You do not need a DC to DC voltage converter to do that.Thanks for the quick response! And that's good news. If you intended to leave the panel permanently connected (weeks) to the battery while the vehicle is not in use, I would recommend a low cost charge controller. You do not need a DC to DC voltage converter to do that.Ī 40 watt panel with an 18V output will produce only two amps of current, whether at 18V or 12V. One nice thing about solar panels is that they are current limited, so no circuitry is required to adapt the 18v output (probably designed for airline DC to DC adapters for laptops) to charge a 12V battery. When connecting to a car battery, that 2A current is close to a trickle charge and will not cause battery damage if left on for a few hours (or days) beyond what is needed to fully charge the battery. But I figured since I just bought this really nice 40w panel I can probably charge car a battery with it too, I just need to figure out how.A 40 watt panel with an 18V output will produce only two amps of current, whether at 18V or 12V. I spent some time researching and I could just buy one of the trickle chargers separately. But I figured since I just bought this really nice 40w panel I can probably charge car a battery with it too, I just need to figure out how.Īny help or advice would be much appreciated. I have very little knowledge of solar panels and converting current, but it seems like I just need to step the voltage down to 12v and limit the wattage? That sample had 1.5 watts so I'm not sure if more wattage is possible and if it would speed the charge process up or possibly damage the battery.Īny help or advice would be much appreciated. I did find a few things like this though which tells me it's at least a possibility. I searched for an adapter to trickle charge from 18v to 12v for this specific panel, but haven't had much luck. I realize it would be a very slow charge and potentially take even a day+ or something but even that would be a lot better than nothing. So I was thinking it would be great if I could find an adapter or something to be able to charge my car battery if I needed to. There are times when I'm several miles into a state forest or something and could potentially be stranded if my car battery failed. I can currently use it to charge my portable powerbank to keep my phone charged. I just bought this portable solar panel for when i go camping and backpacking.
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