Waaaarrrgghhh!
And so forth. This is the part where wackiness descends upon me like a dumpster-load of small, Koosh-like wacky things which together aggregate into the dreaded Big Wacky On My Head.
Nevertheless: the Black Box is done. Whatcher lookin' at here is:
(1) Cellular phone amplifier.
(2) Output switches and output jacks. Five of the switches control whether the jacks draw their power from the battery or the solar panels. The output jacks are threaded to keep the plugs firmly in place. The sixth switch controls where the cellular amp draws its power.
(3) DC-DC converter bus. Draws power from the panels through the converter.
(4) Battery bus. Draws power from the battery.
(5) Battery. Two six-volt eight amp-hour Hawker Cyclon sealed lead acid cells, wired in series to provide 12 volts.
(6) DC-DC converter. Takes power from the solar panels and converts the output to a steady 13.8 volts with variable amperage depending on the panels' output.
(7) Charge controller. Manages the charging of the batteries from the solar panels.
(8) Input switches and input jacks. I have two solar panels, and each panel's power can be routed indepently to the charge controller or to the DC-DC converter.
When closed, it looks like this. The switches and jacks aren't as aligned as I'd like them to be, but everything fits, everything works, and we'll see if it can stand up to 5,000 miles on the back of a trike. I still have to solder the input and output cables for the panels and various devices.
And, you know, do everything else...pack life into 5' by 15' box, clean up house, sell house...(warg)...
