charging 12v batteries with solar wallets
charging 12v batteries with solar wallets:
Some solar wallets (like Suaoki) have a 5.5mm barrel jack on them providing direct access to the panels, in
addition to the USB charging ports, but the cables they come with often use really thin wire and are long, so
there's a lot of loss in them. Barrel connectors for higher current are difficult to find, but I spotted 3ft
pigtails with #16 wire on Amazon, pictured below. If the wallet's panel voltage is high, or the wallet isn't
very powerful (under 25w) then you can probably just go with whatever thin wired cable was provided.
Depending on the panels, you may also need to boost the power up to something your small solar controller can
handle. It's next to impossible to find a boosting solar controller that can run off around 5 volts, so you'll
probably have to manage with a buck (PWM) converter, and use a low input voltage boosting supply to bring the
panel voltage up to something the solar controller can use. Unfortunately, boost regulators with such a low
input voltage AND useful current on the output are also hard to find. I found a couple, pictured below.
