Initial test manual home brew $8 MPPT controller
The $8 (plus shipping) laptop DC to DC Power Supply (i.e. the guts of a laptop power supply) quick initial results:
Early morning sun it puts out a few hundredths of an amp into the battery but it pulls the Unisolars down to below .5v so of no use there.
Into a pretty full group 27 starting battery in morning sun it ran quickly up from 12.7v to 15+. The watts in to the battery started out in the 50's. by the time it ran up to the 70's of watts the amps actually went from the 4's to over 5 as the voltage climbed (different from my PWM controller), then dropped back into the 4's as volts climbed more. Watts continued up as the solar panel voltage approached closer to Vmppt.
With the default hook up I get roughly .5v higher voltage at the solar cells than I do at the battery, so a gain, but a small one.
Now to find ways to let the input run at a higher gap from the output, or get it to stick around 16.5 v.
The only specs I have are at the link above:
Module Properties: non-isolated step-up module (BOOST)
Input voltage :10-32V
Output voltage: 12-35V (adjustable)
Output Current: 10A (MAX)
Input Current: 16A (MAX) (Please enhance heat dissipation if more than 10A)
Output power: natural cooling 100W (MAX), enhance heat dissipation 150W (MAX)
Easy to drive 65W 90W dual-core notebook.
Use a 12V battery drive 19V 3.42A notebook, the module temperature about 45°c
Conversion efficiency: 94% (measured at Input 16V, output 19V 2.5A)
Output Ripple: 2% (MAX) 20M-bandwidth
Operating Temperature: Industrial (-40°c to +85°c) (ambient temperature exceeds 40°c, lower power use, or to enhance heat dissipation)
Full load temperature rise: 45°c
No-load current: 25mA typical
Voltage regulation: ± 0.5%
Dynamic response speed: 5% 200uS
Short circuit protection: None (Please Install fuses and protection circuits at Input port.)
Input Reverse Polarity Protection: None (Please Series diode at the input port.)
Pictures of the controller chips on the back are at the link.
Jim
Early morning sun it puts out a few hundredths of an amp into the battery but it pulls the Unisolars down to below .5v so of no use there.
Into a pretty full group 27 starting battery in morning sun it ran quickly up from 12.7v to 15+. The watts in to the battery started out in the 50's. by the time it ran up to the 70's of watts the amps actually went from the 4's to over 5 as the voltage climbed (different from my PWM controller), then dropped back into the 4's as volts climbed more. Watts continued up as the solar panel voltage approached closer to Vmppt.
With the default hook up I get roughly .5v higher voltage at the solar cells than I do at the battery, so a gain, but a small one.
Now to find ways to let the input run at a higher gap from the output, or get it to stick around 16.5 v.
The only specs I have are at the link above:
Module Properties: non-isolated step-up module (BOOST)
Input voltage :10-32V
Output voltage: 12-35V (adjustable)
Output Current: 10A (MAX)
Input Current: 16A (MAX) (Please enhance heat dissipation if more than 10A)
Output power: natural cooling 100W (MAX), enhance heat dissipation 150W (MAX)
Easy to drive 65W 90W dual-core notebook.
Use a 12V battery drive 19V 3.42A notebook, the module temperature about 45°c
Conversion efficiency: 94% (measured at Input 16V, output 19V 2.5A)
Output Ripple: 2% (MAX) 20M-bandwidth
Operating Temperature: Industrial (-40°c to +85°c) (ambient temperature exceeds 40°c, lower power use, or to enhance heat dissipation)
Full load temperature rise: 45°c
No-load current: 25mA typical
Voltage regulation: ± 0.5%
Dynamic response speed: 5% 200uS
Short circuit protection: None (Please Install fuses and protection circuits at Input port.)
Input Reverse Polarity Protection: None (Please Series diode at the input port.)
Pictures of the controller chips on the back are at the link.
Jim
