Looking for opinions about these 2 - 5 volt usb solar regulators circuits...

Photowhit · June 2018

So I've done a basic 5 volt voltage regulator and heat sink for a small usb charger off of a 6 volt nominal panel. it's simple and works flawlessly but I haven't used it much...

I recently saw a couple different voltage regulator circuits on eBay and figured I'd pick them both up and play with them.

Wonder if anyone can point out glaring superiority of one over the other as I have a bunch of solar shingles recently pulled that are 60 watt 6 volt nominal.

Regulator 1

Regulator 2

Both come in small plastic housing, Obviously one has caps and one doesn't...

I was thinking about making some small solar battery bank chargers, and maybe group them with an inexpensive 10,000mAh power bank,

These $10 units appear to be legit;
Auto Drive Power Bank 10000mah

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Auto-Drive-Power-Bank-10000mah/838282049

A usb Fan and light. I think I might convert a couple small 5" O2cool fans, or maybe pop for some better Opolar 8" fans. And a long USB extension power cord, which I might have to make with heavy enough wire so that they can charge a phone inside and run a fan while charging the bank. This begs another question, can These handle having so much available power (7 amps). One of them says 2 amps input, I figured they would take what they needed?

Also would running 2 of these at the same time off of 1 panel be a problem?

Making a thoughtful gift for my family and friends in Hurricane prone North Florida.

Vic · June 2018

Hi ..whit,

Regulator 1, also has caps, they are just some Surface Mount types -- C1 - C8, on the legend.

Reg 1, might be a bit better, only for the use of those caps, verses the Radial Lead type, used in Reg 2 ... this is based on NO real info.

Nice project, good luck, Vic

Dave Angelini · June 2018

I would look very carefully at the battery type of Li-ion and make sure you do not overcurrent it.
For a gift to family I would only use LFP for safest operation. They also can be damaged from charging too fast.
Good Luck!

Photowhit · June 2018

Dave Angelini said:

I would look very carefully at the battery type of Li-ion and make sure you do not overcurrent it.
For a gift to family I would only use LFP for safest operation. They also can be damaged from charging too fast.
Good Luck!

The battery is the 'power bank' that is linked. It has a built in charging regulator to be charged off a USB.
Trying to keep this very simple. Mom doesn't even like to use a computer any more.

pdh · June 2018

> Reg 1, might be a bit better, only for the use of those caps, verses the Radial Lead type, used in Reg 2

I was thinking the opposite. The radial-lead caps in Regulator 2 are almost certainly higher capacitance than the surface-mount caps in #1, so #2 is likely to emit smoother output voltage (having larger capacitors to buffer the load).

What would be the reason for preferring the SM caps in #1? (Smaller size or longer life maybe?)

BB. · June 2018

As always, it is more complex regarding power supply design. There is power supply switch frequency--Generally, higher frequency switching can use smaller capacitors--And inductance of (for example) larger electrolytic leaded capacitors work fine at lower frequencies. And smaller/tantalum/ceramic/etc. surface mounted caps have virtually no leads, and have very low inductance... Which is much better for higher frequency filtering (conductors "block" high frequency current, capacitors "pass" high frequency current).

More or less, these "can" type aluminum electrolytic capacitors are good for "audio frequency" use (the following spec. is based on 120 Hz base frequency):

https://www.alliedelec.com/m/d/b58bb48deb5f38d98d2f48777e8c1e85.pdf

Also note that generic aluminum electrolytic caps have a relatively short design life--The above is 2,000 hours (note there are ~8,000 hours in a year). Long life caps may be rated upwards of 50,000 hours (as I recall).

Electrolytic Capacitors, in general, are one of the classes of components that have shorter life times/greater failure rates.

I cannot make out the chip part numbers to figure out the operating frequency. The smaller caps/devices are probably to set the chip's operating parameters.

I guess that the metal cans are conductors... That they appear to be both the same part (part number), I would guess that both circuits are operating at similar switching frequencies (in engineering, roughly factor of 2x is "roughly" the same. Factor of 10x difference is "night vs day" difference).

For a long term application--I would start with Regulator #1 -- No electrolytic capacitors. Should have a longer life and withstand heat better.

-Bill

Looking for opinions about these 2 - 5 volt usb solar regulators circuits...

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