Being at one of my BOL's for the majority of the summer has led to some great experimentation opportunities.
One of them being working with my small scale solar setup.
Here I have my Goal Zero Torch250 charging up the weather alert radio. It works great as a flashlight/lantern as well as a battery pack, but the solar panel built into it takes a really long time in full sun to charge the battery back to full.
To the right of that, I have a folding 12volt 10 watt solar panel powering my Xtar VC4 battery charger. The panel does a great job in medium to full sun. I'm actually impressed with its perfomance inindirect sunlight. The panel provides either 12 volts via battery clamps (not shown) or a usb adaptor. The VC4 is drawing from the usb adaptor and will charge a really wide variety of batteries either NIMH or LiON. It charges every rechargeable battery I use with the exception of 9volt, which I am phasing out anyways. AA, AAA, or 18650 are my go to sizes now.
I also have a small 7AH 12 volt AGM, which I use this panel to charge with an inexpensive charge controler.
This was taken a few minutes ago...ignore the time stamp from the camera...I haven't set it properly.
Been also playing around with solar panels on a small scale for a few years.
Going to be buying about 300 to 400 watts worth this year or next .
The panels are reasonable cheap now compared to years ago.
The question I keep asking my self is do I get the nice thin ones (expensive) or the framed ones that are heavy and cumbersome.
Cost verses mobility.
leaning towards waiting for a year and getting the thin ones.
Being at one of my BOL's for the majority of the summer has led to some great experimentation opportunities.
One of them being working with my small scale solar setup.
DSCF0391.JPG
Here I have my Goal Zero Torch250 charging up the weather alert radio. It works great as a flashlight/lantern as well as a battery pack, but the solar panel built into it takes a really long time in full sun to charge the battery back to full.
To the right of that, I have a folding 12volt 10 watt solar panel powering my Xtar VC4 battery charger. The panel does a great job in medium to full sun. I'm actually impressed with its perfomance inindirect sunlight. The panel provides either 12 volts via battery clamps (not shown) or a usb adaptor. The VC4 is drawing from the usb adaptor and will charge a really wide variety of batteries either NIMH or LiON. It charges every rechargeable battery I use with the exception of 9volt, which I am phasing out anyways. AA, AAA, or 18650 are my go to sizes now.
I also have a small 7AH 12 volt AGM, which I use this panel to charge with an inexpensive charge controler.
This was taken a few minutes ago...ignore the time stamp from the camera...I haven't set it properly.
Question, if in full sun, what is your best guess on the time it takes to get a full charge on the units displayed in the photo?
I'll try to do that test in the next day or 2...results to come.
