Anyone using solar panels to keep their cameras running 24/7?

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I have most of my cameras wired direct running 24/7 on an LVC on my cars, so the ones that aren't driven frequently usually shut down after a few days (or weeks depending on which car)

I was thinking about picking up a cheap solar panel trickle charger like this to keep the batteries a float

96716_400x400.jpg



Anyone here running one of these or similar?
 
That one doesn't look big enough to be worthwhile.

The sun is only going to be in front of the panel for 12 hours a day at most, then it is at a poor angle for most of that, so you can take the rated power output and quarter it, then if you put it behind glass you need to half the result, then there will almost certainly be shadows on the panel for much of the day which will at least half the power output again. Then take into account the weather, they are rated for full sun.

You will need quite a large panel for even a small single channel dashcam to run 24/7.

If they are parked in a garage then you have another problem!

They will extend the record time, and then recharge the battery after LVC, which is probably very good for battery life.
 
I'd suggest looking into folding solar panels made for backpacking and camping. Far more user-generated info on them and you need about that much panel size to get good output. Not sure if there's many at 12V; most of those now have 5VDC USB converters built in to charge phones, cams, and powerbanks.

It's been about ten years since I crunched the numbers but given 8 hours sun and a constant 1.5A load it would take me roughly 4 sq ft of panels to break even behind an untinted windshield. At best I could get 3 sq ft where I wanted to put the panels- that's why I never pursued the idea any further. Anything will help of course, just don't expect great results from small or cheap components.

Whatever you get, be sure there are blocking diodes so the panel doesn't absorb battery energy when the panel output is low ;)

Phil
 
I use BlackboxMyCar BI-750 Dash Cam Battery to keep my dashcam run 24x7
 

Instead of solar panel, I bought a beefy BlackboxMyCar BI-750 Dash Cam Battery. It pulls power from ACC +12V and recharge a large Li-Fe Phosphate battery, meanwhile supplies permenant +12V and ACC +12V to Dashcam/GPS/Radar Detector. It's website has other models.​



I'm actually thinking about getting an 8000-10000 mAh SLA/AGM battery to run independantly with a simple charging relay circuit and each camera hardwired with LVC's

61nCPN2grpL._AC_SL1500_.jpg
 
One advantage of the SLA/AGM batteries is that they require no special charging circuitry, so quite easy to design for. Disadvantages are size and weight for a given usable capacity. Lithium battery capacity is listed as the usable capacity, while L/A types have roughly half of their total listed capacity usable (varies by type).

I ran a temporary dashcam in a borrowed vehicle with a small stand-alone SLA battery and it worked fine as long as I remembered to charge the battery. A powerbank would have likely been better but I had the SLA on hand so I just used it instead.

Phil
 
I should be able to fit a 10Ah SLA somewhere under the hood (I'm actually thinking hidden within the passenger fender)

My idea is to wire all the cams directly to the SLA batt using the existing hardwire kits with LVC's. then just connect a charging relay activated by the ignition.

Maybe throw in a bypass button or a timer relay so the cams don't see a voltage spike during cranking (I did this for the DVR system in my Land Cruiser)
 
I suggest an AGM rather than an SLA, a 10Ah SLA is not going to charge very quickly, and you will want to use a lot of its capacity so an AGM will work out cheaper in the long run due to much longer life when being significantly discharged. 10Ah is fairly small for powering a dashcam overnight even if you use all of it, fine if you are running eg a 3 hour parking timer.
 
That one doesn't look big enough to be worthwhile.

The sun is only going to be in front of the panel for 12 hours a day at most, then it is at a poor angle for most of that, so you can take the rated power output and quarter it, then if you put it behind glass you need to half the result, then there will almost certainly be shadows on the panel for much of the day which will at least half the power output again. Then take into account the weather, they are rated for full sun.

You will need quite a large panel for even a small single channel dashcam to run 24/7.

If they are parked in a garage then you have another problem!

They will extend the record time, and then recharge the battery after LVC 12v solar panel, which is probably very good for battery life.
we had a break in and the scumbag stole about $1200 worth of stuff. The electric company has given me a quote for $5000 to run electricity to the cabin. I am thinking about setting up a solar power system that would power a couple of security camera systems and then have those images, which would be triggered by movement, uploaded to the cloud via a USB modem that is installed into a router. My initial calculations for how many batteries and solar panels I would need tells me it is going to cost close to what the electric company quoted for electric hookup to get solar power setup for this system. I am hoping my calculations are incorrect. I used the volts and watts that were listed on each component to calculate number of batteries and panels. The cameras each had a sticker on them with m/n & s/n and also stated "12V dc less than or equal to 4 watts". The DVR's each had a sticker on them with m/n & s/n and also stated "12V dc, max 18W". Since security systems require being on 24/7/365, they inherently require more power over time than most TV's apparently. I came up with me needing $1150 worth of batteries including tax. This would be 4 flood batteries 12V and 155 AH each. I am wondering if I am using the correct watts to make these calculations. When I look at the power adapters for the cameras, they say "Input: 100-240V - 50/60 HZ, max = 0.5A; Output: 12V dc 1.0A". When I look at the power adapters for the DVR's, they say "Input: 100-240V - 50/60 HZ, max = 0.7A; Output: 12V dc 1.5A" I am thinking that maybe I could recalculate my requirements based on either the input or output numbers of the adapters, but I am not sure whether I should use the input or the output. I know that sounds silly, but since the power adapters would be plugged into the inverter, what is listed as the input on the power adapters would have to be the output of the inverter in my way of thinking. Any help on this dilemma would be greatly appreciated.
 
You might look into cellular trail cameras - many are reasonably priced, will last for months on one set of batteries, AND have optional solar panels to extend battery life. Lots of reviews out there although I don't know what/which would be easily available where you are. They're already optimized for motion triggering and long battery life.
 
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