My electrical engineering skills are pretty nonexistent, but I was curious how I would go about using a 5 watt solar panel to terminate in a standard wall outlet and, for instance, charge a cell phone. I was thinking something like this solar panel:

http://www.amazon.com/Sunforce-50022-Battery-Trickle-Charger/dp/B0006JO0TC/ref=pd_sim_auto_3

Ideally this would be without a battery in between the panel and the device. Could I just skip the wall outlet and use a 12v car charger straight from the panel? Or use a car power inverter? Like I said, I really have no idea how practical this would be, but I’m just curious about it.
I know that there are ready-made solar chargers available, however for the most part they are either A) too expensive, or B) only provide amperage enough to charge a phone if you leave it out in direct sunlight for 16 hours. This type of solar panel is designed to maintain charges on car batteries, so I’m assuming that it would be a better idea.
I’m also not trying to directly connect the solar panel to the battery. I know the battery is 3.7v. The question is how can I take the solar panel and have its output end in something like a 120v wall outlet or 12v car outlet to charge things.

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I would like to use a 12v DC 8Ah to power a 2.5 amp pump, I will also hook up a solar battery charger that is 1 amp charge how long would the battery last

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I’m building a solar setup to mount on my bike so I can keep my phone/laptop charged while on long rides. I’d like to know if I’ve got my facts straight. It’s been a long time since high school science class.

I’ve got 8 rechargeable AAs (I don’t need to store that much power. I will almost always be riding in the sun.). My solar panel has a built-in charge controller that puts out 12v. I’ll connect the AAs in series. 8 AAs x 1.5v = 12v, so the solar panel’s 12 volts should charge them properly, am I correct?

Thanks a lot

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i am moving to sierra leone, the poorest country in the world. there will be no electricity where i will be. if i buy a 12v solar charger and a 12v (we’ll say flourescent) light capable of creating as many lumens as a 60w light bulb, how many hours of light can i provide each night (assuming 14 hours of sunlight)? any additional suggestions for off the grid power are very welcome.

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I am working on an idea to transfer power from a small bank of solar cells outside, through a window, and to a small battery pack/charger on the inside.

I’ve scoured instructables, because that’s a suprizingly good source of "tinkerer level" information, but haven’t come across anything that seems to lead me to a realistic outcome.

Considerations:
1) No physical contact allowed from inside circuit to outside circuit
2) Power needs to be transmittable through a single sheet of glass, as well as through double paned glass.
3) The whole contraption needs to be able to run from the voltage available from the solar cells while leaving enough to charge 12v worth of AA size rechargables

I don’t know how shapes and sizes of the tx/rx coils affect things, or distances, voltage/current/amps, any of that really. I’m trying to acertain if the whole creature is even feasable.

What other information might y’all need to help me visualize this thing?
I’m wanting to look toward inductive coupling for the transfer, through a single sheet or evacuated double-pane glass window. I will have DC on both sides, but can use some sort of modulation, pulsing , or alternating circuitry to get it through, the rectify on the inside to charge the DC batteries.

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Got one of those useless solar (amorphic) 12v, 150ma trickle chargers for the car several years ago. The diode burned up, and both the pos and neg wires came off the panel itself. I tried to solder the wires back on, and also tried the hot glue gun, solder failed, and the glue gun worked however not getting a very good contact for voltage. Also when I measure with a multimeter set to dc I only get 1.5v? This is at opposite corners at the top of the panel. Shouldn’t I be reading 13-15 vdc? Do I have a short between the solar cells?

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I am going to be shooting this event in the desert for 3 days so I wont be able to charge my camera. My camera doesn’t have an external battery pack so I cant bring extra batteries. Right now I’m talking to this guy on eBay about buying a portable solar panel off of him. The solar panel comes with many charging connectors but there are only 3 that fit the port on my camera and there voltage output is 5.5V / 8.4V / 12V. My camera requires a 9.6V. . .

So my question is wether or not it is ok to charge a device with a different voltage output? Will it work, is it safe, which one should I use out of the three provided?

Thanks!

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I have four large sealed led solar batteries I use for lighting. I have a backup charger to keep them filled, but one night I left it on all night and forgot and the next morning they were warm not hot and bubbling. The reading said 15v so did I damage them or will they be ok? they still read 12v at this time.

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I have a gate operator that is solar powered. When I hooked it up, it had no power at all. Do the batteries need to charge for a while before the operator is operational. The batteries (2X 12v- 35 amps) are gel batteries connected in a series can I charge them with an electric charger (if so how??) or just let them charge up with the solar panel.
Also I bypassed it to see if the unit was malfunctioning and it ran fine when I plug it in a socket.

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Im building a solar powered USB charger and im using a DC-DC converter to get down to the required 5VDC for the USB charger. I have 6 cells in series with a compined open voltage of around 20 volts but when I connect them to the DC converter the voltage drops to 6VDC In. The converter is a VB1205S and is rated at 1 watt. When I connected everything up to a 12V AGM battery the USB setup was charging an older mp3 player fine.
I just checked it again with the 12V agm battery and it charges the mp3 player fine.
Ah I forgot to add that the converter is rated at 9v to 18v in but even with less cells (4 instead of 6) I should have had enough voltage to be within that range. I did that first with 4 cells then added the additional 2.
Ok I think you guys are confused so ill type slower

All of the CELLS in SERIES are 20+ volts OPEN voltage….When I connect them to the converter it drops to 6V at the INPUTS. These arent panels…they are CELLS and are rated at 4.5V OPEN VOLTAGE each.

If these CELLS have an open voltage of 20V +/- why does the INPUT voltage drop to 6V when they are connected to the INPUT of the converter?

Im even going to make it easier….I have a YouTube video of the project….so if you have a few minutes please take a look at the video.

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