Design and Implementation of a Microcontroller Based

12V-7A/10A Smart Solar Battery Charge Controller

A.S.M. Jiaul Hoque1*, Sheik Md. Kazi Nazrul Islam1,2, Md. Abubakar Siddik1, Sabbir Ahamed1
1

University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS), Dhaka-1212, Bangladesh

2
University of Wollongong, Australia
*venus4erros@gmail.com

Abstract In this study, a microcontroller based solar powered lead battery charge controller with efficient solar panel and some physical LEDs which can significantly states the condition of the battery and the whole circuit is developed. It comprise of using microcontroller based charging algorithms. This project can be divided
into two main parts: hardware and software development. The hardware development includes, solar panel connection, charging and control circuit. The software development include, microcontroller programming technique, controller algorithms, Proteus analysis etc. A 12V-7A/10A DC battery charges frequently by the sun in
the day and discharges in the night. The whole charging and discharging process automatically controlled by the
preprogrammed microcontroller 12F675.The higher cut off voltage of the battery is set as 13.8V and the lower
cut off voltage is set as 9V by the microcontroller coding for the battery and load safety. There are 2 output load
connector of +6V and +12V connectivity. Using a 5W solar panel it took 6 hours to complete charging of a 12V
generic lead acid battery. A simple 12V LED light is used as load output and the circuit gave 1.2A rated current
and last longer than 4 hours. The blinking of LED indicates the battery states and even the short circuit condition or overload condition of the circuit. The circuit can operate at a maximum current of 22A at the room temperature with power MOSFET IRF540. Proteus ISIS 7.7 is used for system design and simulation, and CCS
professional Edition (software) is used to write the program code and burning the microcontroller 12F675. Finally, Proteus ARES 7.7 is used to design the printed circuit board (PCB), for practical implementation.
Keywords Microcontroller, Charge Controller, Solar Energy, Proteus, Code Controller Studio (CCS)
I. INTRODUCTION

Photovoltaic power systems, a promising source

of energy for the future, are actually solar panels
referred by the industry as solar electric modules or
PV modules. The modules can be wired as series or
parallel arrays to produce higher voltages and currents. In general, standalone PV system also known
as off grid system consists of a PV array which
converts sunlight to direct-current electricity, a
control system which regulates battery charging,
discharging and operation of the load, energy storage in the form of secondary batteries and loads or
appliances. A charge controller is one of functional
major components in PV systems which is used to
maintain the proper charging voltage on the batteries. The charge controller regulates the charge to
the batteries preventing any overcharging. So a
good, solid and reliable PV charge controller is a
key component of any PV battery charging system
to achieve systems maximum efficiency.
Currently there are some analogue solar
battery charge controller in the industry which has
no overcharging protector feature and thus the battery damages quickly. There is no voltage level or
charging LED indicator and no short circuit/overload protector is present. People want
smarter artificial intelligence which will work au-

tomatically. This is possible through the technology

called microprocessor or microcontroller based
system.
The application of microcontroller based
devices are continuing to rise with its greater
processing speed and flexible control; and the electrical appliances are getting more miniaturized, less
costly and low power consuming. Microcontrollers
reduces the number of chips and the amount of
wiring and circuit board space, which is useful to
produce equivalent systems using separate chips.
Furthermore, each pin of a microcontroller interfaces several internal peripherals, with the pin
function selected by software. This allows a wider
variety of applications than single specific functions.
This project implements, designing and
controlling of a digital solar battery charge controller which will automatically ON/OFF on the preprogrammed voltage levels in the microcontroller
which will be helpful to get rid of overcharging,
set as upper cut off voltage at 13.8V and lower cut
off voltage at 9V. The battery becomes damaged by
over charging and the load becomes unstable at low
voltages. There will be two output as load which
are +12V and +6V. Any rated voltage device within this range may be used as load. The circuit will
also perform short circuit and overload protection.

II. CIRCUIT COMPONENTS & DIAGRAM

A microcontroller PIC12F675 is used as the central
unit of the system. Two LED (Light Emitting Diode) is used to sense the status of two different
voltage levels.
Table 1 Components of the system

Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the system

III. CIRCUIT DESIGN & CODING
3.1. DC input and Battery charging section

A power supply with solar panel or DC voltage

source is constructed to establish a dc voltage of
+12V to provide necessary biasing of microcontroller and other circuitry. Two LED (red) are connected with the +12V terminal. Here, one red LED
(D1) is showing the status of the battery and the
other (D4) showing the charging or discharging
state of the battery. Two output voltage of +12V &
+6V are exist as it is sometimes necessary to have
different voltage levels for our home appliances.
The LED (D1) blinks fast when the charge is full
and vice versa it blinks slowly when the battery
voltage is low. It gives a clear view of the charging
state of the battery. Another LED (green) is connected as the output of +6V. When the +12V output is available then the +6V LED will automatically blink as load. The two red LED are directly
connected with the microcontroller. The output
terminals are shown as J2 for +12V and J3 for +6V.
J1 is defined as the input from solar panel or DC
voltage source. The whole circuit diagram and
schematic diagram are shown in the Figure1&2.

Figure 1: Circuit diagram of the System

A solar panel or a DC voltage Source can be used

as +12V dc power supply. A pin from microcontroller is connected to L7805 through R5 and
another line is connected through capacitor C1
from battery to solar panel. Another capacitor C2 is
connected to the microcontroller and to L7805. A
diode D1 is connected with L7805 and to pin2 of
microcontroller. The capacitor C1 and C2 both are
connected to the solar panel for storing charge to
the battery. A resistor RV1 is connected to capacitor to restrict extra flow of charge to from solar
panel battery. Another pin of microcontroller is
connected to MOSFET (Q1).
3.2. DC-DC converter and the load side
The DC-DC converter consists of the power circuit
and the control circuit, for the power conversion. In
the power circuit, the switching transistor (MOSFET is mainly used due to the high speed switching
requirement) switches the input DC voltage according to the drive signal from the control circuit, and
then supplies the AC voltage to the transformer.
The transformer changes the AC voltage, and rectifies it through the diodes. In the smoothing circuit,
the on-off DC voltage after the rectification is
smoothed, and it is then changed in the auxiliary
battery. The control circuit controls the output voltage to output the specified voltage even in case
there is a disturbed change in the main battery voltage. However, the auxiliary battery requires a precise voltage charge to it. Since the voltage drop not
negligible, the terminal voltage of the auxiliary
battery is detected directly, and then the output
voltage is controlled so that the voltage at the auxiliary battery terminal reaches the specified value.
This is known as "battery sensing control". In this
case, the sensing point is switched from the auxiliary battery terminal to the output terminal of the
DC/DC converter. This is known as "converter

sensing control" or "local control. In figure 3 the

main portion of the circuit is shown. Here the +12V
output terminal is referred as J2. Another output
terminal of +6V is referred as J3. A DC-DC converter named MC34063A is referred as U3. From
the figure, a connection is made from the pin6 of
MC34063A to the microcontroller PIC12F675
through L7805. A diode D5 is connected to inductor L1 from the DC-DC converter. The DC-DC
converter switches the MOSFET (Q1) to the DC
voltage supply according to the signal of microcontroller. A MOSFET (Q2) is connected to the output
terminal. It is because, when the MOSFET get
pulse from the converter it acts as switching device
and then drive the DC voltage to the load.

3.4. Programming the Microcontroller 12F675

(using CCS)
The 12F675 uses the built in feature EEPROM
which erases the written program inside of microcontroller, without ultraviolet light. The software
CCS professional edition is used to write the
program for 12F675 and the following steps are
followed.
Step 1: Using the software CCS professional edition, the program is typed; then it is compiled and
after being successful, a HEX file is generated. The
HEX file is generation is shown in Figure 5.
Step 2: Using the software the chip signature is
checked which ensures the chip and using the EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable readonly memory) feature of 12F675 the microcontroller is erased.

Figure 3: DC-DC converter with load side

3.3. Input side and Output load side
When the solar panel or DC voltage source will
plug in with the battery, it will charge the battery
and D4 will show the charging status. When the
battery will be fully charged D1 will show the status and the microcontroller (PIC12F675) will send
the logic to the MOSFET to get switched on. Then
the charge will start to flow to the output terminal
(+12V, J2) through the MOSFET. Then the connected load will be in on state. The load will
work until the battery discharges. When the battery
voltage continues to discharge, the connected load
will gradually come to the off state. When the
battery voltage will decrease under +9V, the connected load will be completely disconnected, then
the MOSFET will also be switched off. Similar
case continued when the load will be connected to
+6V, J3 terminal.

Figure 4: Input and output section

Figure 5: writing microcontroller coding in CCS

Figure 6: Burning the Microcontroller by

entering the program code
IV.

RESULT & DISCUSSION

The objective of the project was to make a device

that will control the voltage automatically without
changing current. That means the device will keep
the current at a constant value. When the voltage
will be charged over +13.8V then the battery will
be automatically disconnected from the microcontroller through MOSFET (Q2). That means the
MOSFET will be switched off. When the battery
voltage will be less than +9V then the battery will
reconnect to the solar panel through switching
MOSFET (Q2). Two LEDs shows the charging
status. It should be mentioned that when the voltage level is less than +9V then the load will be

automatically disconnected from the battery and if

panel voltage is present there, it will start charging
again.
4.1. Proteus ISIS 7.7 Simulation result
The output simulation result using Proteus ISIS 7.7
for Lower and Upper cut off voltage are shown in
figure 7 & 8.

Figure 9: Pressing the ARES tab of ISIS

toolbar for PCB design

Figure 7: Lower cutoff voltage (discharging state)

<9V

Figure 10: Proteus ARES ISIS 7.7 for PCB

design layout

Figure 8: Upper cutoff voltage (charging state)

>13.8V
4.2 Design of Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
To precede the design of PCB, the ARES tab of the
Proteus ISSI toolbar is pressed and the total circuit
components, their values and their information of
interconnection are transferred to the Proteus
ARES. The component tab is pressed to move in
component mode and PCB designing is used from
the list of components at left column. Design rules
of the Proteus ARES for PCB design are shown in
Figure 9, 10 & 11.

Figure 11: Proteus ARES ISIS 7.7 (upper view)

4.3 View of Practically Implemented System
The completed printed circuit board (PCB) design
is printed on a tracing paper and fabricated on an
insulating material for integrating the system components. The view of practically implemented system is shown in Figure 12 & 13.

Figure 12: +12V DC fan operating as load

connected with DC power supply

Figure 13: Load is disconnected at lower

cut off voltage and battery starts charging
A general comparison between the previous technology and the implemented project is shown in
Table 2.
Table 2: Comparison with previous work

troller has been made successfully. The total system is automated, intelligent and controlled to its
operation. Three LED's shows the battery state,
overload or short circuit condition. The circuit can
handle maximum 22A of current for load using
high efficient power MOSFET (IRF540). Silver
coated heat sink is used attached with the MOSFET
(IRF540) as these kind of circuit runs all through
the day in outside with heavy humidity and little
risk of burn protection. The circuit is very light and
thin which assures it as a portable device. The total
system is integrated compactly in a PCB board and
very chip microcontroller is used which makes it
customer demanding rather than any other product
of the market.
Further works may be focused on controlling and
monitoring the voltage levels by using a LCD display and a buzzer may add for low voltage, higher
voltage, and short circuit or over load detection.

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V.

CONCLUSION

An automated (artificially intelligent) microcontroller based solar battery 12V-7A/10A charge con-

[12] Firoze A. Siddiqui1 and Mark Ellery "Micro Power

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