I have been searching for a while but I cant seem to find a topic that explains the thing I need to know… Please bear with me, I am a noob in electronics.
Here’s what I want to build (build not buy, I like me a fun project): I want to hook my Nitecore i4 up to a solar panel, so that I can charge my 18650’s and AA’s off grid when
the power goes down. And again, if I am making no sense at all I have almost no experience in electronics: I figured that the i4 has a 12v 1A DC input and I found a 12v 20W solar panel on ebay
for a descent price. 12v and 20W comes down to 1,66A wich is higher then the 1A input of the i4. Would this be a problem? And can I just hook the panel up to the i4 or do I need some sort of
charge regulator or converter?
Thanks in advance for any help and I will report my progress in this topic.
Solar panels normally have high open circuit voltage (~18V), this is the voltage without any load, measured with a DMM. Depending on the load of your i4 it then comes down to 12V.
Can’t say for sure if the voltage will be too high or not when in idle, the only way to know is testing it. But in my opinion it should work just fine, people have been direct wiring 12V equipment to solar panels since forever and even to various types of batteries. A charge controller is most needed when you connect a battery to the panel in a non-portable setup, in this case I don’t think it will be necessary.
The main problem I see is how will the i4 manage power interruptions, let’s say your panel gets partially shaded and drops its output, will the i4 restart the charge immediately or will it take a while? and will it continue charging at the same current after a restart? Again the only way to know is by testing it.
Also keep in mind that a 20W rated panel puts out 20W only in perfect conditions: no clouds, no shades and the panel placed perpendicular to the sun. Even a tiny bit of shade over the panel will make it drop the output considerably, so its a good idea to go with a bigger panel.
Your best saving up for the biggest panel you can afford and buying a solar charge controller to hook up to the panel and a deep cycle battery and your set basically its better to charge from a battery it will give you constant voltage and current and I recommend the charge controller because many of them have USB ports build in for ease of use and you can wire up 12 volt mains appliances to the controller and it regulates the voltage… If you want to run AC you will need an inverter…
Running a 12 volt appliance @ 18 volts will wear it out very quick and some panels produce high amps that is another issue
I will be going with 2 12v 15w panels (30 euro’s total) and wire them parallel with a diode so I have a 12v 30W setup.
Hopefully this will work directly with the i4 as it has plenty of wattage to handle clouds. (of course a full shade will stop the charging…)
I am going to test if this works and if it doesnt then I will probably go with a charge controller and a battery like everydaysurvivalgear suggested. I kinda like the option to directly charge USB devices as well.
Haha true that. As a kid I made a small wind mill from pvc pipes Maybe I’ll make that my next project… I’m thinking laundry washer motor, big *ss pvc pipe blades, oh well lets finish this first
some guy on youtube he lives of the grid and uses solar panels and a windmill for power so he said he gets an even flow of power but he saying hes high up so it gets windy… you can buy them now of Ebay so it makes a viable option for some people… if i lived next to running water i would for sure run a hydro set up….
I just pulled about 60 18650’s from old laptop battery’s. Would it be possible to make a battery pack from those and hook them up to a solar charge controller? Or do li-ion batts need a special kind of charging.
basically its better to charge from a battery it will give you constant voltage and current and I recommend the charge controller because many of them have USB ports build in for ease of use and you can wire up 12 volt mains appliances to the controller and it regulates the voltage… If you want to run AC you will need an inverter…