Large 6V 3.7W Solar Panel q/a

[Oby One]

Hi,
I want to buy the new Large 6V 3.7W Solar Panel to use on my solar mintyboost.
I was wondering if anybody else has use it in real life?

1. Is it as efficient as is it advertised ?
I ask this because I also own the 2W solar panel and as far as I measured I only got 1.4W out of it in full sun.
Have anyone done a test to see how much power it can really deliver ?

2. Does it have the same plastic protection on top..as the old 2W panel ?
I couldn't see it clearly from the pictures.

3. Who made this panel ?
The old 2W panel was designed by Voltaic Systems and I could get a lot of info about it from internet. This one seems a little anonymous.

4. Is there anything else (good/bad) I should know about it?

[adafruit]

1. the efficiency and size is based on testing procedures, we believe that at max power, you can in fact get 2W/3.65W BUT this is based on using the panel at MAX POWER and in FULL SUNLIGHT. Where you live, the weather, the season, this all makes a differen.ce We know people who live in NM (closer to the equator) and in summer they get 10% -higher- than the rating for solar panels. For most people, you should consider it more of a rating for -comparison-.

2. the 2W panel is epoxy coated, the large panel is PET coated. its tough to get good epoxy coating on a large panel (itll be bumpy)

3. voltaic does not actually make or manufacture solar panels. They have them assembled by a factory in china. These panels were grown and assembled in china, where the vast majority of cells are grown and panels assembled. They are not crummy panels, we would not carry anything we didn't stand behind.

4. this is a perfectly fine panel, we tested them with our setup and are very satisfied for the price. you're free to shop around and compare but we could not find a 6V monocrystaline panel this large for the same price!

5. if you buy it and you're not happy with it, return it within 14 days.

thanks,
adafruit

[Oby One]

6. Thank you
I already made the order but I am waiting for the new lipo charger to be available.

7. I just begun reading about the new lipo charger and if I read correctly it should be 30% more efficient then the old one. Is it true?

8. I wanted to buy the lipo charger that had the 5V->12V input..because I wanted to put two solar panels and in all the tests I made they give 7.1 V in full sunlight..
I remember that 7Volts will damage the most lipo chargers.
So what do you recommend for connecting two solar panels ? the new or the 12V input lipo charger ?

[adafruit]

yes it is much more efficient, there is a diode so the voltage going into the charge is about 6V which is safe. all our panels are specifically designed to work with our new solar charger. we ran out fast but will be making more this week or early next week!

[scottinnh]

... our new solar charger. we ran out fast but will be making more this week or early next week!

I placed an Adafruit order in August, and would have ordered the charger board then... but as you note, you ran out of stock.

So then last week, a new order, and before I can submit it, the charger status changed to BACKORDERED. Good grief!

This time I no choice but to hold my order back, as the rest of my cart is related (Solar panel, etc).
Kind of frustrating, to see stock evaporate twice in 2 months.

What worries me more though is the inaccurate product status message "We expect to have these in stock in about 10 to 14 business days. "
Perhaps this is true for the charger board. But the FuzeBox has had the "14 days" status for about 180 days.
This should be fixed ASAP as it promotes doubt, unnecessarily.

I mean both comments in a constructive manner, and it is good to see the business running very busy...

[adafruit]

What worries me more though is the inaccurate product status message "We expect to have these in stock in about 10 to 14 business days. " Perhaps this is true for the charger board. But the FuzeBox has had the "14 days" status for about 180 days.
This should be fixed ASAP as it promotes doubt, unnecessarily.I mean both comments in a constructive manner, and it is good to see the business running very busy...

thanks for the feedback, business is brisk!

for the charger board, this is correct. "We expect to have these in stock in about 10 to 14 business days" - please sign up on the product page to be notified when it's back in stock. if there are any delays the ETA may change.

the fuzebox is not a product that is on the site at the moment and there isn't any message or ETA. we'll have an announcement/update soon about it.

thanks,
adafruit

[scottinnh]

..the fuzebox is not a product that is on the site at the moment and there isn't any message or ETA...
adafruit

No - when I posted that comment, fUzebox was on the site, and there was an ETA message.
100% certain of that.

It's fixed now - that's all that really matters. I can stop checking the product page once every week like I was.
Cheers

[scottinnh]

What worries me more though is the inaccurate product status message "We expect to have these in stock in about 10 to 14 business days. " Perhaps this is true for the charger board. But the FuzeBox has had the "14 days" status for about 180 days.
This should be fixed ASAP as it promotes doubt, unnecessarily.I mean both comments in a constructive manner, and it is good to see the business running very busy...

thanks for the feedback, business is brisk!

for the charger board, this is correct. "We expect to have these in stock in about 10 to 14 business days" - please sign up on the product page to be notified when it's back in stock. if there are any delays the ETA may change.

adafruit

This is killing me!

1) In September (see above), in my Cart I placed all items needed for a "Solar minty" (minus the Minty, purchased previously).
2) You were out of stock for the board, so I checked my cart DAILY to see if the battery came in.
3) Then I see the battery is out of stock (no big deal if the charging board is also out).
4) Then the board comes in, but the battery was still out.
5) The board sells out, then battery comes in.

What you COULD do to help is offer a checkbox and policy on your store checkout:
[x] "Reserve and hold my order until ALL items are in stock. I understand I will be charged up front, including for the items currently marked 'Out of Stock'..."

The alternative is I just order what's available, but this means paying shipping more than once for a "set" of parts.


Or.. you could enroll the store in Amazon Prime then I could just order things one at a time without care.

[adafruit]

What you COULD do to help is offer a checkbox and policy on your store checkout:
[x] "Reserve and hold my order until ALL items are in stock. I understand I will be charged up front, including for the items currently marked 'Out of Stock'..."

thanks for the note. did you sign up to be notified when the items were in stock? you should never need to check the site everyday.

re: charging and holding - we can't charge and not ship products, we only charge when the items actually ship. for credit cards and many forms of payment you are not allowed to take payment or authorize payment and hold it for long periods of time. it depends on many many things of course, but that's the general rule.

all that said, we're always working to make our site better and easier to buy stuff, we'll do our best to continue to improve to make it easier to get stuff all at once

thanks!
adafruit

[scottinnh]

What you COULD do to help is offer a checkbox and policy on your store checkout:
[x] "Reserve and hold my order until ALL items are in stock. I understand I will be charged up front, including for the items currently marked 'Out of Stock'..."

thanks for the note. did you sign up to be notified when the items were in stock? you should never need to check the site everyday.

re: charging and holding - we can't charge and not ship products, we only charge when the items actually ship. for credit cards and many forms of payment you are not allowed to take payment or authorize payment and hold it for long periods of time. it depends on many many things of course, but that's the general rule.

all that said, we're always working to make our site better and easier to buy stuff, we'll do our best to continue to improve to make it easier to get stuff all at once

thanks!
adafruit

Yep, I signed up to be notified. It would have been great timing this week with family and friends not having any power, but those are the breaks... I'll keep waiting for everything to be in at the same time. Cheers.

[Oby One]

This is killing me!

1) In September (see above), in my Cart I placed all items needed for a "Solar minty" (minus the Minty, purchased previously).
2) You were out of stock for the board, so I checked my cart DAILY to see if the battery came in.
3) Then I see the battery is out of stock (no big deal if the charging board is also out).
4) Then the board comes in, but the battery was still out.
5) The board sells out, then battery comes in.

What you COULD do to help is offer a checkbox and policy on your store checkout:
[x] "Reserve and hold my order until ALL items are in stock. I understand I will be charged up front, including for the items currently marked 'Out of Stock'..."

The alternative is I just order what's available, but this means paying shipping more than once for a "set" of parts.

Very good point.
A reservation system would be a nice addition to this site.
For those who are outside US, shipping more then once is out of the question so it would be vital to be able to get everything you ordered, once

[adafruit]

A reservation system would be a nice addition to this site.
For those who are outside US, shipping more then once is out of the question so it would be vital to be able to get everything you ordered, once

you can use the wishlist feature now for that, and as we add new features to the site we may have additional ways to be notified when everything is in stock.

thanks,
adafruit

[Oby One]

yes I know about that, but I was refering to scottinnh problem were you make an order of two items A and B
first time B is not in stock and you wait until it becomes available.
When B becomes available you receive a notification, try to order again and notice that A is not in stock...
And so on ..

[adafruit]

yes I know about that, but I was refering to scottinnh problem were you make an order of two items A and B
first time B is not in stock and you wait until it becomes available. When B becomes available you receive a notification, try to order again and notice that A is not in stock... And so on ..

hiya, yup1 we understand the request for that feature, thanks for making sure we did

thanks!
adafruit

[Oby One]

We thank you