HF 1.5Watt Panel Question?

[coldspot]

Hello

I've been digging around in the lighter plug-in of the little harbor freight panel.

Throw on the dash plug into lighter outlet one.

"KH99-1" & "ZX3215" Printed on circuit board,

on the side that has something hidden in the factory

black epoxy type covering, (bottom side I'd say).

Top-side,(one with soldered on tuff),

"KH99-1", printed with markings for resistors ,led cap ect. ect.(more markings than parts used)

One led

One diode maybe n4001

one resistor, orange, red,black and gold

one cap, 4.7uf 50V

Wires out battery thru plug marked

LO-

LO+

Incoming wires marked

LI-

LI+

?

Anybody know if this is a charge controller type of thing or what???

Thanks

[badmoonryzn]

I have 4 of Harbour Freights solar panels. I have traded labor for all but the one you are asking about. I have had little luck with that one doing anything but looking cute. I suppose it might put out a few ma but that's all. I believe its rated at .25 watt but it will not keep a 12 battery charged on my lawn tractor. So I purchased two of the 3 watt panels. Not understanding how the panels were sold and for how much I figured Harbour Freight would have the best buys. They do not and they are far from it. The two 3 or 4 watts panels cost $45.00 and are 12" x 14" I also have their 24 volt 15 watt 4 foot by 1 footer that cost way too much $325.00. I even spent too much in trade for it. :-) They all work OK, but I got little bang for the buck. I also have one that is 1 watt from HF and it will keep my mower battery charged if it is fully charged for three months only 45 days without. I purchased one online 105 watts for 350 dollars. I love playing with all of the applications but I wish I would have bought the 105 watt one first but it took a while and a bit of looking to find the best price, however I do find uses for the little ones. Sometimes its handy to have the little panels for smaller jobs as they will charge sub Cs quite well for LED projects outside. I am surprised how long you can run the newer super bright leds off of a set of sub C Sanyos. I have had some running for over a year and they stay on all night. We have also used 4 white, two red, one green for a nice warm indoor light. This light turns on and lights the porch and entry way quite well and draws just 30 ml. I figure LEDs will be the light of the future as they put out plenty of light and draw so little power. Oh well, I have got off track but I wanted everyone to know about the high output low power leds that have become a usable option for light. And by mixing them you can come up with a nice coloured light. And the cost of Harbour Freights Solar panels being a bit high in cost. As to your question: I would guess the solar panels are built for many things and many customers so the board manufacture is  ready for loads of applications. I see that in mine too and that is my best guess because the voltage swings from 17 down to nothing depending on the light reaching the device, so I doubt it is a regulator. Just a guess though. It's later than I need to be up as I am starting to ramble. Sorry

[badmoonryzn]

After playing with mine for a while the led comes on when it is plugged in to my lighter and I would guess the diode protects any positive ground systems one might plug in to so the circuit does not see a short because of the led. and the resitor is so the led won't burn up with to much current I have no idea why it needs an electrolitic cap though

[ghurd]

It's been a long time, but the guts in mine just control the LED, and have a diode to prevent reverse current at night.  Not a charge controller because one is not needed with the small PV and a large battery.

People should be aware they do not work as advertised in most cars. The lighter plug is disconnected from the battery when the car is off, so no power goes in.

Silicone the inside rear of the PV or the wires rust off.

G-

[jimjjnn]

I have 2 lighter plugs in my Jeep Liberty. 1 in the dash and 1 clear at the back by the rear door.

Both of mine work without ignition being on. Best to check before using the HF modules in lighter sockets. Some are active all the time.

[coldspot]

Humm,....

" just control the LED"

Kind of what I thought

But, being that it has about twice the amount of stuff the newest, "Solar Panel Regulator Charge Controller 60W 12V 5A"

I bid on and won:  "TPS-545"

But was shipped :  "TW-910 "

So I thought, Humm,....

More junk!

Someday I'll buy a real controller!

:|

[asheets]

I always cut the plug off of mine, but the instructions do say that the panel will charge the battery even if the LED burns out.  

[Bruce S]

Umm , that is only partially true :;-)

If it burns in the shorted mode then it will charge and dis-charge as the LED will then be considered a piece of wire .

If it burns out like most diodes usually due , you will not get charging as it will be a complete open just like a fuse.

Bruce S

 

[asheets]

Mine have an extra zener diode in it, which I think is to prevent that problem.  Like I said, I don't care because I cut the whole thing off and use external diodes instead.

[ZooT]

I cut mine off too.....Idon't need an LED or a cigarette lighter plug on them.

chuckling......I use them with either the TPS-545 or the TW-910 controllers I have sitting here to charge 10 AA cell nicad banks and then use those banks to run LED lights.

[ghurd]

I had two outside unprotected a whole winter, plugs and all.

One still charges, but slower (break-in?). The LED is still good but it doesn't light in the circuit.

The other had wires rust off in the plug. PCB to the tip or ground?

The power wires showed signs of un-suited-ness.  Stiff and dry.

But came out better than the 3-to-1 plug adaptor pigtail thing. 100% DOA.

G-

[asheets]

What is your wiring setup like?  I'm having problems getting aa's to charge on a 1:1 basis (1 panel to 1 AA).  The best I can get is 1.2 volts.  What am I doing wrong?

[ZooT]

I don't know if you are doing anything worng....

I just use a 8 AA holder and a 4 AA holder and made shunts/battery replacers out of dowels and wire to take up the two empty slots, and then hook it up to one of those cheapo TPS-545/TW-910 charge controllers like the instructions say.....

Controller specs say 14.5 vdc max charge / 10 =1.45 vdc per cell....but I've never measured them.....I just run the LED lights with them and they work

When I first put the batteries in I'll let them charge for a few days before I start using them, and just leave the panel in the sun and use them every night.....

[ghurd]

It's probably the low current.  Mine tend to get to 1.2V pretty fast, but it takes a LONG time to get to 1.35V.

Energizer data sheets show they can be floated at 5% of the capacity without problems. So if the panel is 150ma for 4 hours, and the cells are 2500mah, it may never get past 1.3V.

I made a shunt regulator for my set-ups, but don't bother using it any more because they never get to 1.4V before I change out the betteries.  And that is with more amps than the HF 12V 1.5W, and AAs from 1300 to 2250mah.

G-

[ZooT]

So is it a bad thing that the batteries never get fully charged?

Will this shorten the useful life of the batteries to any appreciable degree?

[ghurd]

Wish I knew for sure.

The 1300maH I mentioned are ~6 years old. State of the art at the time.

Started with maybe 16. About 12 still work fine. The kid 'lost' 4 or 6 for a couple years.  A few are not good maH or shorted. No idea which is which.

I mark them now, stars, triangles... matching pairs and 'fours'.

I do NOT believe the "memory" info is correct, and believe that info came about from overcharging.

I DO believe...

Excess charging "current" kills them. NiMh or NiCd.  And NiMh last longer and last longer with more abuse.

Keeping the charging amps below C/10 is good, and with C/20 indefinitely will cause no harm.

Anything past C/7 can't be great for the cells.

No, undercharging won't hurt as long as they get charged before they reach 0.7V(?).

And letting them sit at a low V will cause them to short.

I said 'believe'.

BruceS knows more about it than me, even if I like to argue with him.

G-

[coldspot]

After putting a V meter on each side of it,

this after I resoldered the crappy job done on

the power out wire! It was using power that should be for the battery.

No, I cut the plug off about 20 min after I bought

the panel.

Was just wondering about "whats inside"?

It's not keeping a very good charge on an old low power 12 VDC cycle type bat. But, being it gets to work,

7 days a week and I only get out there a couple times maybe for a total of 6-8 hours. And I only run  about 8watt bulbs for maybe half that time.

I'll add in some better bat's and panels when I get

shed/shop finished rebuilding.

I also have been wondering about what up with the solar yard lights I've looked around insides of to many times, I've only got one that has two AA's and  two or three with only one AA.

I'm planning on using the panel at least out of the one with two AA's and the batteries to "solar power up" a little fake security camera that uses two AA's.("HubbCam detective" older version that didn't have a switch and used two not three AA's),{Mine has switches I've added for power and LED, On/Off}

 Maybe I'll use the led/photo sensor board also to have the blinking red LED on the fakey to only come on at night.

I like the motion activated fakey but am not going to keep replacing the AA's.

I just added a changable lens to it so now I can hide a real camera in it.

I should just also add a power plug for being able to power from bank and also power the real camera.

So when I set at shed it will be not drawing for it's own bat's.

Should just get a couple more.

Way to much fun when setting up somebody to sit down and later see something is looking at them!,   LOL

People are so easy.

[ZooT]

Maybe the cap is to run the blinking LED.

Maybe the flasher chip under the black blob just causes the cap to discharge through the LED

Maybe I'm just guessing

[badmoonryzn]

Sanyo makes some great ni-cads, their aaa, aa, c and sub c plus many others, come in SCR and SCE they can take up to 9 amps of charge rate if you keep the batteries cool and use a peak detecting charger so it cuts off as soon as the cell is full. I have used 20 packs now for 15 years and I have only lost a few cells. I look for the bad cell, replace it with one of the same or close discharge rate and move on. The batteries cost a little more but they are worth it. I got the chargers from a hobby store that caters to the RC market, but they wanted way too much for the batteries. The charger is made by Tekin. I use them for all of my power tool battery replacement when the oems crap out. I'll bet they have nimh by now in the same configuration.

Cheers,

Badmoon

[ghurd]

All I spoke of were nimh. My nicd's all died a quick death long ago, with fancy store bought chargers.

I don't see much point now in buying nicd D cells with 800mah, when AA nimh are 2850mah and cheaper. If you see what I mean.  

And a 800mah nicd D would need to live through being charged 26 times to match the output of an alkaline D. Mine never did.

The commercial charger that gave me the least problems seems to be a simple transformer, 2.8VDC 50ma output, $5.  Slow, but it never killed a battery! LOL. Using it right now.

G-