Low power solar solution for remote site

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scottjpalmer

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#207773 13-Jan-2017 10:31

Looking to keep an Android phone (permanently mounted), or an IP camera and router or a Raspberry Pi and router running and stumbled upon this as a tidy and cheap out of box solution.

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/solar-power-pack-with-led-lights/p/MB3697

Any other suggestions? Cheap and easy is my friend.

Linuxluver

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#1702554 13-Jan-2017 10:46

That device looks easy and $149 is certainly affordable. Plug and play.

The inclusion of a main charger makes me wonder howl long it would take to charge it with the solar panel. I have a small battery used to drive a pump in the lilly pond...and once it's flat it takes at least 2 days to recharge it.

You may find you can charge it at home on the mains.....then maybe keep to sort of partially topped up when away from home, but if you drain it you may find it takes quite a while to recharge via solar. I note they say nothing about this in the blurb. The solar panel is 5W maximum output.....but you won't get full on sunshine for 10 hours / day unless lucky. I'm thinking it would take most of two days to charge it up. Plus some of the cheaper panels barely charge on a cloudy day...they really need full bore sunlight.

A half charge may be more than good enough to keep a phone going. I think it's volts * amps = watts so a phone charger drawing 5 volts at 2 amps (fast charger) would be 10 watts (??) and a battery doing 50wHr would last 5 hours charging a phone.....which might take 90 mins to charge....so a 1/3 charge should fully charge one Samsung Galaxy S7 phone......for example. That might take 6 hours of passive solar charging (conservative) to get the battery to that point.

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scottjpalmer

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#1702568 13-Jan-2017 11:03

Yeah that's the maths I've roughly done. Anticipating pretty low usage (not streaming video often if ever) so battery should last days.

This is tempting but obviously more moolah.

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/120w-pure-sine-wave-portable-power-pack-with-2-x-10w-solar-panels/p/MB3740

For that money I'm into buy a panel, controller and battery which would probably be much better though.

timmmay

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#1702638 13-Jan-2017 12:50

I recently bought all the parts for a solar system and put it together myself, with the soldering for plugs done by the supplier. 20W panel is $75. Then you need cable and connectors ($25 or so) and a regulator ($30 or so). That doesn't include a battery, $37 here. Total $180 or so, and more hassle. I went for a larger panel and storage.

scottjpalmer

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#1702845 13-Jan-2017 18:28

timmmay:
I recently bought all the parts for a solar system and put it together myself, with the soldering for plugs done by the supplier. 20W panel is $75. Then you need cable and connectors ($25 or so) and a regulator ($30 or so). That doesn't include a battery, $37 here. Total $180 or so, and more hassle. I went for a larger panel and storage.

Thanks

cldlr76

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#1716828 7-Feb-2017 21:29

Did you end up going with one of the jaycar setups? we are looking at getting one (or something similar) for our camping trips. We don't need a lot of power, just enough to charge a few phones and the odd LED light, so just wondering how you are finding it if you did buy one.

scottjpalmer

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#1717242 8-Feb-2017 15:35

Nah I've talked myself out of it. For now :-)