[futrebartender5]

Hey I am thinking of making a mini solar panel battery pack/charger

I need help figuring out how to set it all up!

This is what I have:
-Mini Solar Panel, believe it is 10v
-9.7v 700mAh Ni-Cd battery pack
-Female USB slot

How to set it up?
-I want to have the solar panel charge the battery
-Insert a LED indicator for batter, Charging/Charged
-I want the USB female to be outputting battery power (for any USB device i.e. cell phone, ipod, etc.)
-I am guessing I will need/want some sort of regulator between the panel and battery and one between the battery and the USB output?

Any help on set up and pieces needed would be much appreciated! Thanks

 

[daddyrabbit]

they sell controllers that go in between the solar panel and batteries. They are supposed to regulate the energy the panels are dumping into the batteries.

then I would guess you need another transformer of some sort to go from your battery voltage of 9.7 down to USB (5 volts?).

 

[futrebartender5]

yea, I have been lookin at the charge controllers, but I have also seen instructions to make some kind of controller/indicator, that I thought would be cool to learn to make correctly as will if it works, again not sure if it would but here is what i am talkin about:

http://www.instructables.com/id/personal-powerPlant/step3/Coil-1-Rectifier/


Any suggestions about this, I am not sure if it will work, and I'm sure I would have to adjust the particular parts to handle my set up, anyone know?

 

[futrebartender5]

Question: My battery is only rated at 9.6v
Does that mean I need a controller rated at that?

Because I all find are 12v charge controllers. Another reason I was thinking it'd be cooler and easy to build one possibly

 

[futrebartender5]

I have come up with a schematic...

Can anyone tell me...
(1) If this will work?
(2) If so, exactly which diodes/resistors to use?

Thanks

http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/F5L/T83H/G57007WW/F5LT83HG57007WW.SMALL.jpg