Reply To: Dying battery in winter solved by 3.5 W solar panel

It’s not mentioned above, but equally important to surviving the cold weather and reduction in sunlight is to increase the capacity of the LiPo battery being charged by the panel. Depending on the type of sensors used and their current draw, a smaller battery might have trouble making it through a long stormy winter week, no matter what size panel is connected to it. So I recommend increasing the battery capacity to as large as you can comfortably get in your enclosure.

In our loggers, I use 2000mAh batteries in sunny spots, a 4400mAh battery in shady spots, and a 6600mAh battery in really problematic areas. This, combined with the larger panel, and reducing the transmit rate of the radio/cell module (this is the biggest power hog) should get you though anything.

And to answer the question above, the Voltaic Systems panels come with a small barrel-type connector. If you want to use those panels with a Mayfly, you’ll need to connect it to the JST header on the Mayfly, by either cutting and splicing your own homemade cable to the panel, or by ordering one of their barrel-socket-to-bare-lead cables, available on their website.