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Explorer solar and dashcam battery:


The dashcam battery got low enough for the controller to disconnect the dashcam. I took it in and charged it
up a bit but I don't thin the solar can keep up with the rate of discharge from the dashcam with winter sun.

I placed my bidirectional wattmeter box inline with the dashcam battery to monitor incoming and outgoing power
to see who was winning the fight. The dashcam appears to draw 4 watts at all times. (the supercap jump box
is also on that line, but the draw is negligible)

Two things to bear in mind. First, the panel is shared with another controller that is charging the vehicle
battery. Second, the dashcam is drawing around 4 watts all the time, so when you see 0 watts out the battery
and 6 watts in, that means the solar controller is collecting a total of 10 watts.

I may end up connecting the charge-guard output through a schottky to the dashcam battery, so that it can get
a bit of a boost of a charge while I'm driving. Last summer the solar panel had no problem keeping the truck
and dashcam battery nicely topped off, but as of December the solar is losing the fight and the dashcam battery
has gotten completely discharged over time, mostly due to many days of 100% overcast.

MATH: if my dashcam draws 4 watts, that's 24x4 = 96Wh of energy per day. I saw 6.6w going into the battery
on 12/16/2025 at "high" noon (40 degrees?) which did not include dashcam power, so the panel was collecting
only 10.6w of power at the best time of day and best conditions on one of the worst days of the year. I only
collected about half that per day in the previous days.

2025.12.11 07.39.48	2025.12.11 07.39.52	2025.12.11 07.39.58	2025.12.11 07.40.07	2025.12.11 17.06.01	2025.12.12 07.43.54
2025.12.12 07.58.23	2025.12.12 07.58.29	2025.12.12 16.33.12	2025.12.13 19.23.35	2025.12.15 08.03.39	2025.12.15 16.48.35
2025.12.16 10.15.58	2025.12.16 10.16.21	2025.12.16 11.51.48	2025.12.16 11.51.48b	2025.12.16 16.07.12	2025.12.16 16.07.45
2025.12.17 08.01.27	2025.12.17 16.32.33	2025.12.18 07.34.21	2025.12.18 16.36.27	2025.12.19 07.54.39	2025.12.19 15.14.05

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last updated 12/19/2025 at 20:39:17 by make_www_index.command version 2025.11.05.A