Solar powered fence charger

[hurleyjd]

I have a Parmark 6-volt fence charger that I broke the solar collector on. The collector is pretty expensive. I looked at a 12 volt solar collector at Atwoods that could be bought for 24 dollars. How would you connect this to the battery in the 6 volt charger. Will it overload the battery. Could you put a resistor in line. Any help appreciated.

 

[Anonymous]

Did you check northern tool and harbour freight? They've got a couple different panels but I don't know if any are 6v

 

[Anonymous]

http://store.sundancesolar.com/6vosopa.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000GWLZKQ

 

[greybeard]

I have a Parmark 6-volt fence charger that I broke the solar collector on. The collector is pretty expensive. I looked at a 12 volt solar collector at Atwoods that could be bought for 24 dollars. How would you connect this to the battery in the 6 volt charger. Will it overload the battery. Could you put a resistor in line. Any help appreciated.

Just on face value, yes a resistor would be needed to drop the voltage from 12v to 6v, and probably a pretty danged big resistor at that.

 

[shaz]

I have a Parmark 6-volt fence charger that I broke the solar collector on. The collector is pretty expensive. I looked at a 12 volt solar collector at Atwoods that could be bought for 24 dollars. How would you connect this to the battery in the 6 volt charger. Will it overload the battery. Could you put a resistor in line. Any help appreciated.

Just on face value, yes a resistor would be needed to drop the voltage from 12v to 6v, and probably a pretty danged big resistor at that.

Please don't do that! Put two 6 volt batteries in series but not a resistor. That resistor is just going to consume half your power in the form of heat. Being solar, you don't have much power to spare.

 

[hurleyjd]

Got an e-mail back from Parmak cost of replacement solar panel $129.50 plus $18 shipping. I can buy a new solar powered charger Parmak brand at Atwoods for $164.00. If I had got there on black Friday with a 20% coupon it could have been mine for 131.20. Will keep looking, hate to throw a good charger away because of the panel replacement.

 

[ERNIBIGB]

I quit buying the self contained units and started using separate components. A 5 watt panel for less than $50 will keep a weak car battery charged and use a 12v fencer for the fence. I have one setup using a 15 watt panel with a charge controller and a decent 31p truck battery that has run continuously for 2 years. 5 watt panel will not require a charge controller. Sometimes you can find a solar kit from Northern Tool or Harbor Freight or similar places that are very inexpensive. I picked up a new in box light kit at an auction for $60 containing 3-15 watt panels and one controller along with some other parts for mounting. If one component goes bad I dont have to buy anything I don't need. I even swap out dead batteries as cores for ones that will still hold some charge for no money just core for core.

 

[shaz]

What I'm suggesting is that you use two six volt batteries in series so your solar cell will charge the batteries and offer reserve power like a really BIG capacitor. You'll have good voltage regulation like you would with any dc-dc converter. where the positive of one battery joins the negative of the other battery you'll have six volts regardless of your load (within reason of course). You can't do that with a resistor unless your current drain is constant...it's not.

 

[greybeard]

Oh, I agree fully Shaz, using 2 6v batts in series, but...........

where the positive of one battery joins the negative of the other battery you'll have six volts

If you do that, you probably meant you would have twelve volts.
(two 6v in parallel (+ to + and - to -) would=6v)

I have a old car that uses a big ceramic resistor on the coolant fan to achieve low speed and it is a .3 ohm but approx 80 wattage resistor, and very hard to find. .3 ohm is pretty common, but finding a 75-100 watt is difficult and they run about $90 at Mouser. Dissapates +/- 480 watts IIRC. That's a lot of loss, and it's been awhile since I checked the V drop, but seems it only dropped it to around 8.5VD.

 

[shaz]

Oh, I agree fully Shaz, using 2 6v batts in series, but...........

where the positive of one battery joins the negative of the other battery you'll have six volts

If you do that, you probably meant you would have twelve volts.
(two 6v in parallel (+ to + and - to -) would=6v)

I have a old car that uses a big ceramic resistor on the coolant fan to achieve low speed and it is a .3 ohm but approx 80 wattage resistor, and very hard to find. .3 ohm is pretty common, but finding a 75-100 watt is difficult and they run about $90 at Mouser. Dissapates +/- 480 watts IIRC. That's a lot of loss, and it's been awhile since I checked the V drop, but seems it only dropped it to around 8.5VD.

No, your correct that the batteries in parallel would create six volts but what I meant was if you join the batteries in series you will have a ground, six volts and then 12volts if you measure across the whole thing. Where the two batteries join will be six volts. Connect the charger across that. Connect the panels from ground to 12 Volts.

2 batteries A & B
Connect A negative terminal to ground. Also connect solar panel ground side to this junction
Connect A positive terminal to B negative terminal. This will be where your charger positive connects
Connect B positive to panel positive.