Small Battery Charging Solar Array

Thread Starter

petebear

Joined Jan 23, 2007
22
I've made a small solar panel array(six panels 0.3 watts each, 3.6 volts each) So my question is sometimes i may want to charge two batteries and sometimes four, if I attached a four battery holder to the array and only placed two batteries in the four battery holder, would the two empty slots waste energy or just lay dormant until I place batteries in them. Thanks in advance.
 

hgmjr

Joined Jan 28, 2005
9,027
The answer depends on the sophistication of your charger circuit. It would help us assist you better if you could sketch your charger circuit and post it.


hgmjr
 

Thread Starter

petebear

Joined Jan 23, 2007
22
Okay, so am I correct in assuming that if I have a 4xAA battery holder, and I place two batteries in it, the circuit will not be complete and they will not charge; and if so, could I use some sort of jumper between the two empty slots to complete the circuit(it sounds like even if that worked energy would be wasted on the empty slots with the jumpers in place, no?) So would I be better off attaching a set of two 2xAA holders with a dip switch or something? Any help is appreciated.
 
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