Solar Powered USB Charger

Problem

There is a lack to access to electricity in Senegal, Africa. In a tech arts class, the assignment was to design and develop an enclosure for a solar powered USB charger to be donated to schools in Senegal, Africa.

Objective

Given the electical components and setup, the goal was to design and create a Solar powered USB Charger enclosure and assembly.

Skills Employed

• Arduino
• Sketchup
• 3D Printing

Approach

Essentially:

• Our teacher gave us guidelines to make the actual electronic part, then we would design our own enclosure.
• I used sketchup to design a simple, robust enclosure - which was then 3D printed using the FDM printers.
• I setup my Arduino components and tested all electrical components.
• Assembled all components together.

Figure 2. 3D CAD model using Sketchup of the casing

Figure 3. Arduino setup with the lights turning on.

Results

The enclosure and charger was successfully fabricated and was sent for donation!