Mr Gumby Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 On a live stream Cory and Zenzo mentioned you can connect the new air pump to a battery backup and it made me wonder how it would work connected to a small solar panel? Might be an option for ponds and tubs or even if you have a window near your tank and are short of power outlets? In power save mode it could be a great option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrencher_Scott Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 (edited) On 5/23/2022 at 1:22 PM, Mr Gumby said: On a live stream Cory and Zenzo mentioned you can connect the new air pump to a battery backup and it made me wonder how it would work connected to a small solar panel? Might be an option for ponds and tubs or even if you have a window near your tank and are short of power outlets? In power save mode it could be a great option Well it would depend on how much voltage and current the pump needs to know what size panel it will take. Of course it would only work when the sun is out. Then you will also need a device to connect the panel to make it compatible with the pump. The way to do it is use the panel to charge a battery with a charge controller. I don't know what voltage battery the pump needs so if it's not 12 volts it would take some doing to make it work. 12 volt charge controllers are widely available but if the pump requires something different it can be done but with an adapter. I'm going to guess the pump runs on USB so a 12 volt to USB adapter would work. I'm thinking these could be had pretty easily off of Amazon. Edited May 23, 2022 by Wrencher_Scott 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDukeAnumber1 Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 I was literally thinking about getting one of those and modifying it as a remote solar pump for one of my ponds. I haven't closely looked at one yet but I would bet that it's just 5v usb in and the battery is a 3.7V nominal lithium ion battery. Solar panels come in 6V so splicing one into the micro usb cable and using a regulator or resistor to drop the extra volt may work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Gumby Posted May 23, 2022 Author Share Posted May 23, 2022 On 5/23/2022 at 10:03 PM, TheDukeAnumber1 said: I was literally thinking about getting one of those and modifying it as a remote solar pump for one of my ponds. I haven't closely looked at one yet but I would bet that it's just 5v usb in and the battery is a 3.7V nominal lithium ion battery. Solar panels come in 6V so splicing one into the micro usb cable and using a regulator or resistor to drop the extra volt may work. I already have a panel I got from eBay which has 2 usb ports as well as wiring for a charge controller. I used it to run a nano pump successfully when I had cherry shrimp in an outdoor tub but I only needed to run that in the day due to the low bioload A higher bioload would need to run 24 hours but eco mode should achieve that ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted May 23, 2022 Share Posted May 23, 2022 I've been looking at solar air pumps for my parents ponds quite a few on the market have a battery that can either be charged by mains or the panel when the sun is shiny enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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