Still, since we are 'glamping' a powersource is needed. (Seriously it is. We have the whole collection of Magnum P.I to watch on DVD via the laptop. There's lighting, recharging ... all those things that should be a welcome relief while sitting in a tent in the freezing cold listening to the rain at 3am). I won't bore you with details because you can look it up if you are so inclined but we have a battery box. Here it us at home in the studio ( hence the stained floor):
Somehow after our little excursion we manage to leave something on ( or that's what we think as it was quite flat). This meant getting out manuals to learn how to recharge it via the solar panels. It can be recharged from the mains or from a 12v cigarette lighter. The solar panels have a separate controller/monitor that required some putting together.
I placed the solar panels in a not too ideal place as the sun was the other side of the house I couldn't be bothered to move the battery for this particular test. ( Its heavyish).
After some double checking and triple checking I plugged it in and then a rather unexcited moment happened:
Yes. Power. ( Look, I did mention that this was a tad boring). Moving the panels I managed to increase it to3.6A. That's amps. The only thing I know about amps is that if they gang up on you they can kill you. Apparently.
Luckily they didn't and the battery leapt into action ( after a dull minute or so) and did this:
So. Solar panel system working. Great stuff. (Actually I did do that 'isn't it amazing how we can capture energy from the sun' thinking stuff. But then I got hungry and stopped).
That's it. I'll stick a different pic in the heading to try and make this post look more interesting than it really is.
