An improved solar-rechargeable power bank

I had meant to improve the setup from my previous video ("The solar-rechargeable power bank"), but Waveshare have beaten me to that. So, rather than watch me tinker, you can listen to me explain the issues about the original Solar Power Manager, and how it's successor - Solar Power Manager B - addresses those.

None of the content of this video is sponsored. Duplicate the suggestions made in this video at your own risk.

Hiking trips:
First: Duration=6.5h, Energy=8.5Wh, Capture rate=1.31Wh/h - 98% of SPM-A
Second: duration=2.55, Energy=7.8Wh, Capture rate=3.12Wh/h - 235% of SPM-A

Image and footage credits:


Background music:
- Unicorn Heads - Vital Wales (YouTube library)

[NabNab]

Thanks mate! Bought the components to give this a try. A hikable solar system with reasonable weight vs performance would be a dream come true for many! Would love to see the panels re-dressed in a UL waterproof dyneema (or similar) housing.

[Melissa-qsqc]

Thanks dude! A video request I would like to understand more about batteries, solar panels and putting them together to build my own but I just don't know where to start. What do I need to learn and understand what you know and understand? I hear you when you talk and I do kinda understand but I think for me (as a beginner) I need it broken down like a 'book for dummy's' so to speak. You would be a great teacher and I look forward to more videos from you. Thanks ❤

[craigsmithx]

Your presentation is extremely serious, I like this, it adds to your credibility. Thank you.

[mauricevlot]

"unrelated to ice age"
:) nice little detail, I got that! Buck is my favorite character from Ice Age.

[cubic]

Finally someone who knows some engineering. Only one recommendation: when you want to test it just put it on the same place, don't do long hiking in witch the conditions will be even more variable.

[alexgunner]

Please make more of these videos. Great job

[greengraycolor]

Fantastic videos! I think world needs more videos on solar and socket charging, batteries and energy management in travel and hiking. I hope you will make them, your explanations are excellent.

[Emptiness-]

I think this is one of the only videos on YT reviewing the WaveShare solar charge manager as of date! I came across this elegant product after spending hours and considerable amount of money on boards from Ebay which does not have all of these functionalities.

[forerunner]

Thanks for the updated version ! This is exactly what I was looking for !

[garycrockett]

Thank you for the follow up video. Very informative. May I suggest a video about the DIY board you built. Building a custom board will/might? be able to overcome the limitations you noticed about the Solar Power Manager B. Namely, the barrel connector and the need to reroute the power wires. I'd also like to use a larger li-ion battery. Custom-built sounds nice! Again, thanks for your time and effort.

[CarputingYT]

Great video - I think you'd be great at doing nifty project videos like this, I like the way you present. Have a great day!

[rvaillant]

Thank you for your great video. Why not use a usb-c input power bank instead and mod a usb-c cable to hook up to the solar panel.

[joelee]

Thanks for sharing, I got a small GENASUN Li-On MPPT charger for my windows solar panel setup, it is not cheap for it capacity at $1xx, the one you mentioned is quite affordable should be included in small portable panels.

[noemirosales]

Hi mr Toledo please clarify something for me- both anker and solar circuit board have to be on "6" ONLY and everything else off, correct? Also, the outlet ports on anker will no longer work? Thank you so much.

[garycrockett]

Another follow up question. You use the Anker solar panel, and mention that it outputs 6 volts. What about the BigBlue solar panel? Does it output 6 volts? Looking at the pictures of it, there are 12 segments in each panel. I would presume 0.5v per segment, meaning 6 volts. What do you think? Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

[kdtxo]

It seems the consensus among long haul thru hikers is that 10 AH is the best size of storage to have along.... just enough power to get to the next town (every 4 days or so) for a recharge.

Another viewpoint might be the Air traveler. the Airlines allow any lithium battery under 100 watts to be OK for carry-on air transport. In that case, a power bank of 27 AH would be the max allowable by the TSA in the USA

Waveshare should consider a "model B+" with the 27 AH battery and a plastic case to minimize weight. They also might consider changing the Model B over to a plastic case too for weight savings. .

[___xyz___]

I'm confused... Isn't this simply just a standard powerbank? What stops me from using any arbitrary powerbank, charging my phone while the powerbank is being charged by the solarpanels? I'm obviously losing efficiency twice through voltage regulation, but at least the battery is being continuously charged, right?

My experience, like your own, is that a smartphone will lose communication with the solar panel when the unstable current drops below a certain level, and sometimes does not pick back up on the communcation for quite some time, missing out on a significant amount of power.

Waveshare's SPMB looks unnecessarily large and clunky for doing something as simple as buffering the power output of a solar panel. I have an old LiPo solar charger circuit from Adafruit, which is essentially identical to Waveshare's original SPM (5V/1A), but is a fraction of its weight and size, and stores its main buffers in a large capacitor. It shouldn't be very hard to add a controller circuit that upregulates any high currents @ nominal voltage to its preferred charging standard without adding 100ml of metal bulk. Remember, a low power solar panel such as the Anker is a very simple device. It's unfeasible to expect it to charge anything but a single device at a time. So we really want only a single port, ideally just Power Delivery, to extract power out of the solar panel. It seems to me that the losses in having no buffer controller is so great that even the losses in battery regulation are preferable, if a medium such as a battery is needed to charge non-PD-compatible devices.

Edit: It certainly seems to me that an external battery makes the LiPo in the solar charger circuit redundant. Not to mention the power dissipation from the buck converter required for its regulation. This all but defeats the purpose of having a buffer in my opinion. A single chunky capacitor seems to me to reduce the load on the buck converter, while simultaneously providing steady power to an arbitrary external powerbank or other device.

[userou-igze]

how would this compare to attaching the widely popular cn3791 mppt charger? Amy data? thanks, very insightful

[pavloyevhenovych]

I liked your videos, why are you not filming anymore?

[shroomaffair]

Would the newer one Solar Power Manager (C) work as well?