Quote:
Originally Posted by mechman600
You could always make up a simple voltage regulator on your solar panel to avoid overcharging. Motorcycle style regulators basically shunt power directly to ground when the voltage exceeds 14.5V or so. All you would need is an appropriate zener array that adds up to the voltage you want, all secured to a heat sink, of course. Inefficient, but that doesn't matter in your case - wasted solar energy. It would be much better to have a larger voltage regulated solar panel that is capable of maintaining on cloudy days.
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Agreed. The only vehicle I have that lives outside is the truck. I'll have to come up with battery supplements to my supercaps for the other vehicles.
At this point, I don't think I'll ever run a battery in the motorcycle. I've had zero issues with running just the 400F bank of supercaps and using the Battery Tender to keep it topped up. The headlights no longer dim when the revs fall off like they did when running on a lead-acid battery.