Re: Solar Powered Battery Charger/Conditioner

On 16 Feb 2007 01:09:47 -0800, theconnors18@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi Folks,
I hope you can help me. I'm trying to design a battery charger/
conditioner that runs off solar power. I need to do this because my
motorcycle is stored 200 yards from my house and has no available
mains power. I'd like the circuit to charge and condition my battery.

Any help will be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Stephen Connor

Put some constraints around it. Do you want something that uses great
big expensive panels that generate enough to charge a dead battery or
just to keep the battery from discharging when the bike isn't being
used. How large is the battery in ampere hours?

I put some flexible solar panels on my gas tank. One blocking diode
to keep it from discharging at night. Never had to resort to a
charger as long as the bike was parked in sunlight. 100 ma output, 15
volts open circuit, battery was a 14 amp hour size. The bike probably
got about 4-5 hours of sun a day.

For my sailboat I used two 1 amp panels, and a shunt type regulator to
limit the voltage to 14.5. Ran the radio and lights on it and started
the motor which had an alternator. More than enough power. Car size
50 AH battery

One thing to keep in mind is that a panel is only as good as the
weakest cell - shading one cell will dramatically drop the power and
may make the difference between some charge and no charge. Two small
panels (and two blocking diodes) will be better than one if you can't
predict where the shade will be.
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