Design and implementation of an indoors light simulator

PV cells are a technology of choice for powering outdoor energy autonomous IoT systems. Despite an early start, indoor PV cells are not so prominent in powering indoor IoT nodes. Microelectronic technology and power management advancements have decreased the power consumption of modern IoT devices down to the microwatts scale. Such low power requirements can be fulfilled in indoor environments -even with low light irradiance-by utilizing specialized PV cells. This has created the need for rigid PV cell validation in representative low light conditions. In this paper we investigate the design of a light simulator using low-cost LED components. We propose a process to determine the number and positions of the LEDs in order to fulfill intensity and uniformity requirements. We propose a simple simulation model that allows the three-dimensional representation of the angular intensity distribution of an LED. Based on the study and the conclusions drawn, a low-cost simulator is built and demonstrated.