50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger

 If i buy the Sunforce 50022 5 Watt Solar Battery Trickle Charger will i need
a charger to limit to current going in the battery?  I have the yuasa
np2.3-12  2.3 Am Hr 12 volt battery, will it charge it?

thanks

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  You don't necessarily need a charge controller to limit current, however
if you have a good PWM it will stop the battery from over charging as
well as better regulate the charge curve and hence give you longer
battery life and better charge.  This panel will give you about 400mA so
.4*8 (c/8) is about 2.4AH - about what your battery is. So it is a bit
fast, but should be safe.

If you want to be real cheap you can put a 3-10W zener diode across the
battery to protect it from over charging.  a 14.3V is about right for
that, though a 13-14v is fine. I don't recommend this trick for panels
larger than 5W - and even then it isn't very desirable.
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?Ref"1626&RowA037&Site=US
or
http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?Ref"1626&RowA038&Site=US

I might also suggest you consider the Unisolar 5W such as the USF-5
(flexible) or US-5 (ridged)if you want a real nice 5W panel.
I use the USF-32w for my larger gel cell banks which are usually 7-25AH
range - slightly larger than yours.
Check these guys for a great price - they are usually the cheapest I can
find on Unisolar.
http://www.cosolar.com/catalog/cat_panels_unisolar.htm


Remember your only going to get about 400mA out of this on average so
this will take the better part of day to charge that battery assuming
you are not draining current off it at the same time.

Hawker


On 6/4/2006 7:08 PM, The digits of Jennie's hands composed the following:


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