...Finally!

This week I received the final piece to my puzzle: the cables to connect my solar panel to the charge controller. I was very excited to finally put all of my pieces together into one circuit. I got to test the whole thing for a little bit this week but I have only been able to use a lamp with the solar panel. I'm hoping to have some nice weather this week so I can take everything outside and get some real sunlight on the panel.

Putting all of the pieces together is a very big step for me and this project. Now I know that I can use the panel to successfully charge the battery. I'll need to drain the battery soon so I can start to figure out how long my panel will take to charge the 12 V battery and then work on ways to make that time faster. That is my goal for this coming week. If I can make maximize the efficiency of my circuit then life will be easier for those who may eventually use this as a source of power.