DD
I love the idea of being able to re-charge as I would like very much to take the kodak playsport with me.

The only thing I question is the intensity of the sun in the north country. Sure we can test all day long in Florida and Texas with stellar results (I got fried doing my lawn today!) but what do you think the chances are in Ontario?

Are you going to give it a go up there? Will you post your results? Thanks.

Al

mastertangler wrote on May 19^th, 2011 at 9:53pm:

The only thing I can go by so far is that today we had 100% overcast.  The solar panel still pegged out the volt meter's 10 volt setting.  When set at 50 volts, today's readings were about 10% less than full sun and were just about equivalent to full shade readings.

Supposed to be overcast here tomorrow.  I'm draining my 8-AA pack as we speak (connected the batts to a USB cable that I plugged into a 2 speed fan ... its still purring along after 2 hours.)  If it doesn't get stormy, I'll put the unit out and see how quickly I get a full batt charge.

The one feature I like about this unit is that it pumps out 300 mA and this is the low end of what PowerFilm manufactures.  If you need more juice (up to about 60 watts/3600 mA as I recall) they produce a foldable unit for that.  I've taken another solar panel that pushes out 60 mA, but that means the charge time is five times longer.  I also like the marine-grade electrical connector that this panel uses.

dd

mastertangler wrote on May 20^th, 2011 at 1:06am:

No, but I've considered taking a lighter weight one along to provide a little air circulation in the tent on a warm summer night.  

dd

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Heck with a fan, create an air conditioner for your tent. 
There is probably a way to take the cooling system out of one those coolers you plug into the cigarette lighters of your car.   Does the solar panel work on moon-light? 

tonyt74 wrote on May 20^th, 2011 at 3:37pm:

Well, its not so much a matter of volts as amps.  The solar panel mentoned above is rated at 15 volts, but only 300 milliamps.  So the weak link to power a fishfinder directly is the amp output ... and 300 milliamps (.3 amps) is insufficient to power most electrical devices directly.  To illustrate, the manual for the Cuda 300 fishfinder indicates that you should place a 3 amp fuse in the DC power line.  This translates to an operating power draw of less than that.  So, I'm guessing that a typical draw would be on the order of 2 amps.  Consequently, the solar panel produces on the order of 15% of the power needed (.3/2).

Consequently, it will be necessary to use this solar panel to recharge batteries.  (In this context, the solar panel operates as a trickle charger, producing a maximum of .3 amps per hour.)  I run my Cuda on an 8 AA pack.  The individual batteries are on the order of 1.5 volts and something above 2000 milliamps.  So the 8-pack produces 12 volts and 16 amps.  This configuration should produce about 8 hours of continuous use.  (But since I'm currently using lithium batteries ... 3000 amps, this is more like 24 amps or 12 hours of continuous use).

Of course, these numbers are only approximate and depend on a lot of additional factors (e.g., temperature, battery efficiency, etc.)

As indicated in the original post, I paid $57.77 for the panel I purchased.  It is possible that you could find it cheaper.

dd

Well, MY face is RED.  

Just for grins, I hooked up the aforementioned solar panel to my Cuda 168.  At the moment (in full sun) it is running (in simulator mode) like a top.  I guess I need to go back and check my math! Either that or the Cuda draws much less power than I suspected.  I can tell that 300 mA is near the lowest level that will do ... in partial shade, the Cuda turns itself off (for lack of power).

I guess its time for a field test to see if there is ample juice to run the transducer.  I CAN hear it pinging, but that's no indication that the signal strength is sufficient to produce a clear bottom image.

dd

Postscript:  I guess it pays to read the manual.  The documentation for the Cuda 168 indicates that the current draw is 110 mA with backlight off and 250 mA with backlight on. 

So, the original question:  Can you power a depth finder from a solar panel?  The answer is:  It depends on your depth finder power draw (and solar panel output).  But for the specific configuration I tried, the answer would be YES. 

BTW: 

I did try the depth finder with another solar panel that only produces 60 mA and that was insufficient to power up the Cuda (which, based on the manual, would be the anticipated outcome).  This also explains why my 300 mA solar panel kept the Cuda running when 1/2 of the individual cells were in shade.

So, refigurring how long an 8-pack of 2500 mA AA's would last:

2500 X 8 / 110 = 181 hours.  (I guess THAT's why my battery pack is sufficient to last for a 2-week trip!) 

On a side-bar note:  I think you will find that the current draw at power-up is somewhat more than 110 mA.  So apparently there is a power-up spike.  This would explain why I could not do a power up with some of the individual solar cells in shade, but would run with the same number of cells covered.

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Great idea!  

I'd like to hear more about how you did this...

Thanks!  I will have to crack mine open and take a look...