Anyone have a solar panel setup on there deer stand for charging and running small electronic devices? I am looking at adding a system to my stand to charge cell phones, run a small fan etc. Show me what you guys have and what kind of setup and any links you might have for ideas.

Thanks

No, but I have to work so much I thought about it to charge my work laptop.

Yeah I think it would be nice to use it to charge/run computer, small fan etc

I have not actually done this yet, but have given it a lot of thought, and did a lot of research about a year ago.

Something like this might not be the cheapest way to go, but it’s plenty of power and all you need to do is open the box and install it. Just add a 12v rechargeable battery.

https://www.amazon.com/Watts-Volts-...&hvtargid=pla-525040585137&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/KOMAES-Polyc...mp;psc=1&refRID=ZG53XMH0S1NKXCWAMCMB

Cut the plug of this and wire it directly to the battery, and use normal car adapters.
https://www.amazon.com/Xeminor-3-So...4&keywords=cigarette+lighter+adapter

Yep. See my camper stand project.
https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7402361/

I have a TV, Roku, interior lights, clock/weather station, radio, water pump, fans, and more. There are both usb and cig lighter charging ports in various places. I stayed in the stand for five days recently with it cloudy much of the time and was still drawing less power during the day than my solar panel was putting out and never used more than a 4th off my battery during the evening. Most everything was bought on ebay or amazon or direct from china for dirt cheap.

Don't have a picture of the solar panel, but I used a single large 200w panel from an ebay seller/solar company in California. I have it laying flat on top of my stand. It is almost as long as my little camper is wide. You would not need a panel anywhere near that big for a regular hunting stand running only a couple lights and phone/laptop charger. I am living in my stand when I am on the east texas place and running all sorts of stuff. I went with pre cut 10AWG wire with the MC4 Female and Male Connectors already attached that fit the same connectors that come on most big solar panels to keep it simple. K.I.S.S. I went with a simple 12volt auto/boat deep cycle battery. Plan was to add a second battery in parallel, but it is looking like I am not going to need it. For a regular deer stand and depending on the cost, I might have considered using two smaller 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries in series.

You will need a simple charge controller. I paid around $10 for mine on Amazon. Fuse block and ground block was from a chinese ebay seller for a fraction of what it would cost here. It uses standard automotive fuses. You could just use inline fuses for your stand. Not shown I also purchased 12v to 5.v and 12v to 9v power converters that I wired in line for things like unregulated USB plugs and wired in accessories that used voltages less than 12 volt. For your application, if you get a charge controller like the one I am using it will already have a couple correct USB ports on it or you can install a cig lighter port and use your car charger for your phone. Note my wires in the picture is not color coded for any purpose. I used whatever scrap wire I had hoarded in my workshop.





I picked up this clock/weather station for like $30 from china that is really cool to have in the stand. To attach it to the wall I made a simple sheet metal bracket and mounted it to the battery door. Unfortunately the sunrise sunset function works only for cities in Europe, but the price was right and it had one of the lowest power draw of of my options. It is 12 volt so I simply cut the wire to the AC to DC power adapter and wired it in . The clock/alarm/barometer/moon phases/indoor and outdoor temperature all are spot on and so far when it says it's going to rain that day, it did.



Any lights or accessories you use, look for the lowest possible power draw. Use LED lights or LED bulbs for example. I replaced all the old 1156 bulbs with LED bulbs. For one of the lights in my stand I used the original 110 light fixture wired to 12 volt. My idea was to buy a simple 12 volt shoplight bulb to screw into the 110 socket. Problem with that was that 12 volt shoplight bulb was drawing more power than any one thing in my stand including the TV. Though trial and error I found a 110 volt LED bulb that would also run off 12 volt. Otherwise I could not have used that light fixture. So be aware just one high watt draw item could run your battery down.

Wow that’s an awesome setup. I will definitely use your ideas, any website you have in mind for the “less intelligent “ solar users like myself to help understand wattage Amp hrs etc?

Not really. I just flew by the seat of my pants, googled stuff, and started cobbling it together with the cheapest components I could find. I ended up with way more power than I really needed, but once I figured that out is when I got carried away adding more things to run off of it just because I could.

Like the 12v TV on both a boosted antenna and roku with a portable hard drive. BTW, on my young county lease of 18 years I am usually hunting out of open tripod stands or sitting in a chair in a brush blind, so y'all don't make fun of me for how I am hunting in east texas.