I have seen many of the higher end feeders have the solar panel protected and tucked under the cage. They do not seem to get direct sunlight. Do they gather enough charge without sun shining on them? I like the protection in cage, but concerned about gathering enough sunlight without direct exposure.

They maintain the battery fine for our use. Twice a day for 3 seconds. It may be an issue if you are running more.

I have been building and installing them for more than 10 years and have never had an issue. I tell folks that they are a lot "gooder" than they were years ago. You will be fine I think. Get you a voltmeter and check the voltage when not connected to the battery, or monitor your battery over time while connected. I also do not think they have to point south to keep a battery charged.

This ^^^^^^^ I have been mounting solar panels like this since the late 90's. The are squirrel and coon proof. The biggest draw on a battery is when the motor starts up to spin...while it is running is minimal draw on the battery. A fully charge battery will work if it gets a couple of hours of full sun per day IME.

Went to a solar cell class for the FD a couple of years ago. The rep teaching the class told us if any kind of light is hitting the cell it is generating electricity. Even if our scene lights were shining on the cell, it would be generating. Overcast, and in the shade the cell is still generating.

My experience with solar panels on electric fence chargers has shown me that if you get a couple cloudy days it is hard for the panel to keep up. But I think with a feeder where it doesn't use near the power you won't ever notice it being a problem.

Monocrystalline silicon solar panels are the Most Efficient and more expensive and would work for a electric fence. Polycrystalline silicon panels are less efficient but less expensive usually packaged for something like feeders.

As long as mine gets an hour late in the afternoon at least a couple of days a week, it stays happy. Consider that the fully charged battery is good for better than a month, the panel does not need to do a lot.

The only time I needed a panel that got full was when I had a 12 volt feeder with a raccoon zapper on it.

All the solar panels I have put on say in the instructions to point southwest. If we have several days in a row of rainy cloudy weather it will run our batteries down a little. This is on 6 volt systems with batteries that are 4-5 years old.

We used to have a lot of trouble with sun pictures coming out all white and haze etc. I reversed the logic for the solar panel and now place my trail cams southwest of the feeder/bait/trail so they point northeast and I have far better results with the cams and white out pictures from the sun.

This is what I have gone to as well after STX mentioned it last year. I should have done it in the first place. They work fine

I have always had solar panels directly South. Never place so that they are in shade. Gotta have sun light for them to charge the battery. Sun directly on camera when it goes off will not be a good pic or whiteout.

although direct sunlight is "optimal" its not a must. It'll charge just fine with indirect sunlight or partial direct sunlight.

You'd be surprised at how little sunlight is actually needed for a good solar panel to keep a battery charged.

That being said, I don't like having my solar panel located below the spinner plate on any feeder setup because it pretty quickly gets covered in corn dust, which prevents a good charge. I will always try to move the solar panel higher, well above the spinner "blast zone."

This is also what I asked, I trust the braintrust of this organization so my panels will go in the cage as well. Interesting that it does NOT have to be south to catch enough?

South is best but doesn't have to get direct sun on the panel.