Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

71%
+3 −0
Q&A How to check realistic specs of small solar panel?

I have a small solar panel rated for 6V/DC, 150mA. I know that those specs are under ideal circumstances, and I would like to do some measurements in different weather conditions to see what I can ...

3 answers  ·  posted 2y ago by Keelan‭  ·  last activity 2y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

#1: Initial revision by user avatar Keelan‭ · 2022-12-27T16:44:12Z (almost 2 years ago)
How to check realistic specs of small solar panel?
I have a small solar panel rated for 6V/DC, 150mA. I know that those specs are under ideal circumstances, and I would like to do some measurements in different weather conditions to see what I can expect.

To measure voltage I can of course use a multimeter. For current, I think I know what to do, but I just wanted to check. Can I simply make a circuit like below to draw a variable current, and adjust the potentiometer to find the maximum current that can be drawn before the voltage drops significantly? Or is there a better or simpler way?

![Circuit of a DC voltage source with a 22 Ohm constant resistor and 100 Ohm potentiometer in series.](https://electrical.codidact.com/uploads/vmqleh0pjdjlvsbl44sqzc8nh99l)