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From: root@raider.MFEE.TN.US (Bob Reineri)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Light Duration Meter
Message-ID: <102@raider.MFEE.TN.US>
Date: 7 Apr 89 02:08:07 GMT
Organization: RaiderNet Public Access (Node 2) Murfreesboro, TN.
Lines: 22

I've recently planted our first garden, and being the computer nut that I am,
love to keep records. The rainfall and temperature are easy enough to get. The
other item I would like to track is the amount of sunlight the garden gets on
a daily basis. I am entering all this into a database so I'll have something
to ponder over the next winter.

Does anyone have any ideas on what might be a suitable circuit for this applic-
ation ? Many moons ago, I was a bench tech, but am now in the software end of 
it, and the hardware is somewhat foggy. 

I do have one idea: Perhaps a solar cell, connected thru an RC network, that
would charge up a capacitor to a given voltage, depending on the amount of
sunlight received over the course of a day. Then I could somehow measure the 
charge on the cap at the end of the day. Just a thought....

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Bob
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