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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep
my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk. It
stopped charging completely. There was a blue LED on it that would
indicate it was charging, and that LED no longer lights in bright sun,
and my volt meter shows no output.

I took it back to HF, but was told that unless I had bought their COSTLY
extended warranty, it was only warranted for 3 months. Of course they
tried to sell me another one, which was on sale at the time for $15, and
their $10 for 2 years extended warranty. I told them I would not buy
another one and would never buy anything from them again. (And I wont).

Anyhow, my question is what can go wrong with a solar panel? It was not
dropped, smashed, cracked, or anything that would physically damage it.
Since it's junk anyhow, I am going to try to open it, but it appears the
screws or (whatever) holds the two halves of the case together are
embedded in some sort of plastic. So, I guess drilling them out is my
only way.


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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

In alt.home.repair, on Sun, 09 Aug 2015 23:34:16 -0500,
wrote:

I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.


I used to have a problem with my battery and I used one of those** all
winter. Sitting on my dash. It solved my problem.

**Not from Harbor Freight though. I don't think the store existed then.
I think I got it at a hamfest.

I actually bought a second one just because I liked it so much, even
though by then I had Battery Buddy (which they don't sell anymore) and
now I have Priority Start, which works great.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep


Why would you need an electric fence when camping. Scared of wolves?

my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk. It
stopped charging completely. There was a blue LED on it that would
indicate it was charging, and that LED no longer lights in bright sun,
and my volt meter shows no output.

I took it back to HF, but was told that unless I had bought their COSTLY
extended warranty, it was only warranted for 3 months. Of course they
tried to sell me another one, which was on sale at the time for $15, and
their $10 for 2 years extended warranty. I told them I would not buy
another one and would never buy anything from them again. (And I wont).

Anyhow, my question is what can go wrong with a solar panel? It was not


A bad connection inside? At the very least you can measure each
section and find the section that's bad.

dropped, smashed, cracked, or anything that would physically damage it.
Since it's junk anyhow, I am going to try to open it, but it appears the
screws or (whatever) holds the two halves of the case together are
embedded in some sort of plastic. So, I guess drilling them out is my
only way.


That's a good idea. I've taken a bunch of things apart that way. YOu
can even use a drill in reverse with left handed drill bits. You can
get an inexpensive set of those at Harbor Freight.


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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

On 8/10/15 12:34 AM, wrote:
I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.


How do you know it worked fine? A calibrated DMM will tell you if a
battery is topped off.


I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep
my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

If I were drawing power from a car battery that I wanted to start my car
after several days. I'd have a DMM to check its state of charge.

It sounds as if the HF unit produces 120 ma during the hours it gets
full sun. If you know how many amps the laptop draws, you can calculate
how many hours of charging you would need for each hour of computer use.

If a cheap solar trickle charger keeps a battery charged, it will kill
it anyway. Conventional trickle chargers use DC, and that causes
premature failure.

Pulsetech makes chargers for the military, commercial applications, and
consumers. They use pulses instead of DC. Amazon is advertizing a 2 Watt
Pulsetech solar maintainer for $63. It's probably well made. There are
probably other good pulse solar chargers on the market.

It might be advantageous to get an AGM battery to run your computer on
camping trips. That way, you're not risking having a car that won't
start. If you have to start the car to charge the battery to see more
movies, an AGM will charge 5 times faster than a conventional battery.
It won't get acid on your clothes, and it handles deep cycling well.


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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

On Monday, August 10, 2015 at 12:37:22 AM UTC-4, wrote:
I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep
my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk.


That is likely the essential issue. You could look for bad solder
joints, an obviously defective component, then start debugging it
like any other electronic circuit. I bought a cheap VOM from HF,
not expecting much either. In less than a year, the voltage readings
went to off by 30%+. I think electronics are probably something to
be very wary of at HF.


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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

On 2015-08-10, wrote:

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk.


I think we've discovered your problem.

nb
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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

On 8/9/2015 11:34 PM, wrote:
Anyhow, my question is what can go wrong with a solar panel?


Maybe the sun went down.



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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

On Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 11:37:22 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep
my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk. It
stopped charging completely. There was a blue LED on it that would
indicate it was charging, and that LED no longer lights in bright sun,
and my volt meter shows no output.

I took it back to HF, but was told that unless I had bought their COSTLY
extended warranty, it was only warranted for 3 months. Of course they
tried to sell me another one, which was on sale at the time for $15, and
their $10 for 2 years extended warranty. I told them I would not buy
another one and would never buy anything from them again. (And I wont).

Anyhow, my question is what can go wrong with a solar panel? It was not
dropped, smashed, cracked, or anything that would physically damage it.
Since it's junk anyhow, I am going to try to open it, but it appears the
screws or (whatever) holds the two halves of the case together are
embedded in some sort of plastic. So, I guess drilling them out is my
only way.


At a price of $20.00, I'd buy one of them just to play with. I wouldn't worry about any warranty because I'd have it apart as soon as I got home. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Solar Monster
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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

Uncle Monster wrote:
On Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 11:37:22 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep
my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk. It
stopped charging completely. There was a blue LED on it that would
indicate it was charging, and that LED no longer lights in bright sun,
and my volt meter shows no output.

I took it back to HF, but was told that unless I had bought their COSTLY
extended warranty, it was only warranted for 3 months. Of course they
tried to sell me another one, which was on sale at the time for $15, and
their $10 for 2 years extended warranty. I told them I would not buy
another one and would never buy anything from them again. (And I wont).

Anyhow, my question is what can go wrong with a solar panel? It was not
dropped, smashed, cracked, or anything that would physically damage it.
Since it's junk anyhow, I am going to try to open it, but it appears the
screws or (whatever) holds the two halves of the case together are
embedded in some sort of plastic. So, I guess drilling them out is my
only way.


At a price of $20.00, I'd buy one of them just to play with. I wouldn't worry about any warranty because I'd have it apart as soon as I got home. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Solar Monster

If you want to play with it, buy a couple bags of broken pieces of
cell element, solder them together to make a higher wattage panel.
There is trace connecting each cell criss-cross under the protective
panel, when continuity broke.... There are guys building big panels with
minimal cost. All you need is soldering skill and crafy hands.


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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

On Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 11:04:33 AM UTC-5, Tony Hwang wrote:
Uncle Monster wrote:
On Sunday, August 9, 2015 at 11:37:22 PM UTC-5, wrote:
I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight for
around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5 watts.
Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a battery topped
off, it worked fine.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a battery
powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went camping, so keep
my car battery charged after running my laptop computer off the car's
battery without starting the car to recharge the battery. The computer
often ran for several hours to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk. It
stopped charging completely. There was a blue LED on it that would
indicate it was charging, and that LED no longer lights in bright sun,
and my volt meter shows no output.

I took it back to HF, but was told that unless I had bought their COSTLY
extended warranty, it was only warranted for 3 months. Of course they
tried to sell me another one, which was on sale at the time for $15, and
their $10 for 2 years extended warranty. I told them I would not buy
another one and would never buy anything from them again. (And I wont)..

Anyhow, my question is what can go wrong with a solar panel? It was not
dropped, smashed, cracked, or anything that would physically damage it..
Since it's junk anyhow, I am going to try to open it, but it appears the
screws or (whatever) holds the two halves of the case together are
embedded in some sort of plastic. So, I guess drilling them out is my
only way.


At a price of $20.00, I'd buy one of them just to play with. I wouldn't worry about any warranty because I'd have it apart as soon as I got home. ^_^

[8~{} Uncle Solar Monster

If you want to play with it, buy a couple bags of broken pieces of
cell element, solder them together to make a higher wattage panel.
There is trace connecting each cell criss-cross under the protective
panel, when continuity broke.... There are guys building big panels with
minimal cost. All you need is soldering skill and crafy hands.


I once did a lot of soldering I still have my Weller temperature controlled soldering station I bought at the electronic supply house in 1973. I don't remember what happened to my vacuum de-soldering station but I still have a partial roll of Kester 5 core solder I bought back then. I haven't done a lot of surface mount soldering so I'll have to get one of those practice kits to learn with but I have plenty of cheap electronic stuff to experiment on. I know Weller makes SMD tips that will fit my ancient soldering station so I may order a few when I can finally get back home. à²*Œ£à²*

For the hell of it I checked Amazon and Weller still makes a soldering station similar to the one I bought 42 years ago. The only difference I see is a black cord (ESD?) and the absence of the integrated topside metal tip tray and sponge holder. Mine is the model WTCPN with a white cord. (¬€¿Â¬)

https://tinyurl.com/nhgdzus

https://tinyurl.com/p5lblr3

[8~{} Uncle Solder Monster
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Default What would cause a solar panel battery charger to die?

"Edmund J. Burke, Ph.D"
Wed, 02 Sep 2015 14:47:19 GMT in
alt.home.repair, wrote:

"Diesel" wrote in message
...


Mon, 10 Aug 2015
04:34:16 GMT in alt.home.repair, wrote:

I bought one of the solar chargers they sell at Harbor Freight
for around $20. They are made to charge a 12 volt battery at 1.5
watts. Granted that is not a lot of power, but just to keep a
battery topped off, it worked fine.

I particularly bought it to keep a car battery charged for a
battery powered electric fencer, but I also took it when I went
camping, so keep my car battery charged after running my laptop
computer off the car's battery without starting the car to
recharge the battery. The computer often ran for several hours
to play movies.

Anyhow, aside from the fact that it's cheap Harbor Freight junk.
It stopped charging completely. There was a blue LED on it that
would indicate it was charging, and that LED no longer lights in
bright sun, and my volt meter shows no output.


Sounds like a weak solder joint has failed. Or, a diode...you can
take the device apart and probe it with your meter. You should be
able to determine if the panel itself isn't producing power OR the
circuit board is no longer doing anything with it.


This wood:
http://tinyurl.com/qjxhp2o



Dude, I didn't ask to see pics of your family. Please, feel free NOT
to share more in the future.



--
Optimist: Someone who doesn't know all the facts yet.
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