Another busy day today. I have almost all the software setup, and I’ve prepared a list to delete a few of the programs which aren’t necessary or aren’t up to snuff. The rains that came yesterday thankfully left pretty quickly today, and we didn’t have the same flooding that parts of India and parts of Western Nepal did.
Looking at the solar panel we bought yesterday, it’s an 18V, 1.11 amp solar panel which provides 20W peak output. We’ll have this hooked up to the car battery through a solar charge controller, with the solar panel hooked up to the “load” terminals on the controller itself — not up to the battery.
If my understanding of this controller is correct, the “load” terminals have a steady 12V output, the controller prevents any 15V+ spikes that would ruin the computers. Even without sunlight powering the photovoltaic cells, the charge controller will drain the battery to power whatever is hooked up to “Load”. This is the ideal setup: if you want to run the computers but the battery is drained, it can run straight off the solar panel. If you want to run the computers but there is no sunlight, the battery will handle the electricity. Regardless of which energy source you use, the controller regulates the output so that we don’t get any power spikes which will fry the motherboards (note the fuse).
Other than that, it’s the same busy schedule: spend most of the day working, then spend a few minutes taking photos or timelapses after work. I started a time lapse and then went to meet Nani’s cousin’s family for dinner. We ate a lot of excellent food, as always. When I returned to where I had left my camera, it had stopped after only taking ~60 photos, which is about two seconds of footage. I assume it was a problem with the auto exposure meter not being able to handle such a dark scene (it was around 9:00PM or so by this time, pitch black) so it stopped taking photos. It’s a real shame, as I think it was an interesting scene: I’ll try and take a similar one tomorrow.
Click to see the 720p HD timelapse.
That’s all for now.
Charles
I was born in London, England. At the age of ten, I moved to Hong Kong, which opened up a whole new part of the world: Asia. Since then, I have enjoyed traveling to different locales around the world. Having graduated from High School, I am taking a gap year to work on a computer project in Nepal, and later a cultural immersion trip in Ghana. This is the blog I am using to keep the world notified. 
Love those time lapse’s from your roof! Also, I’ve made reading your updates part of my evening schedule. Thanks for being so prolific.