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  • How do i solar power simple 3 AAA battery circuits

    so i got these Star Wars wall decorations, and i would like to power with solar so i can have this on all the time.
    they take 3 AAA batteries. is there a kit i can buy somewhere?
    any help anyone?

  • #2
    Solar only works - outdoors. So unless you want to have long wires running around, better overall to just get a 4.5V wall wart power supply for it.
    Solar would need a circuit to manage recharging the batteries, and a way to shut the power off if it got too low. There is no 4.5v solar gear, so it would all need to be custom designed and made.
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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    • #3
      Agree a $5 Wall Wart.
      MSEE, PE

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      • #4
        Ill look into that wall mount.

        I knew about the wires. I seen some small 6v panels. I kind of wanted to go green and design a circuit.

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        • #5
          power it with usb, then you can use any modern non-apple phone charger.

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          • #6
            If the object hangs on an exterior wall, use a hole saw equivalent size to the work to be displayed, drill to the outside, add some clear glass outside and some frosted glass inside and use some foil tape to line the hole. This will allow the sun to light the item during daylight hours. sorta like those new skylights. also Most DC voltage items are very tolerant of higher within range, most often a 4.5 volt device will function as well from 4 volts all the way up to 7 and in some cases as much as 9 volts. this is not always the case, but have found few cheapo goods that care much about the voltage.
            4X Suniva 250 watt, 8X t-105, OB Fx80, dc4812vrf

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            • #7
              How can i power with usb? Is there a power supply i can buy?

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              • #8
                Easier solution - get hold of the PowerFilm 4AA folding solar panel. Does a great job, and does it *properly*, unlike some other junk camping stuff.

                Get a handful of AA Sanyo / Panasonic Eneloops, (or other high quality LSD, or "low self discharge / pre-charged" ) nimh batteries, perhaps 12 of them to rotate in triplets. Get a 3-cell AA holder with leads and attach to your decoration. All of this can be found on Amazon or elsewhere.

                The 3-cell AA holder will last longer for your decoration than the AAA's, and with the PowerFilm folding panel, you can "go green" (UGH!) by keeping them all solar-charged when convenient.

                With low-self-discharge nimh's like the Eneloop, you don't have to constantly keep topping them off. Now the powerfilm panel is only used when needed, no external crazy wiring, and everything is kept nice and dry inside.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Marcos71 View Post
                  I knew about the wires. I seen some small 6v panels. I kind of wanted to go green and design a circuit.
                  There is absolute nothing GREEN about Battery systems. Battery systems are dirty and waste resources, not to mention in your application 10 times more expensive. So if your justification is to be GREEN, you are misinformed.
                  MSEE, PE

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                  • #10
                    Not trying to go green... Just trying to save money on energy

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Marcos71 View Post
                      Not trying to go green... Just trying to save money on energy
                      That is not what you said. You said:

                      I kind of wanted to go green
                      Impossible to Go Green or Save Money with off-grid solar You will be paying at least 20 times more for power in your application. You can buy 5 years worth for 10-cents. In five years using NiMh batteries you will have gone through at least 2 sets. Three LSD NiMh batteries last time I looked are $8.

                      I am not saying not to use solar and batteries. What I am saying is if your justification is to Go Green and/or Save Money is a fantasy. Doing it for the entertainment and education is just fine.
                      MSEE, PE

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                      • #12
                        I couldn't agree more! Even at this small scale with a simple panel and Nimh batteries, the other side of the coin to "going green" is not just initial purchase price / replacement but from an environmental standpoint, what is the cost of manufacturing and distributing it, and I guess well eventually disposal/recycle?

                        Anyone thinking of going green has to keep an eye on the ENTIRE supply/use chain, otherwise you become a sucker demographic sales target.


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                        • #13
                          Originally posted by PNjunction View Post
                          Anyone thinking of going green has to keep an eye on the ENTIRE supply/use chain, otherwise you become a sucker demographic sales target.
                          You can ignore all that and it is still UGLY and DIRTY. Just look at the energy that went into making just 1 single AAA NiMh Cell and you quickly understand how dirty and wastefull using batteries are.

                          AAA NiMh has a capacity of 1 AH, and a voltage of 1.2 volts which means a capacity of 1.2 watt hours. If you treat them kindly you might get 150 to 200 cycles out of them. That means over there short life span can yield at best 200 cycles x 1.2 wh = 240, let's be Green Mafia and say 500 watt hours which is ridiculously unrealistic. Have any idea of how much energy it took to make that little battery?

                          Well so smelter the Nickel, and Aluminum case is around 15 Kwh or about $1 in electricity at Industrial prices. What that means is you used 30 units of energy to get 1 unit back. You oiss away 29 units you robbed from your children and just became a heavy polluter.

                          Economically gets UGLY. 500 watt hours depending on where you live is about 4 to 6 cents worth of electricity over the life of the battery. So you spent $3 to $5 for 4 to 6 cents worth of electricity.

                          OK PN you can now add in all the other energy cost of mining, refining, packaging, shipping etc...

                          .
                          MSEE, PE

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                          • #14

                            I won't argue with the big picture points being made, but would point out that if you trade some capacity, you can get 2100 cycle 750 mAh AAA LSD NiMH on sale regularly for $1 / ea. The cycle life with strongly depend on the way in which they are discharged. Some cycle test results for older generation batteries are here:

                            http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...esting-Results

                            Also, it is rarely fair to compare environmental footprint of batteries to grid... anyone doing that has a very poor understanding of batteries. Comparing NiMH to alkaline is more reasonable.
                            CS6P-260P/SE3000 - http://tiny.cc/ed5ozx

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Logan005 View Post
                              also Most DC voltage items are very tolerant of higher within range, most often a 4.5 volt device will function as well from 4 volts all the way up to 7 and in some cases as much as 9 volts. this is not always the case, but have found few cheapo goods that care much about the voltage.
                              I hooked up a 5v thermometer to 12 volts yesterday and destroyed the LED backlight. not on purpose, I actually thought it was a 12v device. Note: it took several hours to blow the backlight, the LCD still indicated proper temp. just no backlight making it useless to me. I liked the temp display enough to order a few more of them.

                              4X Suniva 250 watt, 8X t-105, OB Fx80, dc4812vrf

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