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mini back-story:
I recently purchased a PPX power system (exactly this). It took weeks to finally arrive and when it did it had a little piece of paper with it stating that the solar panel was on back order and that they would be shipping it when it was available.
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I plugged the batteries in the wall, and just as the manual said, it took 3 hours to charge.
Finally, yesterday the solar panel came. I wanted to test it out today so, I plugged some stuff in the battery last night and drained some of the charge. Mostly, I just ran a USB led light last night instead of one of my lamps and it dropped the battery to 88% before I turned it off.
I wake up today and to my dismay it is severely overcast and rainy. I thought "what the hell, plug it in and see what happens". This is the bizarro world part. It took less than 30 seconds to completely recharge the battery. 12% is about an 1/8th of 100%. 8 * 30 seconds is like 4 minutes. Soooo why does the wall take 3 hours but this little 10w solar panel takes an assumed 4 minutes? Why is it charging at all on such an overcast day? RIGHT NOW, I am running my laptop and charging my phone off the battery. The charge controller is blinking 100% meaning that it is constantly charging to 100% from some decimal greater than 99%. It is managing this off of a solar panel that is barely getting any light and certainly no direct light. I am pretty damn sure that the panel is not amorphous. It looks like regular old run-of-the-mill cells.
I'm of the mind that this thing might even trickle charge in bright moonlight. I could definitely be wrong but, there is no sun and the battery is maintaining a just-under 100% charge while powering 2 devices. Before the panel my laptop cleaned the battery of all charge in like 45 minutes. It's been well over an hour and the battery hasn't moved.
I'm about to unplug the solar panel, wipe the battery of any charge and then recharge on the panel. There has to be something I do not understand here. I refuse to believe I can fully charge a 12,000 mAh/44.4 wH battery in 4 minutes but, the current math absolutely suggests it.
EDIT: HAH! There is some kind of a lie going on here. I disconnected the solar panel and the charge controller displayed 72%. Sooo, am I to believe the charge dropped 28% in a second? Of course not. There is some bullshit with this charge controller. However. the battery should be completely dead at this point so, the solar panel is still prolonging the charge very well considering there is practically no real sunlight.
EDIT 2: If it's sunny tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can run my fridge the entire day off this little solar generator. They claim you can run a dorm fridge. I have one of those. Of course when the sun goes down it's going to wipe the battery pretty fast. IMO, for as small as all this stuff it is it is pretty damn amazing. I could fit everything in a backpack with ease and plenty of room to spare. Everything = 2 ppx batteries, 2 110 inverters & a 10w solar panel. It is also very light. All of that combined couldn't weigh more than 4 or 5 pounds, maybe not even that. I wish it was chainable though. They get you with that free second battery cause you don't get a free 2nd inverter and free second panel. Since it isn't chainable that sort of leaves you with an incomplete 2nd setup.
I recently purchased a PPX power system (exactly this). It took weeks to finally arrive and when it did it had a little piece of paper with it stating that the solar panel was on back order and that they would be shipping it when it was available.
---
I plugged the batteries in the wall, and just as the manual said, it took 3 hours to charge.
Finally, yesterday the solar panel came. I wanted to test it out today so, I plugged some stuff in the battery last night and drained some of the charge. Mostly, I just ran a USB led light last night instead of one of my lamps and it dropped the battery to 88% before I turned it off.
I wake up today and to my dismay it is severely overcast and rainy. I thought "what the hell, plug it in and see what happens". This is the bizarro world part. It took less than 30 seconds to completely recharge the battery. 12% is about an 1/8th of 100%. 8 * 30 seconds is like 4 minutes. Soooo why does the wall take 3 hours but this little 10w solar panel takes an assumed 4 minutes? Why is it charging at all on such an overcast day? RIGHT NOW, I am running my laptop and charging my phone off the battery. The charge controller is blinking 100% meaning that it is constantly charging to 100% from some decimal greater than 99%. It is managing this off of a solar panel that is barely getting any light and certainly no direct light. I am pretty damn sure that the panel is not amorphous. It looks like regular old run-of-the-mill cells.
I'm of the mind that this thing might even trickle charge in bright moonlight. I could definitely be wrong but, there is no sun and the battery is maintaining a just-under 100% charge while powering 2 devices. Before the panel my laptop cleaned the battery of all charge in like 45 minutes. It's been well over an hour and the battery hasn't moved.
I'm about to unplug the solar panel, wipe the battery of any charge and then recharge on the panel. There has to be something I do not understand here. I refuse to believe I can fully charge a 12,000 mAh/44.4 wH battery in 4 minutes but, the current math absolutely suggests it.
EDIT: HAH! There is some kind of a lie going on here. I disconnected the solar panel and the charge controller displayed 72%. Sooo, am I to believe the charge dropped 28% in a second? Of course not. There is some bullshit with this charge controller. However. the battery should be completely dead at this point so, the solar panel is still prolonging the charge very well considering there is practically no real sunlight.
EDIT 2: If it's sunny tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can run my fridge the entire day off this little solar generator. They claim you can run a dorm fridge. I have one of those. Of course when the sun goes down it's going to wipe the battery pretty fast. IMO, for as small as all this stuff it is it is pretty damn amazing. I could fit everything in a backpack with ease and plenty of room to spare. Everything = 2 ppx batteries, 2 110 inverters & a 10w solar panel. It is also very light. All of that combined couldn't weigh more than 4 or 5 pounds, maybe not even that. I wish it was chainable though. They get you with that free second battery cause you don't get a free 2nd inverter and free second panel. Since it isn't chainable that sort of leaves you with an incomplete 2nd setup.
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