Post #1543781
2026-04-20 10:21 UTC
@ross my project currently sits in the wine cellar but after numerous upgrades to both the panel and battery, I ended up with a 100W panel and an 85Ah battery for a single Pi. It worked perfectly during the summer, but as autumn set in, even this didn't get enough sun time to top the battery up before the Pi fully drained it. I plan to eventually add a wind turbine and somehow dynamically switch between wind and solar for the battery charge.
Replies (1)
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@ric@mastodon.qweb.co.uk 2026-04-20 10:26
@ross the problem is basically that it just isn't safe to trickle charge a leisure battery too slowly, so the job of the MPPT is to make sure the feed from the panel is a high enough amperage to allow through to the battery, and if the panel is too small then the amount of time per day where it emits a high enough feed for safe charging is outweighed by the output load. It's a super fun thing to play with, but you can't cheap out on the tech unfortunately. I tried. 😆