Well, after a good few hours in the workshop my solar generator is now up and running.

Early Days:

Getting the panel mounted...



Its uses include:

Household appliances, charging smaller batteries, laptops, augmenting an existing solar array, jumpstarting drained / dead car batteries (several times successful on this).

With the inverter connected you get hours of use.

Get yourself off the grid or at least less reliant on it people



Basically its a way of continuously re-charging a 12v battery using a solar panel (with light obviously).

It's not heavy duty but does make a great test and diagnostic device for electrical systems, jump-starting a dead for example (I've used this before when in the middle of nowhere) and power outages when you need a power source etc.

I can't trumpet this as my own idea as I got the inspiration from this link:

http://www.rain.org/~philfear/how2solar.html

I've logged all my work so far here:

http://www.squidoo.com/thesolartron

I've made some interesting modifications though so it's not all wires everywhere and cumbersome set-ups.

You see on the first link that the guy has the solar panel completely separate from the main unit. Leaving it on the floor in grass etc with nowhere to keep to up at height means it's likely to be stood on and booted by accident.

You have the hassle of setting up the panel everytime you move somewhere else and if you're on the move you might not have time for that.
Hence I've installed a frame for a panel to go directly onto the slanting part of the battery container to catch the suns rays.

The tie down strap is useful for keeping the lid on firmly and could be used to carry it one-handed. But the side staples probably wouldn't take the weight (despite being drilled into the container box.
The system isn't that heavy (about 10 kilos) and is fairly portable. As it is it would make an excellent tool for helping you to live off the grid, in a shelter, from your vehicle etc.

The inverter which allows AC power plug-ins I've also mounted on top so it doesn't have to be carried loosely.

So the whole unit can be moved about and as long as its daylight the battery will be getting its precious energy topped up
I don't have worry about disconnecting wires, packing up the loose bits etc.

The final step would be fitting a master switch and buying a larger panel to tie into the generator if it's used for power hungry machines.

Over the next few posts I'll be showing you how I went about building this.

The Solatron Project continues...

Voltmeter Upgrade



This is where it'll be going:



The first major problem was the size of it really was irritating.
No matter how I weevilled and gimbled the thing inside the box the dam lid just wouldn't close properly. The second problem was ensuring it remained secure and wasn't going to become a smashed up part while on the move.
Eventually I settled on a novel method. Using my trusty drill and dremel I drilled out a smaller circular piece from the generator box and carefully pushed the device into it. The fit was beyond flush and positively was a struggle. But being plastic and a very tight fit means it won't be going anywhere.



Some silicon sealant on the inside, around voltmeter hole to help keep moisture out.

If you look closely you might just be able to make out the switches three terminals poking through.

A switch for turning it off and on I installed as well. Otherwise there'd be constant drain on the battery.



Here's the finished meter installed and turned on, looks closely and you'll see the switch too:

Hey Very nice project. 500 watt inverter should be plenty for most applications.

What sort of power does your solar panel output?
Have you ever had any issues with it not keeping up with the supply over demand?
Also, from what it looks like your using a standard lead acid car battery, do you think its worthwhile going to a sealed type just incase you get acid spillages?

Hey Tony B!

The panel that's mounted on the solartron is only a 5 Watt panel. Brilliant for a low-rate of volts to trickle charge the battery, but hardly useful for swift power re-charges.
When I go away for weeks at a time I often leave the battery in the car on charge so that when I come back and my cars battery is flat I can jump start it using the solartron.

Getting it recharged at a more substantial rate is the next step and I'm either going to install a beefy deepcell battery in my landrover that trickle charges off the engine battery and roof solar panels OR just concentrate on big roof solar panels on my wagon to tie in with the solartron.

Ok I say go for lead acid battery's every time!

They are the best for longevity, you can maintain 'em with distilled water / sulphuric acid too.
You see when you re-charge battery's there is an off-gassing that takes place (this is to do with the gunk that builds up on the lead plates) as the gunk is off-gassed (via an increased charge of about 13.5 - 13.8 volts) this produces a bit of hydrogen gas. This isn't a big danger (just don't go waving naked flames nearby a bank of them) but the sulphuric acid levels of it will slowly drop as the re-charging process takes place. After xxx or so times the reduced levels will mean a reduced charge and the battery's lead cells will (at an accelerated rate) start to become damaged and fail. This is typically because it's falling below the level of the plates uppermost area and so forth...

However should you check each of the cells over a period of time and keep the levels topped up you'll keep the battery going a lot longer.



With one of these so-called wonderful maintenance free battery's you can't do ANY topping up, or measuring it with a hygrometer (for an unbiased charge indicator). Hence they don't spill as much but you're powerless to prevent a level drop in the electrolyte.

The next and final Upgrade I made was to augment the existing inverter.

The problem with the inverter is that it's only designed for AC appliances AND it drains the battery while it's switched on.

I needed some more variety for DC and so set about buying some DC Power Sockets from the local car shop.



Now it's installed.

I just used the adhesive strips that came with the DC unit to fix onto the inverter and the battery strap as well keeps it all in place.

The little switch box on the bottom right section turns the seperate sockets on and off.

Friendly feedback appreciated