Solar Power

steve.c

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 16, 2011
302
42
74
Exeter Devon
Hi. It may have been asked before but is the any way you can wire up a soler panel to charge your battery when parked up or even riding !!!! I only ask as I have a spare on and thought it would be a good idea?. Thanks. Steve c :rolleyes:
 

oigoi

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 14, 2011
467
7
hi Steve,
Within a mains powered charger there is a stage of the circuit where the ac from the mains is transformed down to a lower voltage ac and then put through a bridge rectifier to turn it into dc. This dc power is then put through charging regulation circuits and used to charge the battery.
I have seen it done where solar panels were connected to the point in the circuit after the bridge rectifier, effectively injecting into the charger the dc power that would usually come from the mains vi the transformer and bridge rectifier. You have to put the right voltage into the circuit, but you could figure this out by dismantling the charger, switching it on and measuring the dc voltage that is present at the output of the bridge rectifier.

link of this being done on youtube by some americans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk9GcG9EJzA

Alternatively use lead acid batteries which are much easier to charge using solar power.
 
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kitchenman

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jul 9, 2010
1,309
7
Aberaeron, West Wales
When I first started to think about electric assist I came across Mark Havran's blog:
Solar Powered Bike
Along with Brad Hori they inspired me and so I started my own blog:
street machine electric conversion
I'm still working on mine! I would like to think that one day someone will be inspired by my ... umm .. effort .. and .. umm .. enthusiasm .....