Quote:
Originally Posted by BrucePerens
Check out the West Mountain Radio PG40. Only $140 and it will charge a battery from an external supply, and feed your converter from the TV while it's plugged in. |
That offers really nice "smoothing" for the consumer devices (including the batteries), but it does not boost the Voltage provided form the Power Supply. Reference UG page 11. You need a separate boost device to do that - as we discussed in
the Other Thread.
If we put this machine between the "el-cheapo" Voltage Booster and the TM batteries, it would replace the need for "PWM Solar Controller", and it
might also be a lot more friendly to the "boost device". That would solve the problem which seems to have occurred in my original build. But it's primary intent is to "smooth" on the output side (batteries and expensive equipment). The UG offers no information about the nature of impedence variations which will present to the PSU.
Even if it does turn out to be a "friendly" load, allowing el-cheapo "Voltage Booster" boards to be used, the total cost ( maybe $120-$140 for the PG40S, another $40 for the project-boxed "Booster") is getting close to cost of the Ctek device. Ctek is purpose-built for exactly the "charge from TV" problem, and it also provides the "combining" feature, and the built-in MPPT controller for Solar. The PG40S seems to be solving a different problem (PSU output noise reduction), and charging the battery
if the input "PSU" Voltage is sufficient.