LowPowerLab Forum

Hardware support => Low Power Techniques => Topic started by: pjeran on February 07, 2017, 08:54:54 PM

Title: Has anyone looked at the LTC3106 energy/solar harvester?
Post by: pjeran on February 07, 2017, 08:54:54 PM
I am looking at building some solar powered nodes with a battery back up and came across this part.

http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/datasheet/3106f.pdf

dual input buck/boost system with MPPT capability and supports using multiple battery chemistries for power back up when the sun is down.

Looks like a very nice option for solar remote systems.

Any thoughts?

Paul
Title: Re: Has anyone looked at the LTC3106?
Post by: WhiteHare on February 07, 2017, 10:06:11 PM
I built a breakout board for the LTC3105 (see attached photo), which shares some similarities to the LTC3106.  However, neither it nor the LTC3106 actually do MPPT.  If you read the datasheet more carefully, they refer to their method as Maximum Power Point Control (MPPC), which is not really the same as MPPT.  The only chip I'm aware of that actually does do MPPT is the BQ25504 (see https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/projects/a-solar-supercap-powered-moteino/msg17833/#msg17833)
Title: Re: Has anyone looked at the LTC3106?
Post by: Felix on February 08, 2017, 11:59:46 AM
WhiteHare - how's your LTC3105 harvester working so far?
What battery do you use with it?

Also just saw your other supercap solar powered moteino (https://lowpowerlab.com/forum/projects/a-solar-supercap-powered-moteino/) thread, cool!
Title: Re: Has anyone looked at the LTC3106?
Post by: WhiteHare on February 08, 2017, 01:17:56 PM
Quote from: Felix on February 08, 2017, 11:59:46 AM
WhiteHare - how's your LTC3105 harvester working so far?
What battery do you use with it?

It works, but I haven't played around with it very much.  I think that's because by the time I finally made it I was already fairly deep into the BQ25504.  If you'd like to try the LTC3105 breakout I made, I'd be happy to ship it to you as some "give back" for the nice forum you have here.
Title: Re: Has anyone looked at the LTC3106?
Post by: Felix on February 08, 2017, 01:40:21 PM
Quote from: WhiteHare on February 08, 2017, 01:17:56 PM
It works, but I haven't played around with it very much.  I think that's because by the time I finally made it I was already fairly deep into the BQ25504.  If you'd like to try the LTC3105 breakout I made, I'd be happy to ship it to you as some "give back" for the nice forum you have here.

Thanks for the offer - I think i'll let you keep it since I am too busy and can't promise I will have a chance to play with it really soon.
The forum is quite decent because folks like you come back and share your research and projects, so thanks back :)
Title: Re: Has anyone looked at the LTC3106 energy/solar harvester?
Post by: frippe75 on April 08, 2017, 01:48:08 AM
After a lot of googling around I'm also torn on bq25504 or LTC3106.

My requirements are:
-mppt for really small solar panel voltages (bq25504)
-charging of LIPO's (I guess both)
-battery backup switch on threshold (LTC3106)

Why cant I have both :-) ?

LTC4419 from Linear seems to be a nice fit for pairing with the bq25504.
Any other combinations with the featurelist above?

But would rather stays in a single package for cost and pcb real-estate reasons..