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Re: Solar panels

From: Mark Willis <>
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 12:00:57 -0700

My old laptop has a tiny fan that runs off 5V dc, it doesn't blow much
air, but what it does it blows right across the top of the [desktop]
486DX33 chip in that machine (needless to say, battery life suffers; 
CPU chokes if you turn the fan off, in high speed mode at least, OTOH. 
My PC110 doesn't have a fan & doesn't need one.)

  I'll look for a newer fan, the one in the laptop is:
  Mfg. Name:   Sepa
  Mdl. Number: MFB25A-05
  Size:        1.0" W x 1.0" H x ?0.25" D? or so (sure on the 1"x1"
  Power:       5VDC 0.2A

  Hmm.  On second thought: Couldn't you charge a large electrolytic with
the power from a solar array, then use that power to cool the CPU fan,
similar to the circuits at:
  http://www2.xtdl.com/~bushbo/beam/oscillate.html,
  http://www2.xtdl.com/~bushbo/beam/beam.gif {polarity errors on D1!},
  http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/9879/solaroll.htm

  These would run only periodically - but at least run, given some
modifications, and a 5V fan should spin nicely (if slowly) at about 3V
or so (based on my experience spinning a 12V cooling fan off a 9V
battery for a visor de-fogger I made years ago) (AND, this is provided
you use a low ESR [Effective Series Resistance] capacitor for the
storage capacitor.  Tantalums are good here, Electrolytics usually have
higher ESR, some better & some worse, I'd suggest a Tantalum, or maybe
even a mix of Tantalum & Electrolytic so the motor will start spinning
off the Tant & then spin off the Electro?)  Tant's are more expensive,
but age better & can be found for reasonable numbers...  Especially if
you just need 6 or 10 V units!

  Mark Willis
  

 wrote:
> 
> I am heading to Mexico in a few weeks.  I have been very interested in
> adding an additional fan or two to my wearable.  I would love to power
> these with solar energy.  I have not got very much information on this
> subject at all.  My wearable is Intel based which means it produces allot
> of heat. I am also using it virtually all day everyday now so I need to
> make sure it will not blow up.  If anyone out there has any ideas about how
> to use and where to get these type of panels please let me know.  It has
> been my observation that smaller solar panels produce very small voltages.
> It may be that a combination of a specialized low power fan and a solar
> cell could do the trick.  I would really appreciate any ideas that you
> might be able to share.
> 
> Michael

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