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Post by dllasa on Jul 8, 2019 11:46:23 GMT -8
Hi, I have the older SunAir Plus, watchdog, USB control, and i think one of those INA3221 boards. From what i gather i can use the SunControl board i have in place of all of those. I have 2x 6000mAh LiPo batteries, would be nice to be able to use both as im guessing this Pi 3B+ based SkyWeather is going to use a bit of power. My main question here is that i bought this solar panel a couple years back in hopes to use it for a project like this. From what i read the board is limited to 6V input and this lists 18V so, is there a way i can safely connect it or am i better getting a number of smaller panels to connect in series? main details are: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007YT5XCA/Rated Maximum Power: [Pmax] 10W Output Tolerance: ±1% Voltage at Pmp: [Vmp] 18V Current at Pmp: [Imp] 0.56A Open-Circuit Voltage: [Voc] 21.8V Short-Circuit Current: [Isc] 0.61A Maximum System Voltage: 1000V Maximum Series Fuse Rating: 15.0A
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Post by lbendlin on Jul 8, 2019 12:24:33 GMT -8
Yeah, too much voltage.
You _could_ put a voltage limiter on the panel to get it down to 6V but then you'd have to throw away 2/3 of the power even before it reaches the suncontrol board...
But - not sure how it physically looks like - maybe they put three 6V panels in series, and you can cut the connections and rewire it to be three 6V panels in parallel?
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Post by dllasa on Jul 8, 2019 12:39:11 GMT -8
i dont think it can be cut/adjusted as you mention This image from the product page is pretty close.. the individual cells are a bit different, but there are 4 columns arranged as shown. I will investigate some other options. images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31aQoQJCYzL.jpgChecking the power usage right now, it looks to be drawing 500-600mA / 2-3W at idle, im not sure it would work out all that great on a battery, but i suppose that would be another topic 
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Post by SDL on Jul 10, 2019 13:39:06 GMT -8
SunControl will only work with 6V VOC panels. Anything higher, and you need to protect the board. I don't think using a 5.6V Zener on your output is very efficientl. You would waste a ton of power but it would probably work. If you are a little patient (a couple of weeks) we are releasing a package for 12V nominal panels (up to 26V VOC). Here is a picture of the prototype. It works. We are waiting for one more board from our manufacturer (next week) and then we are ready to release it. This is a 30W panel, but it should work just fine with a 100W panel. BP 
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Post by lbendlin on Jul 31, 2019 17:26:31 GMT -8
Are you downconverting , or just throwing away part of the 12V ?
Also, what's the function of the carabiner?
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