| This is the prototype of a small switchboard/distribution box for remote solar lighting systems. I've tried to keep the design simple and cheap (under $10 Australian for the parts), and hopefully rugged enough to last at least 10 years.
Essentially, it's a box with three switched cigarette lighter sockets, an LED voltmeter, and two pairs of connection for a solar panel and a battery:
Here's a view with a battery connected:
The cigarette lighter sockets are made from short sections of 21mm I.D. tube (in this case, rusty old steel stuff that I had lying around). The central electrode is a self-tapping screw into the wooden base board, which seems to work just fine.
An oblique view, showing how the voltmeter circuit board is mounted using a couple of layers of double-sided tape:
The fusing consists of a 3AG fuseholder conected at the +ve battery terminal, with a 10A fuse inside.
I knocked this together in a few hours on Saturday afternoon, then took it along to my family pre-christmas gathering for comments. The recommendations were:
- (Dad, farmer) Make the cigarette lighter sockets out of copper plumbing tube, as it'll be easier to work, easier to solder to, and more resistant to corrosion;
- (Tim, brother, electrician) Make the case out of either aluminium or galvanised steel, rather than the bit of old washing machine cabinet used for the prototype;
- (Dave, brother-in-law, builder of BIG electrical switchboards) Lacquer the voltmeter circuit boards, to protect them from corrosion.
BTH
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