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  • Yes, a voltage regulator would be great - but depending on the regulator they do draw some extra current, so it's worth making sure you get an efficient one.

    You could also look at getting a proper charge controller. I'm pretty sure I've seen some simple boards that'll charge a LiPo battery from a solar cell properly and provide a flat 3.3v output.

    I believe charging batteries like NiMH with a low current trickle charge is absolutely fine - perhaps not ideal, but especially as it's only happening for half the day it should be ok. You could even add some code to Puck.js that would occasionally do some heavy calculations to partially flatten the battery :)

    It looks like there could be issues with trickle-charging LiPo though, but again, partially flattening it occasionally will probably help a lot. If you're after the longest life, probably the best solution is to use a supercapacitor as even well cared for rechargeables won't be looking great after 10 years.

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