The NiMH solar rechargers saga continues….

The one thing holding me up on doing the tutorials for the rechargeable NiMH circuits is the global semiconductor shortage.

location for the LM317LZG to-92 package – no room for the larger T0-220 package

The AAA recharger version doesn’t have much room and so needs to use the TO-92 version of the LM317 voltage regulator. As you can see, there’s not enough room for the larger TO-220 package

Here’s what the TO-92 package looks like:

TO-92 package

I ordered a bunch from Farnell and was initially given a delivery date of Dec 17th (2021) but, as the day approached, it shifted to Dec 26th… then Jan 7th, then Jan 21st, then Jan 31st and it’s now at Feb 7th.

So I’ve ordered some from ebay and when they arrive (tomorrow?) I’ll cancel the order with Farnell.

I’m not happy about the delay but I have managed to make progress with other projects while I’ve been waiting.

The prototype solar tracker is now in its final version and I’ve been playing with some 1W warm white LEDs to use with the batteries it’ll charge. That way I can use them in place of some of my mains-powered lighting, helping a little to reduce my carbon footprint – and save money on electricity bills at the same time. Nice!

Watch for blog posts about them both.