Hi Team I have a Mobile Mapping opportunity (600 Units) in South Sudan. There is no power infrastructure for the most part in this region, and the customer maintains that due to extreem rough terrain a portable generator is not a solution for them to charge mobile devices. To add to the complication they will have teams of 8 to 9 people per vehichle traveling to rural areas to take a census and collect mapping data of rural villages throughout South Sudan. Teams will be in the field away from any power source for up to 15 days at a streach. They need to keep 9 devices running for 15 days and they want it done on Solar power. I doubt that they are going to be able to support these devices in a mobile fashion with Solar charging. QUESTION: 1. Has anyone had any experience charging a MC75 from a solar Panel. Can it be done? If yes how long did a full charge take on average? If possible how big was the Solar Panel and what was its specifications? Any feedback or thoughts on this will be most helpful.
Charging MC67 or MC75 Batteries via Solar Panel// Expert user has replied. |
3 Replies
You might want to consider a "vehicle based charging solution and a supply of extra batteries. I suspect that there is lost of sun in the Sudan. I once worked with Solis Energy on a solar power solution for some WLAN equip..they may have something interesting
www.SolisEnergy.com
Hi, Yes, we have used it in the past. Indian 3rd poarty battery UPS which works on solar has been used to charge MC65 along with Zebra MZ220 printer. This was an unique requirement for one of the Govt tender that boht the hardware should be capable of getting charged by solar since the solution was goig tobe used by Rural area where elecetricity is major challenge. The solar panel was of capacity 40W. Depending on the solar intensity, the UPS battery takes time to charge like in bright sunlight the UPS battery got charged in 4 hrs and then it charged MC65( including spare battery in cradle) and Zebra printer together in 3.5 - 4 hrs.
1. The UPS (or the Power store) was quite light in weight. ( Easy to carry around)
2. A Maintenance free battery with a life cycle of 1600-1800 charge cycles that would help to keep the operating expenses almost nil up to 5 years. ( The battery chosen for this product is a light weight material know as Lithium Ion Phosphate , that has up to 1800 charge cycles)
The brief technical specifications of the product are
ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR M TYPE POWER PACK:
PV Module
5-40 Wp
Battery
Li-Ion (6.4V/8AH)
Charge controller type
Microcontroller based design
Input Power Source
Solar Panel and / or Grid Charging
9V DC – 24V DC
Power Adapter Rating
Input - (90V – 270V) AC
Output – (9V – 24V) DC / 40W
Low Voltage Cutoff
Provided
Over Voltage Protection
Provided
Maximum Output Current on
Terminal Port
1.3A / 12V
Maximum Output Current on
Printer Port
1.3A / 12V
No Load Current
< 1mA
Short Circuit Protection
Provided
Input Reverse Polarity
Protection
Provided
Andrea, We have made a IHV accessory to charge MC65 through solar panel, currently the product is under IHV validation process. i will share with you the details of the product and it should be good enough for you to charge a 1.5x MC75a spare battery and a MC75 with battery on a single slot cradle.