I was inspired to pick up a 12V 5W solar panel to play around with this
as well. The voltage output of a raw solar panel is a bit unpredictable,
so it will need regulation. I was getting almost 9V just indoors (under
no load, of course). I chose the 12V to give me some overhead.
Typically, a system would have batteries and a controller to smooth out
the solar output. I picked up some other components to experiment with
for that purpose. I was thinking that some supercapacitors might be good
enough. The trick will be to ensure whatever buck converter you use is
efficient enough to not rob the power output.
I live in Florida, so my results will likely be a bit skewed. :)
Scott
On 10/28/2025 4:08 PM, B9 wrote:
I tried my 5W, 5V solar panel with a Tandy 200 and it didn't work. It
would show activity on the LCD but never made it to the menu before
freezing up.
Could be because it was a cloudy day and through a glass window. Could
be because it doesn't output anywhere close to "5W".
It's too bad, since the panel is only a little larger than the Tandy
200 and could easily have been mounted on the lid.
--b9
On October 23, 2025 6:45:27 PM PDT, B9 <[email protected]> wrote:
Very cool! I remember hearing about that guy but didn't know he
had a Model T. The article mentions he had "a 12V battery, and a
five-watt solar panel."
I'm presuming he used the solar panel to charge the battery and
then used the battery to run the Model T.
"Direct solar" as AbortRetryFail mentioned might be possible, but
I'm not sure what the advantage of that would be. I think I've got
a 5W panel, so maybe I'll give it a shot just to see.
--B9
On October 23, 2025 3:48:40 PM PDT, Mike Stein
<[email protected]> wrote:
A solar powered M100...
https://bikepacking.com/plog/steve-roberts-computing-across-america/
On Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM [email protected]
<[email protected]> wrote:
What are the limits/parameters of the 100's power supply
circuit anyway. Has anyone dug into it?
Direct solar power for example would be cool, but I'd be
reluctant to experiment on the 40 year old hardware...
On October 21, 2025 4:20:27 PM EDT, Scott McDonnell
<[email protected]> wrote:
This shouldn't be a problem.
On 10/21/2025 10:24 AM, VANDEN BOSSCHE JAN wrote:
I found some stabilized power supplies, discarded but
new.
They are not compatible with the models T, but I
suppose I can always adapt the pin. I’ve done it with
USB-cables too.
But these are 7,5 V, 650 mA. Isn’t that too much ?
AFAIK, a standard Tandy wall-wart is 6V, but not
stabilized.
**
*Jan-80 @ work*
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