So I started playing with a small solar panel now I have questions!

A few things I have learned about solar. If your charge controller is configurable, use the AGM or gel battery profile and not flooded/wet. The charge parameters are not interchangeable concerning maximizing battery life. Research the proper angle and direction of the panel for your area. The charge controllerā€™s display can be used to determine the panelā€™s effectiveness. Keep all cable lengths as short possible and all connections tight. Donā€™t use cable clamps ā€“ use ring terminals and bolts. Disable all features on the camera you donā€™t need to reduce power consumption. When dealing with low voltages and amperages, every loss is important.

Solar panels are ~85% efficient, so a 100W panel typically produces 85W.

Assuming the camera is 12VDC, is the camera connected to the charge controller? If yes, the controller will shut down the load if the battery gets too low. If no, the camera could discharge the battery too much and reduce battery life. A small load like a camera should connected the charge controller. Also, the charge controller needs electricity from the battery to operate, and not the panel. If the battery voltage gets too low, the charge controller will be damaged by the panelā€™s output.

I do not see any fuses used per the Amazon listing. In this type of setup, fuses can help prevent a fire. Batteries are ā€œunlimitedā€ sources of electricity. The batteryā€™s positive should always have a fuse.

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It's got a few moving parts to get to the graph. I initially followed the Hubitat > NodeRed > MySQL > Grafana (LONG READ) thread but deviated a bit and inserted webCoRE into the mix. I used webCoRE to only send data I'm interested in instead of using websockets. The Shelly uni is what I have attached to the battery side of the controller for voltage data.

I created an endpoint in NR that I call with webCoRE for inserting the database entries.

....thanks for that brief.

Is the Bloomsky SKY still working?

It's still chugging along!

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It's full on summer in AZ and just learned something new about solar. More sun is not necessarily good. Heat has wrecked havoc on my battery levels. The controller hasn't shut down the load yet so I'm watching what happens when area temp gets to about 110F.

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