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?).

 

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?

 

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

 

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