Jim Weir's solar charger

[R. Lee Jarvis]

The Jan '07 issue of Kitplanes has an article by Jim Weir on a charge
controller for a small solar panel. I've got a 5W solar panel that I'd like
to use to charge & maintain a 12v 7Ah SLA in my Luscombe. Is anyone familiar
enough with this circuit to know if it could handle something in the
neighborhood of 323mA of charging current vs. the 90mA or so as shown in the
article?

[RST Engineering]

Well, I can take a stab at it {;-)

You should be able to suck 350 mA from the device as shown. You will have
to vary the short-circuit limiting resistor R101 to let you go to that
current. Download the app note to see what will limit the amount of juice
you can get from the barefoot circuit and add a pass transistor if you think
it warranted. The app note is "plug in" simple.

Jim



"R. Lee Jarvis" > wrote in message
...
> The Jan '07 issue of Kitplanes has an article by Jim Weir on a charge
> controller for a small solar panel. I've got a 5W solar panel that I'd
> like to use to charge & maintain a 12v 7Ah SLA in my Luscombe. Is anyone
> familiar enough with this circuit to know if it could handle something in
> the neighborhood of 323mA of charging current vs. the 90mA or so as shown
> in the article?
>

[R. Lee Jarvis]

I'm thinking that an even simpler solution is the time-tried LM317. Too
inefficient?


"RST Engineering" > wrote in message
...
> Well, I can take a stab at it {;-)
>
> You should be able to suck 350 mA from the device as shown. You will have
> to vary the short-circuit limiting resistor R101 to let you go to that
> current. Download the app note to see what will limit the amount of juice
> you can get from the barefoot circuit and add a pass transistor if you
> think it warranted. The app note is "plug in" simple.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> "R. Lee Jarvis" > wrote in message
> ...
>> The Jan '07 issue of Kitplanes has an article by Jim Weir on a charge
>> controller for a small solar panel. I've got a 5W solar panel that I'd
>> like to use to charge & maintain a 12v 7Ah SLA in my Luscombe. Is anyone
>> familiar enough with this circuit to know if it could handle something in
>> the neighborhood of 323mA of charging current vs. the 90mA or so as shown
>> in the article?
>>
>
>