Solar power charger - experience

[me2tkt]

Hi,

Last weekend I set up my second Fine Offset station.
The first one went out of action after a rogue garden chair hit the outdoor unit during the last spring storm.
initially I wanted to upgrade to a advanced station - but everything was either to expensive or wasn't supported by Cumulus
So I ended up ordering the same Fine Offset station again.

It arrived in April, but due to other 'commitments' I only got around to setting it up now.

To my surprise I found a new solar unit in the box.
After first thinking it was a sensor for solar radiation I found out that it is a battery charger !
Even the rechargeble batteries were included.
Strangely enough none of this was shown on the box but well described in the manual.

Well, the charger connects between the rain gauge and the transmitter.
As the 'lost sensor' errors have dissapeared after a sunny day or two, it seems that the batteries are now charged.

I'm quite happy with the charger and just wonder if anybody else has some 'long term' experience with thes solar battery charger.
Particular in winter with few sunlight hours.
Also how to position the FARS in relation to the charger.
Currently I have everything together on the pipes and holders provided.

The sensors are located on the west side of our house - hopeful now out of reach of any flying items.
I do notice a definite trend for the outside temperature to increase as the afternoon sun comes round.

If there is interest I can put up some pictures.

The station was bought from "PCE Group". They call it PCE-FWS 20.
One indoor unit is now attached to the PC, the old one sits in the living room.
Both have no problem with reception despite some walls in between. But the total distance is only 10 - 20m.

[Gina]

This is the first time I've heard of a solar charger being supplied with a Fine Offset station - very interesting!

[steve]

Yes - I'd like to see some pictures and learn more about it!

[andrewinpopayan]

I have some solar panels that I scavenged from some garden lights. These cell units have a 4V 1A/Hr lead/acid inside, but I have "altered" (gutted) one of them

I fitted a bridge made up of 4 X 1N4001's and fed the output to a pair of 1.2V 1100mA/Hr NiCd's in series (2.4V) . On a resonably sunny day the voltage across the cells rises to 2.7 Volts and an indicated 12 mA is supplied to the cells.

By all means post as much info on this new type of F.O. station, with fotos if possible.

[me2tkt]

Here are some pictures.

After checking again, it is actually shown on the box.
Obviously I didn't look properly - not expecting any surprises.

[me2tkt]

These are the relevant manual pages which explain the new connections.

[me2tkt]

Finally the real thing.
Unfortunately today is not a nice and sunny day

[philcdav]

hi guys.

great pics so well done to me2.

would like to know what the connects are from rain sensor > solar panel > TX

can you help please?

By the way, how many hands have you got cos a Google search shows hundreds of fingers in all sorts of pies

Looked at POEM and the Lattice Project. Too bright for me haha

[andrewinpopayan]

Phil, looks like they are using them little telephone plugs found on modems n stuff. shouldn't be hard to make up an upgrade for all of the F.O. stations by robbing the guts out of a twin celled garden solar light, a short telephone cable and a telehone socket. Obviously a little multimeter work, a soldering iron and a hot glue gun required

[me2tkt]

Hi Phil,

if you look on the last sketch from the manual you can see the wiring (FWS06.jpg).

The cable from the rain gauge now goes to the solar collector.
From the collector a cable goes to the transmitter.
All standard cables modem or telephone cables.

Off-topic.
I keep my computers busy with various BOINC projects.
In total I guess I tried over 15 projects. But now mostly work for QMC and its clones.
Don't really understand what they are doing.
Did some calcs for the BBC climate prediction project. But that took to long - over a month

[andrewinpopayan]

keep my computers busy with various BOINC projects.
In total I guess I tried over 15 projects. But now mostly work for QMC and its clones.
Don't really understand what they are doing.

Are you still in communication with "Voyager"? I remember well the controversy regarding Voyagers Pu thermopile energy source.

The only problem is that the crafts' Radio-isotope Thermal Generators (RTG's) are slowly diminishing their power output. Since 2000, there has not been enough power to run the UltraViolet Spectrometer (UVS). By 2010, power output will be so low that not all of the instruments can be in operation at the same time. When that occurs, NASA will initiate a plan of taking different instruments on and off line at different times. This should keep the Voyagers in operation until 2020, and then power will be too low to maintain the crafts.

[Charlie]

It looks like F.O. are connecting things in this manner to reduce the cost of doing more moulds and adding new connectors. The rain sensor connector in the current units has 2 pins unused. NOTE HOWEVER those 2 unused pins are connected to the pins actually used by the rain sensor (thanks to the pictures posted by Gina in another thread).
If you try to connect a solar charger to an older unit by the same method shown in the pictures here, you will most likely damage your transmitter! In the best case, it will no longer read rain, in the worst case it will no longer read anything - ever again.
Perhaps someone with one of the new solar units could take internal pictures of the sensor board (both sides).
If you wish to experiment with solar on an old unit, it's best to stick to connecting to the battery terminals, I think.

[philcdav]

Hi guys.

to 'me' - thanks for the feedback

to 'charlie' - well spotted on the 'double' use of the connectors. probably saved me blowing up the unit haha.

So, we now need an image of the motherboard me or would it just be easier to connect a cell directly to the battery pack 'dead bug' style ?

Solar cells are everywhere, including various skips But even new they are stupidly cheap.

FOSH has certainly come up with an elegant enhancement.

Funny that they could stop spiders getting into the rain sensor Do they have spiders in China ?

[andrewinpopayan]

As it was a sunny day, I strung up the cell with my meters to charge a pair of 1200mA/Hr NiCd's that I had lying about.

Initial reading 3.01 volts @ 65mA but varied up to 3.09V @ 125mA when the sun really hit the panel. I think the panel is a bit too big unless I use an external battery box with a couple of "D" size 5A/Hr NiCd's.

[Orion]

Hi bought 1 of these from Maplin as I thought I could use the solar panel for the WH1080 transmitter
the one supplied was the square one as in the above post, not as in the picture below
the light unit comes with 3x 400ma NI-MH AA Batteries
on offer untill 24/12/2010 £9.95
I have some 2500ma NI-MA batteries i could use but may need to lower or regulate the output from the panel
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=223425