Charging Non Solar USB Battery Banks With Solar

[FlashPan]

Hello all,

I've some good quality battery banks that I like to keep on standby and have always considered solar charging them in the field as I've also a number of small and good quality/output usb solar panels.

I know you can get the banks with a built in solar panel but a couple of past purchases have made me think a lot left to be desired. Plus I've got the kit above now so like to use it.

A thought just popped in to my head about connecting multiple usb panels to some sort of usb hub that then connects to the usb battery bank. Am mainly thinking this could be good if the sky is more overcast and a single solar panel will not generate much juice. Plus as I have some usb AAA/AA battery chargers (for torches, lamps, radios etc) this could also apply as well.

Is anyone aware if such a usb hub type thing exists as I guess it will have to deal with different amps/volts from different panels and manage that before it reaches the battery bank. Or is it just a bat sh*t crazy idea?

Cheers

[ukpreppergrrl]

Would one of these work? USB Y cable: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charge-Adapter ... P6EXWBJHTQ They're designed to take power from two different usb sources (and data from one of the sources, but the data part you're not interested in) so that the single output power is higher in order to be able to power external hard drives. So they are presumably wired in parallel not series which is what you need (i.e. the voltage stays the same but the amps increases). I also presume (though I don't actually know) that they have some kind of inbuilt diode to stop the power from one source trying to feed into the other source. Not sure if you can string several together to connect more than two power sources.

The output from your usb panels should always be 5v, so it's only the amps you have to worry about. Others may know more about this than me!

[FlashPan]

Thanks for that

Looks a bit interesting. As you say though it's about the Amps as well. The cable you show states it'll run to 1.4 Amps. So am not sure how it would handle or filter anything more.

So in theory (or reality) with that cable it is possible but is it advisable

[Yorkshire Andy]

I've found most usb battery packs take a 1a charge current any more and cheap ones will go bang or expensive ones regulates the charge to 1a

[Yorkshire Andy]

My less portable approach is a 30w solar panel and ,110ah caravan battery then use a usb charger from that

[xplosiv1]

I'm a senior electrical engineer ..... don't bother with the shite you get online unless you just want something to charge a phone or torch on the go, a simple youtube tutorial can teach you how to set up a decent battery bank that can be charged by solar ....... 12V deep cycle gel batteries aren't expensive anymore (£30 a pop), even 2V cells if you can get enough of them and have the space ..... hook up enough of them to a big enough solar array and your off grid permanently ...... less than £6,000 for a family home if you do it yourself and buy the best available.

if you have access to a scrap yard and can manage to get the battery out of an electric car (battery needs to be in good shape) for a decent price its worth its weight in gold as far as batteries go .......

[ChefSimon]

If you are only wanting to use it to charge a phone or similar at night I have just used a 4 panel solar charger to charge up a high power battery pack by hanging it on my bag whilst out walking. Over about 8 hours it was enough to top the battery pack back up to full power.

Each night I charged my mobile phone and powered it whilst watching a film on it, and also charged up my GPS. The pack is powerful enough to charge my phone (full charge from 10% battery 4 times)