Solar Panel/Battery Pack Problem

[mhbaseball]

Well I attempted to wire a solar panel to the into the wall charger cord from the Wildgame Innovations battery pack for my game cameras.

They have been out for 36 hours and havent moved from 70%

See if someone can help me:

I cut the battery pack wall charger in the middle. The wires/cords on the wall charger are black and black with grey lines. The solar panel wires are the basic black and red.

I didnt know which one was which so I wired 2 different ones to figure out before I mounted the solar panel to the box:

1. black solar panel wire to black wall charger wire and red solar panel wire to black wire with grey lines from wall charger

2. black solar panel to black wall charger wire w grey lines and red solar panel wire to black wall charger wire

Both have not charged and I cannot figure out why
On both setups I have the wires wrapped tightly around each other with a good 1 inch piece of each

Hopefully the TBH brain trust can help me. With my lack of electronic savvy it is probably something simple and stupid I am messing up. Thanks guys

Matt

[Bowtech32]

The wire are not going directly to the battiery?

[mhbaseball]

The wire are not going directly to the battiery?

No with the battery packs their is a wall charger that plugs into the box. So I connect the solar panel wires to the wall charger wires instead of drilling a hole thru the box to connect the solar panel wires to a battery


RDRDRFAN did the same thing I did and it worked.

[mhbaseball]

ttt

[Saxet Nomad]

Make sure you are using the correct voltage panel for your battery. If you have a 12V battery and using a 6V charger, it will not charge very well... best thing to do is track down a voltmeter and check polarity from the charger and solar panel and it will tell you what color wire is what...

[mhbaseball]

I might have to do that. It is a 6v battery pack(2 6v's inside) and a 6v solar panel. Just puzzles me.

[Coach W]

I might have to do that. It is a 6v battery pack(2 6v's inside) and a 6v solar panel. Just puzzles me.

? puzzled, it has two six volts? then its 12 volts.

Defintately get a meter and check to make sure. You can check inside the battery compartment, and the solar panel.

I know my cams are 12 volts.

[Saxet Nomad]

I might have to do that. It is a 6v battery pack(2 6v's inside) and a 6v solar panel. Just puzzles me.

One other thing I see that may be a problem is that the charger might be a 12V output going into a DC charger built into the battery pack to bring it back down to the 6V...look on the back of the wall charger brick and see what type of output is listed if any...

[Coach W]

They have been out for 36 hours and havent moved from 70%

Did you start out with 100%? Most solar panels, will not charge, but they will help maintain a charge. So if you started with 70% and its still 70% the solar panel is working.

[mhbaseball]

? puzzled, it has two six volts? then its 12 volts.

Defintately get a meter and check to make sure. You can check inside the battery compartment, and the solar panel.

I know my cams are 12 volts.

Yeah but they are wired individually somehow I think. The wall charger is a 6v charger.

Well they are in backyard and not hooked up to cameras, I jsut have the solar panel hooked up the the batteries so they don't have a change to "decrease."

The wall charger has a switch where you can switch from 6v/12v but before I cut the wires, it charges on 6v.

No they started out at 60 and 70% and thats where they still are. Maybe I need to hook my camera up to it on video/5 shot burst to quickly tell if its working.

This is for my Primos Truth Cam 60 with the Wildgame Innovations 6v Battery Pack and Wildgame Innovations 6v Solar Panel.

[Coach W]

Which cameras are they? I will look em up.

[mhbaseball]

Which cameras are they? I will look em up.

The camera type wont matter because the solar panel is connected into the battery pack. I have been using the battery pack all season with these cameras.(7 months)

[Coach W]

http://www.wildgameinnovations.com/products/ebx.html

Heres there external battery pack, they say its six volts. then just attach your solar panel directly to the batteries in the box. Why splice into the connector?

[mhbaseball]

http://www.wildgameinnovations.com/products/ebx.html

Heres there external battery pack, they say its six volts. I bet you can find em cheaper than 50 bux somewhere (ebay, or google it), then just attach your solar panel directly to the batteries in the box.

Yeah I bought them for $35 on clearance at Academy(3 of them).

Yeah I could have done that but didnt want to drill a hole in the box for the alligator clips AND it makes more sense to cut the wires and connect the solar panel directly to the plug that goes into the box

[Throwin Darts]

The solar panel isn't going to charge the battery. It will maintain the charge.

You aren't going to be able to tell anything until you hook it up to a camera. The battery isn't going to drain itself.