The max charging of the power manager is 2amps, it cannot go above 9.5w even if you have a 100w solar panel. Can anyone suggest another mppt powerbank with atleast 15w solar charging.

I'm only getting 8.6 to 9.1 watts using this combo, i have set the powerban to 6 volts, am i doing something wrong?

How does this improve upon simply charging a USB power bank while hiking, and charging devices from the bank, during evenings?

Great video!!! Thanks

Your presentation is extremely serious, I like this, it adds to your credibility. Thank you.

Hi, would this hack work on other portable panels for backpacking ? THANKS

Awesome content!

I liked your videos, why are you not filming anymore?

I wish to see more videos like this. Experimental instead of produt reviews.

Wouldn't a general power bank do the same thing without the complications. They're designed to charge at slow rates and some even have built in solar panels. If they'll charge with the built in ones. Surely they'll charge with those panels too.

I have the Anker 24w solar panel, I will now add my Anker battery bank, to the pouch to charge the bank when out and open, here in Arizona, we have plenty of the local star power God made for us! Thank you!

Is solar input a DC5521?

Humm yeah, well the main thing with the MPPT is that it constantly adjust the voltage and amperage to always give the most stable voltage possible, 5v in this case. If not enough sun (within certain limits) it will low the amps to increase the voltage. And the other way too, if the voltage is already good but the cells give more than the 5v it will convert the excess into more amps. So it reduces the waste of energy a lot. Most solar panels have a PWM (much cheaper) it basically only stop the voltage to go too high, so no voltage/amperage balancing and so lot of energy wasted when not in perfect conditions

I was looking to find a module just like that, would be great to be able to set a charge voltage and a buck boost converter to set output voltage, bonus if it can be paralleled or series connected for increased capacity or output voltage, especially if you can parallel charge them with a smaller voltage and then series them to have a higher output voltage than the input... also if it can work with different sized batteries or even different chemistries

Great Video! Great Execution And Amazing Way Of Presenting Information!

Thank you for your great video. Why not use a usb-c input power bank instead and mod a usb-c cable to hook up to the solar panel.

If it’s that simple to make it that much better. Why don’t these manufacturers just build them that way?

Nice one. I have made an 20w MPPT li ion charger which does get quite hot during max charging current but does get rhe job done very well. I ve also built a 15w QC2 charger to go with it so the 2 make a great little solar charger which is quite powerfull. May make some video at some point just to share

Would the newer one Solar Power Manager (C) work as well?

The Ryno Tuff 21w charger i have clearly says right on it 5 volts at 2.1 amps which equals 10 watts according to the math so how they get away with advertising them as 21w I can't understand?

Another follow up question. You use the Anker solar panel, and mention that it outputs 6 volts. What about the BigBlue solar panel? Does it output 6 volts? Looking at the pictures of it, there are 12 segments in each panel. I would presume 0.5v per segment, meaning 6 volts. What do you think? Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.

Nice Man

Please make more of these videos. Great job

Als Laie fehlt mir so einiges an Detailwissen, weshalb ich auf eine ganz knappe Antwort hoffe: Warum bietet eine gewöhnliche Powerbank als Puffer zwischen Solarpanel und Smartphone denn keine vergleichbare Wirkung?

i have a better hack that doesn't involve cutting into the solar panel. connect a power brick to the solar panel, and connect your phone to the power brick.

This premise for this hack are flawed. You state that the phone rejects unstable power sources, however at the very beginning you stated that you use a charging brick as a proxy. So it shouldn’t matter if the power source fluctuated, because the brick is not affected by this…

Hi mr Toledo please clarify something for me- both anker and solar circuit board have to be on "6" ONLY and everything else off, correct? Also, the outlet ports on anker will no longer work? Thank you so much.

It seems the consensus among long haul thru hikers is that 10 AH is the best size of storage to have along.... just enough power to get to the next town (every 4 days or so) for a recharge. Another viewpoint might be the Air traveler. the Airlines allow any lithium battery under 100 watts to be OK for carry-on air transport. In that case, a power bank of 27 AH would be the max allowable by the TSA in the USA Waveshare should consider a "model B+" with the 27 AH battery and a plastic case to minimize weight. They also might consider changing the Model B over to a plastic case too for weight savings. .

I think 12W is still not enough. It needs to be 18W. In addition, you need to be able to adjust the MPPT, since this point can shift depending on the strength of the light falling on the solar panel. Further, the video did not tell whether this power bank can simultaneously charge itself and charge some gadget; while performing the function of a power stabilizer. This is a very important feature for a power bank that must be paired with a solar panel. Further, in my opinion, it is better to have not a power bank, but a charger for 3 18650 batteries with a power bank function. It is highly desirable that the batteries are charged not in parallel, but through independent channels, so that batteries with different levels of residual charge can be installed simultaneously. And finally, I want to note that for a power bank or charger that are designed to work in tandem with a solar panel, it would be desirable to have a sound notification function about the end of the charge; this feature should be disabled. Well, this power bank should also be able to be charged not only from the solar panel, but also from the usual mains charging, so that it can be charged from the outlet in inclement weather, if there is such an opportunity.

I'm confused... Isn't this simply just a standard powerbank? What stops me from using any arbitrary powerbank, charging my phone while the powerbank is being charged by the solarpanels? I'm obviously losing efficiency twice through voltage regulation, but at least the battery is being continuously charged, right? My experience, like your own, is that a smartphone will lose communication with the solar panel when the unstable current drops below a certain level, and sometimes does not pick back up on the communcation for quite some time, missing out on a significant amount of power. Waveshare's SPMB looks unnecessarily large and clunky for doing something as simple as buffering the power output of a solar panel. I have an old LiPo solar charger circuit from Adafruit, which is essentially identical to Waveshare's original SPM (5V/1A), but is a fraction of its weight and size, and stores its main buffers in a large capacitor. It shouldn't be very hard to add a controller circuit that upregulates any high currents @ nominal voltage to its preferred charging standard without adding 100ml of metal bulk. Remember, a low power solar panel such as the Anker is a very simple device. It's unfeasible to expect it to charge anything but a single device at a time. So we really want only a single port, ideally just Power Delivery, to extract power out of the solar panel. It seems to me that the losses in having no buffer controller is so great that even the losses in battery regulation are preferable, if a medium such as a battery is needed to charge non-PD-compatible devices. Edit: It certainly seems to me that an external battery makes the LiPo in the solar charger circuit redundant. Not to mention the power dissipation from the buck converter required for its regulation. This all but defeats the purpose of having a buffer in my opinion. A single chunky capacitor seems to me to reduce the load on the buck converter, while simultaneously providing steady power to an arbitrary external powerbank or other device.

Great video, definitely relevant for my upcoming backpacking trip.

Finally someone who knows some engineering. Only one recommendation: when you want to test it just put it on the same place, don't do long hiking in witch the conditions will be even more variable.

how would this compare to attaching the widely popular cn3791 mppt charger? Amy data? thanks, very insightful

how does ANKER not include an MTTP already? What's their setup?

What aren't there any out of the box product like this... quite strange

Thanks dude! A video request please..... I would like to understand more about batteries, solar panels and putting them together to build my own but I just don't know where to start. What do I need to learn and understand what you know and understand? I hear you when you talk and I do kinda understand but I think for me (as a beginner) I need it broken down like a 'book for dummy's' so to speak. You would be a great teacher and I look forward to more videos from you. Thanks ❤

Many thanks for your informative video! I was at the edge of buying the Waveshare Solar Power Manager C with the 3x 18650 cells. But I'm not sure. At which Ampere rate can the Solar Power Manager charge the cells? If you got a 40W solar panel or a 30W one and the sun is good i fear you lose energy instead of saving it. I don't think, 3x cells can be charged at 30Watts? What is the rated charge current of the device? Perhaps it's only good for very smalls solar panels?

I managed to get myself one! Fiddling around with it now. I'm using a 3.7V Li-ion rechargable 14500 battery with a (claimed) 1300mAh capacity as the "temporary energy storage" battery for now. Fits perfectly in the battery holder on the board, and I've hooked up a myMosh S-Pro 12,000mAh powerbank to the 5V/1A USB-A output for some charging tests. My question is, does the temp energy storage battery need to be fully charged or even partially charged first, before the solar power manager is able to output consistent, stable power at its 5V/1A USB port?

"unrelated to ice age" :) nice little detail, I got that! Buck is my favorite character from Ice Age.

I used the Anker 21W solar charger when backpacking across the Pyrenees on the GR11 in 2021. The trip took 6 weeks and I was self sufficient with regards to electricity for the whole trip. I charged the Anker 1000mah battery pack when walking and when stopping at the end of the day, would charge my mobile phone and top up from the Anker battery pack.

I think this is one of the only videos on YT reviewing the WaveShare solar charge manager as of date! I came across this elegant product after spending hours and considerable amount of money on boards from Ebay which does not have all of these functionalities.

Thanks for sharing, I got a small GENASUN Li-On MPPT charger for my windows solar panel setup, it is not cheap for it capacity at $1xx, the one you mentioned is quite affordable should be included in small portable panels.

Is "MPPT SET" at 6V to select the desired input voltage from solar panels?

what a geat video!

Thanks mate! Bought the components to give this a try. A hikable solar system with reasonable weight vs performance would be a dream come true for many! Would love to see the panels re-dressed in a UL waterproof dyneema (or similar) housing.

Great video! Thank you for experimenting and sharing!

Thanks for this video. I was wondering, the Anker solar panel is 21W. But adding this Solar Power Manager you will get only an output of 5W. Isn't that a waste of the potential solar energy? It sounds like it slows down charging in full summer sun.

Just carry a battery bank and charge that when you’re still

Would a small heat sink on the buck converter parts help dissipate the heat more safely? And I wonder if a 3-d printed case could help bring down the weight for backpacking... Thx!

Wy the F..... They don't make it like it this but the way they do?