Solar cam

Has any electrical engineer oriented person calculated the minimum requirements to keep a WYZE cam running 24 hours, assuming 8 hours of direct sunlight. For example, Harbor Freight has a $19.50 solar power motion activated led light, that for the $$$ works brilliantly. Building on that how much battery and solar size would be needed for a 5V ?amp cam at a minimun.

2 Likes

I would look at this before harbor fright. Some has made a full solar battery system,

https://www.amazon.com/GRDE-10000mAh-Portable-Carabiner-Smartphones/dp/B07ZKHZ692/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=usb+battery+solar&qid=1583454114&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMDhHNUtJWlBZSDQ1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDM4NjMwMzlLMjEyV1RQSENFUSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTM5NDMzMzRLV0xQTVhJT1JITyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

I have This One and it will drive a cam with continuous recording for 24 hours without using the solar. The solar is pretty much a hype for selling IMHOP. It takes a day of sun to get a noticable boost in charge. The description of the device even points this out on Amazon. I assume the panel is just not large enough to generate enough power to charge.
image

so

  • it’s about 325mA per hour consumed.
  • about 7800mA a day
    But it will take a 5w solar cell to recharge in 8 hours of sun per day. so 1.5V units a not enough solar I think.