EZ Feeder Solar Panel Help

[dbaio1]

How can I test a solar panel ? Battery is confirmed good.

Anyone have solar panel problems on an EZ feeder. It is in a cut out in the woods off a pipeline. It gets decent sun I see it shining on feeder.

The panels are small and low to ground. Anyone swap to a larger panel?

Thanks

[axisbuck]

Point it to the south and you should be good. Check for wire or terminals damage or chips on the panel itself. You could always give it the ole toungue test lol

[Smart]

You can use a volt meter like you do a battery .. a 12 volt panel with read 16-17V in full sun …13-14 in daylight. There are some more technical tests above my pay grade, but that is a good basic start.

[Killer]

What he said above

[Rick]

I have always just used my volt meter, should be reading 13-15 volts in the sun (assuming it is a 12V panel). Most feeders use AA bats to run the clock, the big battery is only used a few seconds a day to run the motor, it does not take much of a solar panel to recharge that usage

[dbaio1]

Thanks everyone. I think panel is bad. Watching sun on it now. Worked fine yesterday at 4 pm. We hit 29 this morning and didn't go off at 7am. Battery was tested and charged and installed exactly 63 days ago. I did notice feeder went off a few minutes early yesterday so figured battery getting low and losing time and when temps rise gets a little juice back. So back to thinking panel. Using original EZ timer.

[DavidH]

Typically when a feeder goes off in the afternoon, but not the next morning, I've found it to be the battery. The sun (solar panel) charges it during the day and it has enough power to run the motor for the afternoon feeding, but overnight it doesn't get any charging and so it does run on the morning feeding.

[Smart]

Also check you solar connections. I had one panel that I thought was bad....ended up being fine. I thought the connections were good, but they weren't making good enough contact. A set of needle nose fixed that

[dbaio1]

Also check you solar connections. I had one panel that was fine and I thought the connections were good but they weren't making good enough contact. A set of needle nose fixed that

Called myself doing that when installed new battery will check again. May change all to new connectors if panel test ok.

[dbaio1]

Typically when a feeder goes off in the afternoon, but not the next morning, I've found it to be the battery. The sun (solar panel) charges it during the day and it has enough power to run the motor for the afternoon feeding, but overnight it doesn't get any charging and so it does run on the morning feeding.

I thought that too. Put new battery and battery from this one was checked, recharged and working fine on another feeder. Thanks

[tdwinklr]

I thought that too. Put new battery and battery from this one was checked, recharged and working fine on another feeder. Thanks

Sounds good.

I don't know about these but the panel on my camera is only there to maintain the charge on the AA batteries, not charge it per say.
Any idea if feeder panel/batteries are like that?

The battery on my feeder lasts quite awhile, and I bought an extra just in case it needed a swap out.
It does not have a solar panel though, just straight battery.

[dbaio1]

Sounds good.

I don't know about these but the panel on my camera is only there to maintain the charge on the AA batteries, not charge it per say.
Any idea if feeder panel/batteries are like that?

The battery on my feeder lasts quite awhile, and I bought an extra just in case it needed a swap out.
It does not have a solar panel though, just straight battery.

12V system with one 12V battery. It is not a battery issue thats been confirmed many times. Fully charged battery will last 60 -120 days pending temps and feed times.

[kkp005]

I have that exact feeder and the solar panel quit charging my 12v battery. Turned out right where the wires come
out of the solar panel and then go into the feeder, the wires were cracked / split from being in a bind

[dbaio1]

I have that exact feeder and the solar panel quit charging my 12v battery. Turned out right where the wires come
out of the solar panel and then go into the feeder, the wires were cracked / split from being in a bind

Thanks will check that.

[dbaio1]

Thanks again everyone. Got it working. Panel throwing 14.8 V in shade. Direct sunlight in this spot is 9am to about noon in the winter. Found the culprit, cracked connector.