Need advices on DIY small solar charger

[yemin88]

Hi guys, First of all, English is not my mother tongue, so sorry if I make some mistakes. Second I have no experience in electricity whatsoever.

I have tried to built a small solar charger following a tutorial on Internet. Somethign pretty basic with only 2 elements :

- One solar Cell Polycrystalline 3W 12V

- LM2596S Mini DC-DC Voltage Regulator Module

I have just weld my solar panel to the regulator, then weld the regulator to an usb cable. So pretty simple.

The only issue is that it won't work, for example when I plug my Iphone, it's work for like 2sec, I can see that my Iphone is charging and then nothing. Similar when I plug my Kindle, I can see the little LED lighting in orange ( which means its on charge ) but 5 hours afters, I've still the same level of battery.

Can you please help me out ?

[Mike90250]

Solar cells are a CURRENT (amps) source, which is totally different from grid power, or batteries or generators, which are VOLTAGE source. Most likely, your DC-DC convertor "sucks the PV" dry when it tries to supply 5 watts of power to a USB port. To charge a USB2 device, you need to start with about 15W of solar PV, because they seldom produce the rated power. (haze in the air, faint clouds, dust, smog - all reduce power output)