i aure am glad sombody asked some diode questions.
does anybody know of a diode that doesnt drop so much voltage?
it is HEAT that roasts em, the big differences between the higher amperage diodes are the heat sync, i HAVE the diodes that you listed, from the place you listed them, and if you ask me they are 3A diodes, they may run at 6A but they are getting quite hot. a circular heat sync on them, or thermal epoxying them to the metal frame without shorting them , would make them 2X more heat resistant.
with my low voltage system, both the diodes, and the voltage regulator are killing my capacity :-( there must be a better way. for higher voltages its not a big issue, but still 1/12th of the whole Departing totally sucks (.9v drops).
on mine without the diode, the 9A of cells DRAIN back .1A when the cells are in the dark. that really isnt a big loss, when were getting 16 hours of sun, but during the winter, or multiple cloudy days, its a large drain. and any drain is unacceptable. is .1A going to damage the cells themselves?
SO
i thought of stupid ways to stop this. a tiny relay only uses 90ma, far less than a diode ever would. i could trigger the relay 2 possible ways. a small solar cell set, from a bunch of broken pieces, or a Photo resister.
also i am trying to figure out how to replace the photo resister, with a piece of solar cell, beings i dont have a photo resister right now :-)
i wish each parts of my project were more simple, and easier. like where would the entire electronics world be , if silicoln switching was improved to have JUST 1/2 the loss , and of course that loss is HEAT.
there has to be 101 ways to do this, other than going back to TUBES :-)