Solar battery charger.

[paul_tim2000]

It's the same as this. No electricity in my garage. It's a mile from my house.
I'll keep running it for 10 minutes or so once or twice a week.
I'd take the battery off and keep it on a trickle charge at home but I have a tracker fitted that needs voltage to it. Might be this that's gradually draining it.

3 - Volts is bench testing it. Not connected to a battery, so I guess this will never charge a battery because it's less than the 12V

I have had one of these and used it to keep a car battery topped up when when the car wasn't used during the winter, it just about kept up with the alarm/tracker drain but was very marginal. I found that for reliability I needed to trickle charge for a couple of hours or so every month and then the solar charger would keep things topped up, any less and the voltage would drop leading to the alarm triggering (usually at 2 in the morning)

If you attach the charger to the battery and look at the voltage when it's illuminated you should find you get a varying reading between 12V and about 14V rather than the steady 12V you get with no cell connected, this shows the cell is charging the battery but it may be the alarm/tracker drain is so big the charger can't replenish what's taken during the dark hours.

[steve the grease]

Your solar panel is advertised at 1.5 watts, presumably that is it's optimum output on a beach in LA or something. Clear blue sky and direct sunlight are sadly missing in the UK at this time of year and it could well be that there is nothing wrong with your solar panel, but it just not getting enough energy at this time of year. My local tech boffin says 800w per m^2 in ideal conditions, but then there is the efficiency of the panel, whether its facing due south , the angle and all the rest of it. My guess is that to get anything worthwhile in the UK in winter, you are going to need a much bigger panel.

[vRSG60]

Yes, I've sacked the solar route.

[fraserdog]

I have one of these hanging in my shed window http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/ ... r-12v-2-4w and it keeps my spare 80amp car battery hovering between 13-13.5 volts no problem.

[steve the grease]

Can you not get an old car battery from a scrappy,( or even splash out £50.00 on a new 075) the bigger the better and use it as a slave battery to keep the fitted one from draining. The tracker is acting as a small drain and dragging the limited capacity bike battery down which is why the solar panel isn't doing it , when it works OK for fraserdog. You could take the car battery home once a fortnight and give it a good old charge and the bike battery would only have to run the tracker one night a fortnight. Might do the trick.

[Liam gsa]

Long or a really long extension reel lol

The diode on the solar charger I have is more for reverse polarity so you can't get it wrong when connecting it to the bike well that's what the chinees man said off eBay
but on a sunny day it gets 18v when NOT connected to a battery as soon as it's connected to a battery it's about 13v no more than 15v.

[catcitrus]

Your solar panel is advertised at 1.5 watts, presumably that is it's optimum output on a beach in LA or something. Clear blue sky and direct sunlight are sadly missing in the UK at this time of year and it could well be that there is nothing wrong with your solar panel, but it just not getting enough energy at this time of year. My local tech boffin says 800w per m^2 in ideal conditions, but then there is the efficiency of the panel, whether its facing due south , the angle and all the rest of it. My guess is that to get anything worthwhile in the UK in winter, you are going to need a much bigger panel.

More like 200W on a god day--per m2--thats why 6 or so solar roof panels on a house are a waste of time--and money. Agree on getting a good old (and big) car battery and rig that up as has been suggested.