Topic: STC800 solar panel battery?

[FrozenPenguin]

I'll ask around here before taking any action.    I was reading somewhere else, and there someone said the batteries inside the STC800 solar panel needs to be connected..?  I was a bit perplexed by this, and checked the manual.   It says nothing about it having a battery inside, nor anything needing to be connected inside it, only mounted and insert cables into the sensors.    I could open it up and check that out, but ill ask here first if anyone have found this to be true or not.

Thanks,

[FrozenPenguin]

 Check this link

[FrozenPenguin]

No one? I surely can't be the only person who has run into this..   I guess there are a lot of stations out there running purely on batteries

[Faceng Ret]

Since it was no big problem for me to check to see if the battery was connected, I checked! Sure enough, it was not connected. I then reviewed the manual and saw no mention of the battery in the solar unit or any mention of connecting it. Mine is now connected, but I would bet that there are bunches of the STC800s that are in use without the battery being connected.

[FrozenPenguin]

Since it was no big problem for me to check to see if the battery was connected, I checked! Sure enough, it was not connected. I then reviewed the manual and saw no mention of the battery in the solar unit or any mention of connecting it. Mine is now connected, but I would bet that there are bunches of the STC800s that are in use without the battery being connected.

Hey, thanks for checking it.  And yeah, that is pretty weak that there is no mention of that in the manual!  Unless, one is not supposed to connect it for some unknown reason? I doubt that....  Time to pull down the panel and check my own.   I still want to bug OS about that one...

Thanks,

Thomas

[FrozenPenguin]

Really surprised at the low reply rate here...ill assume many wmr200s out there are running without the battery connected.

[ArmySlowRdr]

Is there a definitive answer on this. I know I'm getting ready to move the anemometer up to the roof so I will be purchasing another solar panel. I don't recall opening up my existing panel to plug in a battery. I thought solar panels didn't require a battery and just used sunlight to help out the batteries in the sensors.  Kind of defeats the purpose it seems if there is a rechargeable battery in the solar panel...OR..

...hmmm...  maybe it is the sunlight collected by the panel that keeps this battery charged and is the battery that aids the other batteries (batteries in the sensor)--kind of like a piggy-back battery.

Anyone know for sure ? Maybe I need to look up "how do solar panels work"....

[FrozenPenguin]

Well, solar panels only work one way, they collect energy from sunrays and output its charge to a source.  In this case we all assume its directly to the sensors, as there is no saying about this in the manual. 

However since there indeed is a rechargeable battery inside, it does seem like the solar panel will charge it, and then the battery will power the sensors to prolong battery life.    This does make sense, but the question is, why on earth isn't this mentioned anywhere in the docs, and why isn't it connected at the factory? 

I can only think of one possible reason for that:   since the WMR200 sensors have batteries, perhaps the panel is only meant to be aiding those batteries during the daytime directly (bypassing the battery) for those sensors?   Does OS have other sensors that have no batteries inside, and can only be powered by the panel's battery (and in such case the manual will instruct you to connect it) ?   Thats the only logical thing I can think of....    that, or it's just a major oversight by OS in the documentation.     If I had a power meter I could measure the current from the panel with or without the battery, but mine is fried atm

Thomas

[Faceng Ret]

My anemometer is on a bottom hinged metal pole and this is where my STC800 is mounted. My temperature sensor is mounted elsewhere in a FARS. No big deal to swing down the anemometer and STC800 to check the current. The STC800 was putting out 5.56 VDC to the jack with the battery disconnected in full sun here in south Florida (UV reading 17 at the moment). With the battery connected, the current is 4.20 VDC in the sun and 4.19 VDC when the sun was blocked. Now I'm tempted to remove the batteries from the anemometer to see if it will work just on the STC800 and the built-in battery pack.

[Axelvold]

I think that all solarpanels have a battery inside (I could be wrong) because if the is no battery what will keep the sensor running when it's dark?

My solar panels to the Davis VP2 have battery's.

[ArmySlowRdr]

I think that all solarpanels have a battery inside (I could be wrong) because if the is no battery what will keep the sensor running when it's dark?

My solar panels to the Davis VP2 have battery's.

The sensors themselves have their own batteries......

[FrozenPenguin]

My anemometer is on a bottom hinged metal pole and this is where my STC800 is mounted. My temperature sensor is mounted elsewhere in a FARS. No big deal to swing down the anemometer and STC800 to check the current. The STC800 was putting out 5.56 VDC to the jack with the battery disconnected in full sun here in south Florida (UV reading 17 at the moment). With the battery connected, the current is 4.20 VDC in the sun and 4.19 VDC when the sun was blocked. Now I'm tempted to remove the batteries from the anemometer to see if it will work just on the STC800 and the built-in battery pack.

Thanks for the update.  Indeed seems like the battery should be used, even if you saw higher DC ouput without the battery.   Being in Florida, you may be able to run off that battery only... not sure I would recommend it thou 17 UV...wow, I've yet to see 8 here

[Cynjut]

Well, solar panels only work one way, they collect energy from sunrays and output its charge to a source.  In this case we all assume its directly to the sensors, as there is no saying about this in the manual. 

However since there indeed is a rechargeable battery inside, it does seem like the solar panel will charge it, and then the battery will power the sensors to prolong battery life.    This does make sense, but the question is, why on earth isn't this mentioned anywhere in the docs, and why isn't it connected at the factory? 

I can only think of one possible reason for that:   since the WMR200 sensors have batteries, perhaps the panel is only meant to be aiding those batteries during the daytime directly (bypassing the battery) for those sensors?   Does OS have other sensors that have no batteries inside, and can only be powered by the panel's battery (and in such case the manual will instruct you to connect it) ?   Thats the only logical thing I can think of....    that, or it's just a major oversight by OS in the documentation.     If I had a power meter I could measure the current from the panel with or without the battery, but mine is fried atm

Thomas

I would guess (having just finished a big project with rechargable batteries) that leaving the batteries disconnected during shipping is intended solely to extend their life in the shipping process and not run them completely down.  There will be enough backfeed through the charging circuit to kill the batteries in short order if they were connected from the start.

Another possibility is that the batteries in the panel don't supply enough voltage to actually charge the batteries in the units.  If this were the case, the solar panels would only be useful for stand-by power after the internal batteries in the sensors stopped providing voltage.

You have to supply more voltage to the battery than the battery will hold to charge it, so having a pair of AA batteries in the solar panel could drop the output voltage to 3v (instead of the 3.5 required to actually charge internal batteries) and just operate the unit without taking any power from the internal batteries.

[Faceng Ret]

"The solar panel is an energy saving feature, which is an environmentally
friendly way to provide additional power to the sensors and prolongs battery life.
However, it cannot replace battery power entirely. Sensors can operate entirely on
battery power."

This quote if from the owners manual for the WMR200A. I assume from this that the sensor does not use the batteries in the sensor when the solar panel is delivering sufficient voltage. The sensor batteries are alkaline or in my case lithium and as such are nor rechargeable. The battery pack in the solar unit that there is no mention of in the manual, is comprised of three rechargeable batteries and I measured it as delivering 4.2 volts when charged.

You are probably right as to the reason for not having the battery pack connected during shipping. It just would be nice if there was some mention of the battery pack in their documentation.

[GreyRock]

I'll ask around here before taking any action.    I was reading somewhere else, and there someone said the batteries inside the STC800 solar panel needs to be connected..?  I was a bit perplexed by this, and checked the manual.   It says nothing about it having a battery inside, nor anything needing to be connected inside it, only mounted and insert cables into the sensors.    I could open it up and check that out, but ill ask here first if anyone have found this to be true or not.

Thanks,


Son-of-a-gun, I'll bet that is exactly why I have to replace batteries about every month.. stay tuned!

[Scalphunter]

 With 24 hour days from April to Agust and the all but 3 month as normal and late November to Feburary low sunligth I generally get 3 years with batteries on my sensors, Durning day they run off the solar panel and at nigth if there is one the batteries. No need to have another set of batteries figthing the ones in the sensors.

John

[phil2010]

The answer is yes, you need to remove the back and connect the battery on the solar panel, I bought one last summer and needed to connect the battery.