What's the latest in 100 watt solar panels?

[newbury]

I'm wanting to put some wifi cams out for about a month or so of monitoring wildlife. My property so no trespassing, hunters etc. so virtually zero concern about theft. I'm planning an old vehicle battery(s) and solar panels w/ appropriate converters to USB 5v. I'll probably set up 2 to 4 cams and my Mobley. Based on monitoring experience with the cameras they go through about 10 amps/day.
In looking for solar panels EVERYTHING leads to Amazon or Ebay.
And many google leads are years old.
Any recommendations for decent and recent inexpensive panels?

 

[LittleBill21]

https://www.amazon.com/Richsolar-Po...f2edbf6f60bc27ca065bbc13528c78&language=en_US

these are highly rated by will the solar guy from utube, he has video's of them out performing higher price panels...

 

[PEJ5]

There a few things I have learned setting up a small solar system for long term use(fulness). Almost more important than the size of the solar panel is the purchase of a quality Solar charge controller that goes between the panel(s) and the battery. A cheap charge controller will lose a significant percentage of your solar panel output and that gets expensive quickly.. Go for a MPPT controller such as this https://www.amazon.com/Controller-Battery-Regulator-=8-29one.

Charge controllers work best with multiple panels in series - they do have to be the same model and size. 3 less expensive 40w panels in series with an MPPT will do a better job than one 100w. Point them in slightly different directions.

Not sure if one solar/battery setup will operate all cameras, but if so, run the 12v to each camera and then add a USB interface. Finally, a deep cycle battery will do a better job and last much longer.

Good luck.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Even with a deep cycle battery, I was surprised how little of the charge is actually useful. You don't have a full battery and empty it. Far from that. You can just use a little off the top so to speak. I am guessing, a starting battery would be far, far worse for that application.

 

[newbury]

https://www.amazon.com/Richsolar-Po...f2edbf6f60bc27ca065bbc13528c78&language=en_US

these are highly rated by will the solar guy from utube, he has video's of them out performing higher price panels...

Have you (or anyone else reading this thread) used these?
Do they really use "templed glass"?

There a few things I have learned setting up a small solar system for long term use(fulness). Almost more important than the size of the solar panel is the purchase of a quality Solar charge controller that goes between the panel(s) and the battery. A cheap charge controller will lose a significant percentage of your solar panel output and that gets expensive quickly.. Go for a MPPT controller such as this https://www.amazon.com/Controller-Battery-Regulator-=8-29one.

Charge controllers work best with multiple panels in series - they do have to be the same model and size. 3 less expensive 40w panels in series with an MPPT will do a better job than one 100w. Point them in slightly different directions.

Not sure if one solar/battery setup will operate all cameras, but if so, run the 12v to each camera and then add a USB interface. Finally, a deep cycle battery will do a better job and last much longer.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info, your link goes to the dogs of Amazon.
As far as batteries go - A deep cycle battery goes for $100 plus with a $10 to $20 core charge. I've 10 vehicles with 12 batteries. Most are parked where I cannot easily get a battery maintainer to them. They go bad after 7 or so years. I'll just hold on to some of the old batteries for now. I'm not going out and buying new car batteries for this.

 

[PEJ5]

that link does fail. Go to Amazon and search for: rich solar Mppt controller. It is 89.99. there are many others to choose from. There is no harm in using up your used batteries. They do not like discharge/recharge cycles, but as long as your setup fully recharges them daily you should be good for a while.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I know, it sucks to have a lot of seldom used equipment, all requiring batteries.

At 11.9 volts a 12 volt battery is considered to be discharged.

 

[TractorGuy]

I have the Renogy 100W panel I ran for months with a group 24 deep cycle battery and a couple of Reolink cameras. My cameras run on 12V so didn't require a USB 5v step down.

I originally tried to run them on a 30W panel with a lawn tractor battery and it would die in a few days.

I had a charge controller on the 100W Group 24 setup at first but they kept failing. I got the idea that less than 6 amps shouldn't need controlling so I wired it direct after the second charge controller died. I was wrong! After several months it boiled all the water out of the battery and ruined it.

I threw a lawn tractor battery I had laying around that tested good back on it and it went dead in a few days. When the battery drops below 12V the camera will turn off and the battery will charge back up but the camera won't restart until you unplug it and plug it back in.

One of these days I need to find a good charge controller that will withstand the weather and get another group 24 battery for it.

 

[FarmerPhilip]

Not sure how technical you guys are but it seems like very. You could use a raspberry Pi in between the battery and the cameras. Pi comes with USB so any camera would plug in. You can solder on a chip to measure the battery (raspberry pi battery monitor - Google Search) and if you can move around Linux you will be able to write a little scripting (Google should provide any actual "code" you might need) to turn the camera(s) off and then back on, as dictated by the battery level.

I'd love to try this because I'm looking for a solar camera solution as well. Unfortunately I need a small scale lateral move sprinkler which doesn't appear to exist so my current Pi is reserved for that.

 

[cdaigle430]

I'm wanting to put some wifi cams out for about a month or so of monitoring wildlife. My property so no trespassing, hunters etc. so virtually zero concern about theft. I'm planning an old vehicle battery(s) and solar panels w/ appropriate converters to USB 5v. I'll probably set up 2 to 4 cams and my Mobley. Based on monitoring experience with the cameras they go through about 10 amps/day.
In looking for solar panels EVERYTHING leads to Amazon or Ebay.
And many google leads are years old.
Any recommendations for decent and recent inexpensive panels?

My Arlo Pro cameras are rechargeable-batteries can last 3 to 6 months depending on how you use them. You can also get them with their own solar panel. They can be setup for motion and or sound detection and are night vision.

I have one camera about 70 feet away from the base station with no problems.