Saturday, September 05, 2009

Solar volts

While the typhoon was passing through I had the panel tied up under the blue roof with the plywood panel protecting it from flying objects, I must carry that down out of the way soon.
I rather stretched my morning work session today and barely had sufficient energy to see the thing through to the point where I could stick a tester on the electrodes. 16.5 volts at 2.5 amps or so with no load. I guess the diodes I have inserted into the circuit are costing me a couple of volts. Nevertheless, once I have the actuator controller figured out it should be able to get a little more current as it follows the sun. Down in the shop I have been using an old battery to test out the motion, so I guess I will have to shift that up on deck to power the actuators and put the thing into a proper southerly attitude for now. I can also get it at a better elevation while I am at it.