I've got a question for some of you experts.
I do a lot of camping without electricity.
And I often have the need to recharge my flashlights (I have several that come with both ac and dc chargers.
I hooked an old rechargable spot light up, directly up to a 3.2 watt solar panel ... and it seemed to charge it ok.
When I hooked up my trusty old Maglite to the 3.2 watt solar panel ... the LED on the charger didn't light up.
So I hooked the Maglite up directly to a 13 watt solar panel ... and bingo ... the charge light illuminated.
Both of these panels are 12 volt panels. The 3.2 panel outputs something like 170 mA ... the 13 watt panel outputs .74 mA.
Measuring the "no load" current of each panel can run as high as 22 amps.
My question ... before I hook up my more expensive rechargeable lights ... do the "built in" or "cradle" chargers have the intelligence and ability to be recharged directly from a solar panel?
Or am I going to fry something.
To hook up the flashlights, I connected a female cigarette socket to the solar panel leads ... which allows me to plug in the rechargeable light's male DC cigarette plug.
I do a lot of camping without electricity.
And I often have the need to recharge my flashlights (I have several that come with both ac and dc chargers.
I hooked an old rechargable spot light up, directly up to a 3.2 watt solar panel ... and it seemed to charge it ok.
When I hooked up my trusty old Maglite to the 3.2 watt solar panel ... the LED on the charger didn't light up.
So I hooked the Maglite up directly to a 13 watt solar panel ... and bingo ... the charge light illuminated.
Both of these panels are 12 volt panels. The 3.2 panel outputs something like 170 mA ... the 13 watt panel outputs .74 mA.
Measuring the "no load" current of each panel can run as high as 22 amps.
My question ... before I hook up my more expensive rechargeable lights ... do the "built in" or "cradle" chargers have the intelligence and ability to be recharged directly from a solar panel?
Or am I going to fry something.
To hook up the flashlights, I connected a female cigarette socket to the solar panel leads ... which allows me to plug in the rechargeable light's male DC cigarette plug.