Combining multiple USB charging inputs to one USB output

Fabian the German · February 28, 2019

Hello,

tl;dr: Searching 2 USB Charging Inputs combined or switched automatically to one USB Charging output port

So here is my problem

I want to make a CCTV in a second House where I always shut down the entire energy when I am not there. I already have an outside camera, an UPS, computer to monitor everything from Home. Now I want to buy this soloarpanel twice:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0798MV7NS/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ARGDLBF91D6J6&psc=1

The actual problem is I want to combine 2 of them and place them in different spots to make sure the battery and sun energy collection runs optimally.

Why exactly these solarpannels?

1. They are build for outside using and have IP(I dont know anymore exactly) protection

2.They can be directly mounted to a wall

Thank you for your attention

Mira Yurizaki · February 28, 2019

What's the purpose of this? Redundancy or performance?

Fabian the German · February 28, 2019

5 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

What's the purpose of this? Redundancy or performance?

Securing 24/7 performance 365 days in a year, because I can not go to my second House everyday but still need an overview for instance for intruders.I need to make sure that always enought energy is provided and or have a fail save if one solar panel does not work anymore.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Fabian the German

Mira Yurizaki · February 28, 2019

1 minute ago, Fabian the German said:

Securing 24/7 performance 365 days in a year, because I can not go to my second House everyday but still need an overview for instance for intruders

So redundancy?

Fabian the German · February 28, 2019

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

So redundancy?

Yeah.....

Mira Yurizaki · February 28, 2019

Seeing that you edited your post and confirmed it's for redundancy, you're going to have to build something that takes the input of both solar panels and spits out a single output to the camera. However you go about doing this depends on what you want this to do in the end.

But overall the way I'm seeing this is to have a microcontroller gate one or the other power source depending on certain tolerances or other parameters. My gut-approach design is have the solar panels charge their own battery and the microcontroller allow one battery or the other to power the camera depending on either the current charge of the battery or switch to the other one after a certain amount of time for wear leveling.

Fabian the German · February 28, 2019

1 minute ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

Seeing that you edited your post and confirmed it's for redundancy, you're going to have to build something that takes the input of both solar panels and spits out a single output to the camera. However you go about doing this depends on what you want this to do in the end.

But overall the way I'm seeing this is to have a microcontroller gate one or the other power source depending on certain tolerances or other parameters. My gut-approach design is have the solar panels charge their own battery and the microcontroller allow one battery or the other to power the camera depending on either the current charge of the battery or switch to the other one after a certain amount of time for wear leveling.

That is a good idea.Now to the difficult part:Is there outside a solution to for dealing with multiple inputs or is this a DIY thing.I have a little bit knowlege of electronic circuits but I could need some help in that case.

Mira Yurizaki · February 28, 2019

2 minutes ago, Fabian the German said:

That is a good idea.Now to the difficult part:Is there outside a solution to for dealing with multiple inputs or is this a DIY thing.I have a little bit knowlege of electronic circuits but I could need some help in that case.

There might be an outside solution, but I don't know what this thing would be called.

mariushm · March 2, 2019

My advice would be to NOT go with those solar panels.

Their size is too small to produce any reasonable amount of energy, basically they're just big enough to power the camera AND trickle charge the internal battery a bit.

They don't have enough battery and enough solar panel surface to charge their internal battery enough over the day AND power the camera at the same time, in order to keep the camera running through the day.

Also, they output 5v through the cable coming out of them ... if you have a long camera, you basically lose a lot of energy in the cable itself before the energy reaches your camera.

Your best option would be to have a bigger surface solar panel and a charge controller and a lead acid battery that would be charged throughout the day from the solar panel.

Here's an example of a very basic charge controller that would be suitable for your needs:

AMAZON.DE LINK : https://www.amazon.de/ALLPOWERS-Ladegerät-Controller-Batterie-Intelligente-20a/dp/B071VT42D2/

amazon.com:

Solar Charge Controller 30A, Solar Panel Battery Controller 12V/24V PWM Auto Paremeter Adjustable LCD Display Solar Panel Battery Regulator with Dual USB Load Timer Setting ON/Off Hours

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06W5NP5JR/ref=psdc_2236627011_t1_B073WQC558

Here's another:

Binen 12V/24V Solar Charge Controller 10A Charge Regulator Intelligent, USB Port, LCD Display Overload Protection (10A-Blue)

https://www.amazon.com/Binen-Controller-Regulator-Intelligent-Protection/dp/B073WQC558/

You connect the leads from a solar power to it, and the leads from a lead-acid battery (7Ah or higher, like the ones used for UPSes, you don't want those for motorbikes or cars because those are optimized for starting cars, not for long continuous outputs)

And you have a 12v unregulated output directly from the battery (so 10..13.2v or thereabouts) and you have two USB ports which will output 5v:

You can either use a regular two wire cable to bring 12v from battery all the way to the camera and at that point, use a regular usb charger for cars to convert your 12v to 5v and plug its microUSB output into the camera. Or, you can buy a long enough USB-microUSB cable and power the camera directly from the USB ports on the controller.