Rover1822,
Hello. I made some measurements today on my external solar panel setup today. I did this @noon time so I was seeing the max sunlight exposure at the time. All measurements were made at the PM sensor solar panel leads, unless otherwise indicated.
Also, I believe the PM sensor is mostly asleep as it only does an air quality check every 5 or 10 minutes?
So my readings are probably not showing that much of a load, except maybe from the batteries.
Also the batteries were showing a full charge.
I may try and disconnect the external panel and wait for the batteries to discharge down by a couple of bars and then do the measurements again.
- Both panels in parallel, with batteries installed: 6.02V
- External panel, disconnected, no load, measured at External panel: 6.68V
- PM sensor mounted under eves, no external panel, no batteries: 2.58V
- PM sensor in full sunlight, no external panel, no batteries: 6.06V
- PM sensor in full sunlight, no external panel, batteries installed: 3.0V
- PM sensor mounted under eves, no external panel, with batteries: 2.85V
- I am not using a blocking diode as I assume the existing circuit has one. I have seen comments on the web where it is
recommended to install a diode between each panel when used in parallel. However, this was on high capacity panels and I am
not certain this is needed on these small low power panels.
- I also need to clarify that in the morning I sometimes see the battery level is down by one bar, but, this is not always the case. In
fact for the last three days the battery level has shown a full charge.
Cheers,
jwboyd52