Hey friends! Work is still slowly going on my robot project but something else came up that I could really use some ideas on...
What I'd like to build is a solar powered AC outlet (110v US standard). Ideally it would take in power from the sun, store in a battery, and go out to an outlet. A friend of mine is doing some major go-green efforts and I wanted to help out, however Im a bit rusty on my electrical engineering lol.
Id like to use a readily available solar panel (most likely from sears), possible a car battery and a simple inverveter.... What else am I missing? lol
Thanks all! If I pull this off, loo forward to a project post, some LMR pics and just a little less power usage!
you would be ahead if you would just feed the things with a DC voltage. The only change to your plan might mean you would need to figure out how to power your radio w/ DC vs AC. The other reason I would suggest attempting to power things via DC vs AC is the inverter will not be 100% efficient.
Duane is correct about deep cycle vs standard car batteries. I believe even a junk car battery should be able to manage to supply the small bit of current you are talking about pulling. Deep cycle batteries are $100 +/- more of the + than the - Think about it this way, you can listen to the radio in your car for a couple hours without recharge. If you go the deep cycle route, pay attention to the voltage of the batteries. There are at least 6v, 8v, and 12v options, depending.
You “might” want to consider a charge controller. There was a circuit shared that made use of a 555 and a few external components. I attempted laying one out. I managed to get the board down to 2" x 1.5" making use of headers for the 2 potentiometers and the relay.
This comes with a charge controller, 12v outputs and even come CF lights. Just add an invertor for 110v and, like others have said, you can do a lot via just the 12v --I.e. phone charging, laptops, etc.
I second the Deep Cycle thing as well --Probably your best bet is to start looking at boat stores --These types of batteries are used for electric trolling motors.
You can also find deep cycle batteries for boat uses as well, they’ll be called “Deep Cycle Marine Battery”, and might come in smaller sizes than a forklift batterly of the like… The electric trolling motors all use them, but yeah, as Duane said, DON’T use a car battery. You’ll destroy it very quickly.
Also keep in mind when using an inverter most inverters they don’t have a true sine wave, it’s a modified sine wave (looks like a stair case going up then down), so some circuits (digital clocks, ?computers?, ect) might not work correctly with them. Supposedly this stepped sine wave can also cause AC motors to overheat as well so It’s best to test out whatever appliance(s) your going to be running off of it before you just assume it’ll be fine.
You guys rock! we have a local marine supply that ill head to and inquire about batteries. Just for the sake of getting the math down, I found these online that seemed pretty spot on.
I logged on to a “Charge Calculator” and found an old text book from school on electritiy. With the specs on the panel and the storage of the example battery, I should be able to charge it in about 6.5 hours… with a 20% energy loss. Not bad lol
Think about it this way, you can listen to the radio in your car for a couple hours without recharge. If you go the deep cycle route, pay attention to the voltage of the batteries. There are at least 6v, 8v, and 12v options, depending.