for the LED and attach it to the open pin of the first plug.
3. Solder in the 220 ohm resistor, which connects the LED plug to ground.
4. Solder in the two capacitors. C1 is polarized so be sure to configure it correctly.
5. Solder in the voltage regulator.
6. Solder in the two resistors, which make up the voltage divider circuit.
7. Cut the USB cable about 6-8 inches from the female end and strip away the insulation and shielding
8. Attach the four wires of the USB cable to the circuit board.
9. Attach the black (GND) wire and create a "ground bus" across the back of the circuit board to link all components.
10. Solder jumper wires w/ female connectors to the switch and LED. Remember to slide some shrink wrap onto the wires before soldering. I've found it's really hard to get it on there afterward!
11. Test the circuit. I like to test things as I go along instead of waiting until the thing is all together. So I attached a 9 Volt battery to the red and black wires and tested the circuit with my iPod. Success!!!
    Step 3: Assembling the Base

Picture of Assembling the Base
The base of the Solar Shrub is, of course, a flower pot. I drilled holes for the switch and LED and cut out a slot for the female USB connector. In order to attach the USB connector to the base, I built a mount using a couple of angle brackets, some double-sided tape, and a tie wrap. I added 2 holes to the base to accommodate the nuts and bolts that hold the connector into place.

I wanted the electronics to be somewhat protected from the elements so I decided to use a CD as kind of a false floor. I mounted the circuit board (upside down) to the bottom of the CD using plastic standoffs. The red and black wire that connect the circuit board to the solar array pass through the center hole of the CD. I also added felt strips around the base to support the CD.

I drilled two more holes in the CD so I could later mount the leaves and stems to the top of it.
Step 4: Hacking the Garden Lights

Picture of Hacking the Garden Lights
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The next step is to extract the solar cells from the garden lights. I found that most solar garden lights at my local retailers had square cells. I had to look around quite a bit to find round ones. I bought these at Lowes for around $3.25 each.

They were pretty easy to disassemble:

1. Remove the battery
2. Take out three screws
3. Cut a few wires
4. Pry the cells loose from underneath.

I did this 8 times, of course.

I tested each cell under load to make sure it provided approximately 1.5 Volts.
Step 5: Building the Leaves and Stems

Picture of Building the Leaves and Stems
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I cut various lengths of red and black wire between 6" and 10" and soldered them onto the 8 cells. Then, I slid 3.0mm shrink wrap over the wires and pushed in a length of clothes hanger wire to reinforce the stems. Once I had all 8 stems together, I spray painted them a nice shade of green (being careful to avoid the tops of the cells).
Step 6: Attaching Stems to the Base

Picture of Attaching Stems to the Base
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The self-watering flower pot came with a plastic insert that has holes which are spaced out perfectly for the Solar Shrub. So I bent the end of each stem, about an inch from the bottom, to 90 degrees and pushed them through the holes. Then I tie wrapped the hanger ends together to separate and stabilize them.

After I had all of the stems mounted, I wired the cells together in a series-parallel circuit as shown in the schematic. Then, I added a blocking diode to the positive (red) lead. This prevents reverse current through the cells when there is no sun light.
Step 7: Putting it all Together

Picture of Putting it all Together
Show All 7 Items
The last steps are to connect the output wires from the solar array to the red and black power leads on the circuit board, mount the plastic insert to the top of the CD (using 6/32 screws and nuts) and then take the Solar Shrub outside for a test.

The stems are rigid enough (thanks to the 22 AWG wire and the clothes hangers) that you can bend them into any arrangement you like. You can also tilt the cells in any direction you wish; toward the sun for example.

As you can see from the final photo below, IT WORKS!!! I'm now able to charge my iPod, iPhone, and other USB powered devices while enjoying the sunshine!