If I run my rover with a 7.2V battery through a 5v buck converter I get a smooth 5v at about 130mA running through my meter when connected to the Raspberry Pi load.
I have two 5v 500mA solar panels in series for 10v 500mA in good sun. I expect the amperage is much lower normally.
When I check the volts coming off my Solar Panel Array it shows it is running at 8.60v. Great right? That's plenty to provide a smother 5v or so I thought.
As soon as I plug in the same buck converter I used with the battery I drop to 3.56v on the solar panel side of the buck converter and 0mA, with or without a load. After the buck converter, my meter just goes dead, which I'd expect because I believe the buck converter won't output anything less than 5v.
So any ideas why my buck converter is dropping 8.6v to 3.56v? I figure I = V/R may come in to play here but I really don't get it.
I tried with linear 7805 regulators too, that had about 7v going in and 4.95 coming out which was great, but the mA output was only like 10 - 20mA, so much too low to even run my RaspberryPi. Sunlight wasn't great at that point though, or maybe the solar panel is cheap and really does not provide 500mA in normal conditions.
My Buck Converter:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3A-DC-DC-B...rentrq:89298a701690a99c6049588bfff7d4df|iid:1
My Solar Panel:
https://www.amazon.com/AMX3d-500mAh...A&qid=1552784450&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1
I've given up trying to make it work at this point, I'll just use a battery, but I'd love to know why such a huge drop in voltage when I used the buck converter.
Thanks.
I have two 5v 500mA solar panels in series for 10v 500mA in good sun. I expect the amperage is much lower normally.
When I check the volts coming off my Solar Panel Array it shows it is running at 8.60v. Great right? That's plenty to provide a smother 5v or so I thought.
As soon as I plug in the same buck converter I used with the battery I drop to 3.56v on the solar panel side of the buck converter and 0mA, with or without a load. After the buck converter, my meter just goes dead, which I'd expect because I believe the buck converter won't output anything less than 5v.
So any ideas why my buck converter is dropping 8.6v to 3.56v? I figure I = V/R may come in to play here but I really don't get it.
I tried with linear 7805 regulators too, that had about 7v going in and 4.95 coming out which was great, but the mA output was only like 10 - 20mA, so much too low to even run my RaspberryPi. Sunlight wasn't great at that point though, or maybe the solar panel is cheap and really does not provide 500mA in normal conditions.
My Buck Converter:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3A-DC-DC-B...rentrq:89298a701690a99c6049588bfff7d4df|iid:1
My Solar Panel:
https://www.amazon.com/AMX3d-500mAh...A&qid=1552784450&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1
I've given up trying to make it work at this point, I'll just use a battery, but I'd love to know why such a huge drop in voltage when I used the buck converter.
Thanks.