I enjoy 3D printing and whenever I have an excuse I'll design and print something. Well I had some spare white LEDS from an old illuminated umbrella I made a case/solar panel mount, etc. and used 3P 18650s config using a
cheap amazon solar charge controller which would also turn the output on/off based on panel current. I also used one
cell protection board and those work great for the 3P setup I was using for that.
I then got ambitious and decided to try my hand at a bit larger solar LED project. I used 12V LED tape. All of these lights together draw about 800mA so I decided I'd go w/ a 3S2P setup so my output would see a max of 12.6ish volts and I'd have about 6000mAh of capacity. Well the problem was my panels I was using were at best 5V 500mA. So with my lack of real knowledge I got a boost convertor thinking I could increase the voltage of the solar panel to ~14V to feed the balancing BMS. I used this
lithium protection board. The way I have it wired is 5V from solar panel to the Vin of the boost regulator which is set to 19V (The spec for the charge controller board states 16-22Vin) then the output of this boost regulator to the 3S protection board. From that board the Vout goes to the LEDs. Now this did power the leds and the on/off function worked but it didn't appear to be charging. Probably due to the lack of current the solar panel can provide. I was hoping that the solar panel could essentially trickle charge the 18650s but it seems that this protection board needs 12V to initialize the unit. I have over 12V out of the boost convertor but perhaps not enough current, not really sure. Perhaps there is a different/better way I can do this? I had looked at 12V panels but most of them seem quite large which I don't really want to do. Perhaps I go w/ 3V LED strip lights designed to be powered by three AA batteries? Try to go gently on me here, I think I got in a bit over my head but i'm learning lots in the process.
Thanks
Dave