Solar power supply
Dolabra put together this 5 volt solar power supply. The solar panel recharges a single alkaline battery which is then boosted to 5volts via an NCP1402 breakout board. Maximum output is 200 mA.
I broke all the rules — I soldered directly to the battery and I’m recharging an alkaline. I’m surely going to be sent to prison for this. The picture shows it charging a little bluetooth keyboard. It won’t charge my phone, the thing only produced 200mA or something like that. I’ll keep it in a sunny window. It might be handy occasionally.
Via the forum.
This entry was posted in DIY, power supply and tagged DIY, power supply, solar.
Comments
Yep you can recharge Alkaline batteries.
But it is potentially risky, from a leakage point of view.
The issue is that such batteries work by converting the chemicals within then to electrical energy, when you ‘go the other way’ the formation of the chemicals is not uniform, generally you end up growing crystals inside the batteries, which can puncture the insulation or create shorts, or in the case of Zinc carbon, you cannot restore the outer case uniformly and again they leak.
Pulsed or frequency modulated is better, to disrupt crystal growth.(sorry its been patented)
The solar will be a very slow charge….. maybe it will grow more uniform crystals? Or maybe it will explode! HAHA. I’m not too worried about it, It was just a little bemusement on a Friday night :) I certainly didn’t expect it to hit the front page.