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6V LDO Solar Charge Controller

JIM KEITH (HTTP://WWW.ELECTROSCHEMATICS.COM/AUTHOR/J-KEITH/)

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solar chargers (/tag/solar-charger-circuits)

This Low Dropout Voltage (LDO) solar charge controller is a variation of the previously posted
12V LDO controller (http://www.electroschematics.com/6899/12v-ldo-solar-charge-control/). It is optimized for charging a 6V lead-acid battery with
a 9V solar panel. Minimum voltage drop is less than 1V. It uses a simple diးerential ampliးer and series P channel MOSFET linear regulator.
Voltage output is adjustable. It may also be applied in two or four cell lead-acid applications (4V & 8V).
It is not recommended for 12V applications.

6 Volt solar charge controller schematic

 (http://www.electroschematics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/6V-LDO-

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Solar-Charge-Control-Schematic.jpg)

6V Solar Charge Controller Speciးcations (/)

Max solar panel rating: 50W (8A, 6V nominal) (open circuit voltage: 9 to 10V)
Output voltage range: 4.7 to 9.8V (adjustable) (not recommended for 12V applications)
Max power dissipation: 16W (includes power dissipation of D3)
Typical dropout voltage: 0.9V @ 8A (less @ lower currents)
+ Maximum current: 8A (current limiting provided by solar panel characteristics)
Voltage regulation: 80mV (no load to full load)
Battery discharge: 1mA (Chinese controls discharge at typically 5mA)
LED indicators:
+
RED: Solar panel active
GREEN: Series regulator limiting current (fully charged or topping oး)
Reverse battery protection: Control shuts down if battery is inadvertently connected reverse

Operation at lower current/power

While designed for 8A, 50W, it will function just as well at much lower current /power.

LDO Solar Charge Control Photos

Perf board—sorry, no circuit board artwork at the time of publication.
 (http://www.electroschematics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/6V-LDO-

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Solar-Control-Photo.jpg)

LM317LZ (https://www.arrow.com/en/products/search?q=LM317LZ)—many readers may not know that this component exists in the TO-92
package.

(http://www.electroschematics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/LM317LZ-

Cropped.jpg)

Bill of Materials
BOM in Excel format (http://www.electroschematics.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/6V-LDO-Solar-Charge-Control-BOM.rar)

Dropout Voltage
 Dropout Voltage
The input voltage exceeds the input voltage by 0.9V when charging at the maximum rate—the lower, the better. Low Dropout Voltage (LDO)
is the catch phrase for anything under approximately 2V.

Current Limiting
Current limiting is provided by the solar panel—it is not a commonly understood fact that the solar panel tends to be a constant current
device. For this reason, a solar panel can withstand a short circuit. Therefore, the control does not need current limiting.

Float Charge of Lead-Acid Batteries

This control charges the battery at a constant voltage and also maintains a charged battery (းoat charge). The းoat charge voltage
speciးcation is a little lower than the charge voltage, so to accommodate both voltages, a compromise is reached by simply reducing the
voltage slightly—that is how ALL automotive systems operate. To obtain maximum charge in a 6V battery, set the control to 7 tp 7.4V.

Voltage Adjustment
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To set the voltage, disconnect the battery and connect a 470Ω dummy load resistor across the output. The resistor is necessary to shunt
potential MOSFET leakage current as well as the green LED current. The battery must be disconnected because the output voltage of the
(/)
control cannot otherwise be set below actual battery voltage.

Circuit Operation
U1 is an LM317LZ (https://www.arrow.com/en/products/search?q=LM317LZ) TO-92 voltage regulator that is set to put out 3.1V. Low voltage zeners
(below 6.2V) are too sloppy to use as voltage references, so the LM317 (https://www.arrow.com/en/products/search?q=LM317) is used. Q1 & Q2
+ make up the classic diးerential ampliးer that ampliးes the diးerence between the reference voltage and the feedback voltage from the arm
of potentiometer R6. The output is taken from the collector of Q2 and drives the gate of P Channel MOSFET Q3. Diးerential voltage gain is
probably in the order of 100 to 200. For best performance, I selected Q1 & Q2 for matched hFE (approx 300). As the feedback voltage
increases at the arm of R6, Q2 turns on harder and steals some of the emitter current away from Q1. The collector current of Q1 follows the
+
emitter current and drops less voltage across R1 thus reducing Vgs of Q3 and turning it oး. C2 provides frequency compensation to prevent
the ampliးer from oscillating.

Q3 (Fairchild NDP6020P (https://www.arrow.com/en/products/search?q=NDP6020P)) is a high current P-Channel MOSFET that has an Rds on of
only 50mΩ. This is in the class of logic level controlled devices as it may be turned on fully with only a 4.5V gate to source voltage. To obtain
these properties, a sacriးce is made in voltage rating. As a result, Q3 is rated for only 20V. Because Max Vgs is only 8V, a 6.2V zener (D1)
protects the gate from potentially destructive voltage. Due to these voltage limitations, this control is not recommended for 12V
applications.

When the battery reaches set voltage, Q3 starts to drop signiးcant voltage and turns on Q5 which powers the Green LED.

Q4 is dormant unless the battery is connected reverse—should this happen, Q4 turns on and reduces the reference voltage input to zero thus
turning Q1 & Q3 and preventing damaging battery current.

Blocking diode, D3, prevents the battery voltage from appearing across an inactive solar panel.

Simpliးcation
If this circuit appears too complex, strip oး the unnecessary components and things get much easier—drop (or add later) R8-11, D2,4,5, Q4,5
thus saving 9 components.

Thermal Management
 Thermal Management
This is a linear series regulator that dissipates signiးcant power when the pass transistor is both conducting current and dropping voltage
simultaneously—during maximum charge rate when the voltage drop is low, the heatsink runs warm—when the battery is fully charged and
there is low charge current, the heatsink is cold—but when the battery starts to top oး at maximum voltage, the heatsink runs very hot—
such is the nature of a linear regulator. At 8A, Q3 drops 1.45V (assuming solar panel voltage is 9V). The remaining 0.55V is the D3 voltage
drop. P = 8A * 1.45V = 11.6W. The heatsink is rated at 3.9°C/W, so heatsink temperature rise = 11.6W * 3.9°C/W = 45.2°C. Adding the 25°C
ambient temperature results in a heatsink temperature of 70.2°C. While this may seem very HOT to the touch, it is still cool to the transistor
that is rated for a junction temperature of 175°C.

Heatsinking D3
D3 dissipates 4.4W @ 8A. This requires a heatsink. In an etched circuit, a large foil area is required to dissipate the heat. In the perfboard
version, I added copper heatsink bars fabricated out of AWG #14 solid copper leads that were hammered းat to increase the surface area.

Testing the 6V LDO Solar Charge Control

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My apparatus cannot simulate solar panel current above 6.6A. While the control is designed for 8A, it has not been actually tested at that
level. Actual measurements indicate a voltage drop of 0.51V @ 4A and 0.64V @ 6.6A. Voltage regulation measures 80mV (NL to 6.6A). I do
(/)
not know why the 12V LDO control performed much better in this regard.

For the future

Properties of the diးerential ampliးer

LM317 datasheet (http://www.electroschematics.com/6553/lm317-datasheet/)

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 38 Comments

Join the conversation!

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Slawomir
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Dir Sir
Will this project work properly with 6V, 6W solar panel? (/)
Open circuit voltage 7.2V and current 1.08amps.
Whats more, I would be really grateful if you could share with me pcb schematics.

Regards

Posted on September 20th 2016 | 5:59 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1901261)

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+
shafqat
how i will use it for a 150 watt panel where 9.08 ampere short circut current ,please tell about the changes .at the output 12 volt 95AH battery

Posted on January 03rd 2016 | 11:52 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1888007)

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kedro墹kator
Best diode are SPV1002 –
Cool bypass switch for photovoltaic applications
If = 16A, Vr = 40V
Very low forward voltage drop
typ. 180mV @ 16A

Posted on October 11th 2015 | 12:15 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1829786)

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 Dimitris
Hi.
Thanks for the circuit.
I have many pieces of solar cells 0,5v 4Wp. So i want to construct a solar panel to use with this citrcuit.

1) Is it ok to use 20 cells (10volt) to construct the panel?

2) i suppose that the max current is 8A (4Wp/0,5v) so it is ok to use this circuit?

Thanks.

Posted on August 11th 2015 | 1:59 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1760255)

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(/)
Mr Subir Roy
Respected Sir,
I need 10 Amp. solar chager schematic by using LM 317 or LM 358 Op-Amp. can you provide?
Thanks,
Subir
+
Posted on July 14th 2015 | 11:42 am (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1738513)
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+
Jim Keith
Check out this circuit:
http://www.electroschematics.com/8847/3a-6v12v-solar-charge-control/ (http://www.electroschematics.com/8847/3a-6v12v-solar-charge-
control/)
Also note that the TL431 may be replaced with an LM317 & (2) resistors.
For 10A, a fan cooled heat sink will be necessary –fan operation is necessary only when the battery is topping oး.

Posted on July 14th 2015 | 1:53 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1738578)



Superb article
Hello Dears,
Please Suggest me a circuit, with 6V Solar panel to charge a mobile phone

Posted on December 17th 2014 | 9:59 am (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1320561)

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Jim Keith
I recommend this simple control:
http://www.electroschematics.com/9503/6v-solar-charge-shunt-regulator/ (http://www.electroschematics.com/9503/6v-solar-charge-shunt-
regulator/)

Also, I plan to submit a similar control with adjustable output voltage using the TL431.

Posted on December 17th 2014 | 11:47 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-1324191)



prasanth
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sir
(/)
shall i get the pcb diagram of this circuit …

Posted on September 08th 2014 | 8:20 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-759216)

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mohi
hello Jim
+
I would like to 4 battery number 1.5 V series and using the circuit, I charge. Is it possible?

Posted on July 30th 2014 | 7:18 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-611536)

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NONJABULO JILI
may i ask theb best substitute for the NDP6020P mosfet?

Posted on March 26th 2014 | 10:03 am (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-284521)

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kirankumar

hi jim,
 hi jim,
pl;z help me,
im making divice to chrage 6v 4.5ah battery from 5watt solar panelwith indicate y low or full, plz help me

Posted on January 08th 2014 | 1:36 pm (http://www.electroschematics.com/6916/6v-ldo-solar-charge-control-circuit/#comment-274691)

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