Solar Trickle Charger Setup (with Black Friday deals)

[TickTock]

The real steal there is the Bluetti Apex 300! Hard to believe how much prices have dropped and capabilities/features have increased. Just awesome! Just don't expect it to charge your Cybertruck back up in any reasonable timeframe, it's best for eliminating vampire drain, adding a few miles if you miscalculate how much you will need, and providing additional camp power during extended camping trips.

Agreed. The solar panels are not cheap in terms of $/W even with the Black Friday sale but I do like the form factor. I have some homemade "portable" panels I made from roof mount panels and those are a struggle to move around. The Bluetti are really easy to carry two at a time and seem pretty tough. Also four will fit really well under the CyberTent. I still only have two but you can see plenty of room for a couple more:

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[hemiarch]

He has the wrong equipment and doesn't know what he's doing. I don't think the Ecoflow unit can even charge using 240V! Does it even have pass-through solar like the Bluetti? Also, it was recorded before the Cybertruck had a low power mode and I have no confidence he turned off things like cabin climate control, Sentry Mode, cabin overheat protection, etc. The Cybertruck should not be heating the battery before level 1-2 charging (unless it's really cold out) so he's doing something wrong if it's pulling 600 watts (not counting any charge current). Plus, he doesn't have enough solar for EV charging. His expectations were too high, you always have to account for losses due to power conversion, storage, etc.

TL;DR: Most people simply don't know what they are doing, so don't take their results as gospel.

Yeah. That’s not accurate. That DPU can charge at 240v I believe at about 7kw continuous and has a substantial amount of solar input it can simultaneously receive (5.6kw though two PV inputs, one of which can receive an impressive voltage from panels strung in series (450v if memory serves) .
In fact, until the apex 300 and dpu-x, this or a pair of delta pro 3’s were unequivocally the best option for what we’re talking about here.
I’m not taking this as gospel at all, these results are reproducible and I’ve done a similar experiment with of my my Delta pro 3’s . If you’re charging at below about a KW there is no real increase in range. 800w does not move the needle in a measurable way to the UI over an entire day.
I have not however tried that in “low power” mode because it didn’t exist when I did the experiment. That said, I had both sentry and cabin overheat protection off.

 

[hemiarch]

Agreed. The solar panels are not cheap in terms of $/W even with the Black Friday sale but I do like the form factor. I have some homemade "portable" panels I made from roof mount panels and those are a struggle to move around. The Bluetti are really easy to carry two at a time and seem pretty tough. Also four will fit really well under the CyberTent. I still only have two but you can see plenty of room for a couple more:

Thank you, really needed to see this picture. What’s the rationale for not going perpendicular to that all the way to the back of the bed? Noticed there only seems to be a short cable for the batteries that requires they be stacked so those kind of won’t work with my cybertent.
I’m entertaining buying a couple of these units too instead of my delta pro 3’s and the hub to put them together. I’m guessing you can put two not three across the back of the bed?
So with one of these and 2400w of solar panels, how many miles/hr do you think we’d be talking about ?
I have two of these panels which are currently on an absolutely smoking. Amazon deal so I think I’m getting another pair. I was going to do two in parallel on each of the PV inputs. Of course if you add the little solar box you could do much more.
https://a.co/d/86PbVjP

 

[TickTock]

I did some more testing today - particularly wanted to see if the "System Switch Recovery" setting would work as desired. Short Version: It works; but not as desired. Hopefully a future firmware update will enhance it.

Today, I just set up the two panels on the tonneau. In summertime, this could be a pretty good setup for my latitude but this time of year is about 30 deg off so my power is limited to half (was getting 350W from both panels combined). At camp, I would probably set up on the ground with a better angle but this was good enough for my test.

The Apex 300 worked flawlessly. You can see it charging the truck at a decent rate 10X the solar input:

When it got to zero it shut down but continued to charge the power station battery from solar:

So far so good. I was curious at what point it would turn back on. 50%? 80%? 90%? Any of those would have been fine. But no, it turned itself back on at 5%. Other than that, it did work. I watched it cycle about three times where it charged to 5% started charging the truck for about 5 minutes and then shut back down. Not optimal for LiFePO4 or any common battery chemistry so for now I will have to throttle the truck charge rate to prevent this. Hopefully, in a future firmware update, it will let us set the SOC at which it turns back on.

 

[hemiarch]

I did some more testing today - particularly wanted to see if the "System Switch Recovery" setting would work as desired. Short Version: It works; but not as desired. Hopefully a future firmware update will enhance it.

Today, I just set up the two panels on the tonneau. In summertime, this could be a pretty good setup for my latitude but this time of year is about 30 deg off so my power is limited to half (was getting 350W from both panels combined). At camp, I would probably set up on the ground with a better angle but this was good enough for my test.

The Apex 300 worked flawlessly. You can see it charging the truck at a decent rate 10X the solar input:

When it got to zero it shut down but continued to charge the power station battery from solar:

So far so good. I was curious at what point it would turn back on. 50%? 80%? 90%? Any of those would have been fine. But no, it turned itself back on at 5%. Other than that, it did work. I watched it cycle about three times where it charged to 5% started charging the truck and then shut back down. Not optimal for any battery chemistry so for now I will have to throttle the charge rate to prevent this. Hopefully in s future firmware update it will let us set the SOC to turn back on with.

How many miles/hr was the truck getting here?

 

[TickTock]

How many miles/hr was the truck getting here?

With my two panels 30degs off from the perpendicular, I was getting 350W - which is about 1mph per my driving style. Optimally aligned, that number should double.

Also, it was about an inch too wide to fit horizontally under the tent along side the panels.

 

[hemiarch]

With my two panels 30degs off from the perpendicular, I was getting 350W - which is about 1mph per my driving style. Optimally aligned, that number should double.

Also, it was about an inch too wide to fit horizontally under the tent along side the panels.

That makes sense but, well…not exactly what I meant. If you’re charging at 3.5kw how much are you adding to the truck in miles/hr?
Guess I can just check that with my wall connector by turning down the amperage

 

[TickTock]

That makes sense but, well…not exactly what I meant. If you’re charging at 3.5kw how much are you adding to the truck in miles/hr?
Guess I can just check that with my wall connector by turning down the amperage

Inside the truck it said 8mph on the charge rate if that is what you are asking. I had to dial the current down to 15A to keep it below the 3800W limit of the power station.

 

[hemiarch]

Inside the truck it said 8mph on the charge rate if that is what you are asking. I had to dial the current down to 15A to keep it below the 3800W limit of the power station.

Wow. That’s better than I thought for one unit.
Think you’d have to add the little solar controller unit thing they sell to come close to matching that output with solar input but that would make sense if you had a bed cap.hmmmm
Seriosuly though, check out those allpowers panels, they are pretty great. Had them for about a year and a half now.

 

[stebb1174]

I’m entertaining buying a couple of these units too instead of my delta pro 3’s and the hub to put them together. I’m guessing you can put two not three across the back of the bed?
So with one of these and 2400w of solar panels, how many miles/hr do you think we’d be talking about ?
I have two of these panels which are currently on an absolutely smoking. Amazon deal so I think I’m getting another pair. I was going to do two in parallel on each of the PV inputs. Of course if you add the little solar box you could do much more.
https://a.co/d/86PbVjP

What's wrong with the Ecoflow Delta Pro 3? I'm deciding between the Bluetti and ecoflow.

What's the advantage of th Bluetti?

 

[hemiarch]

What's wrong with the Ecoflow Delta Pro 3? I'm deciding between the Bluetti and ecoflow.

What's the advantage of th Bluetti?

Not a thing. In many respects it’s better including all sorts of built in things that bluetti makes you buy, like a 30amp dc plug and 30amp 120v plug as well as. 240v native output, a bigger battery, bigger solar input that’s arguably more flexible about series wiring and in my opinion a better app/ ecosystem. And wheels…not trivial.
I have a fair amount of Ecoflow stuff and that tends to be where I fall in this coke/pepsi debate BUT they don’t fit under the cybertent unless you put them on the side and I’m not sure if that’s ok.
Only reason I’m even entertaining it is this 1299 price seems a bit of a bargain.
Right now I have an Ecoflow delta 2 max down there when I use the cybertent.
I take the delta pro 3 whenever we use our inflatable ground tent.

I prefer to run my wave ac in the dc outs the Ecoflow gives you but am willing to branch out to Bluetti a little for ergonomics

 

[mongo]

I did some more testing today - particularly wanted to see if the "System Switch Recovery" setting would work as desired. Short Version: It works; but not as desired. Hopefully a future firmware update will enhance it.

Today, I just set up the two panels on the tonneau. In summertime, this could be a pretty good setup for my latitude but this time of year is about 30 deg off so my power is limited to half (was getting 350W from both panels combined). At camp, I would probably set up on the ground with a better angle but this was good enough for my test.

The Apex 300 worked flawlessly. You can see it charging the truck at a decent rate 10X the solar input:

When it got to zero it shut down but continued to charge the power station battery from solar:

So far so good. I was curious at what point it would turn back on. 50%? 80%? 90%? Any of those would have been fine. But no, it turned itself back on at 5%. Other than that, it did work. I watched it cycle about three times where it charged to 5% started charging the truck for about 5 minutes and then shut back down. Not optimal for LiFePO4 or any common battery chemistry so for now I will have to throttle the truck charge rate to prevent this. Hopefully, in a future firmware update, it will let us set the SOC at which it turns back on.

If you turn off recovery, the battery would soak up 5-10 hours of solar, long enough to be near dark. Then you could restart when you return to the truck.

 

[hemiarch]

If you turn off recovery, the battery would soak up 5-10 hours of solar, long enough to be near dark. Then you could restart when you return to the truck.

I hope someone out there pays you well for always being the voice of logic.

 

[mongo]

I hope someone out there pays you well for always being the voice of logic.

Could also set scheduled charging (start charging at) to prevent the truck draining it right away...

 

[TickTock]

If you turn off recovery, the battery would soak up 5-10 hours of solar, long enough to be near dark. Then you could restart when you return to the truck.

True with the current, half-size, poorly aligned setup. However, once I have all four panels and align them properly it'll only take about 4 hours. I think I am back to dialing back the rate. Will try to quantify how much parasitic load the truck actually presents when charging versus fully asleep in low power mode and then optimize.

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