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I am using a 20W solar panel, maximum voltage 21V & maximum current 1.23 A. I am using LM2596 to dtep-down to 5V to charge my powerbank, hich will later power my Nodemcu (ESP8266 board.)
Issue in conditions I am getting 14V and when connecting it to LM2596 it's lowering it to 1.6V and not going up to the desired 5V.
Am I doing something wrong? Am I missing something? Any suggestions?
Note : I am using standard LM2596 potentiometer module.
with no load on the output of the LM2596 module, make sure that the output voltage is 5V as you expect, if not tweak the potentiometer until it is, Always turn these things slowly, I have had multiple of these modules detonate if the wiper arm gets too close to ground (too high a voltage on the output capacitor)
With a load connected, if this drops to 1.6V again, does the solar panel voltage on the input also fall? if the power bank is trying to charge at a higher current than the panel is capable of, it may pull down the output voltage,
If the output is being pulled down, you may have to add some resistors to the USB data lines to tell the power bank to use a lower charge rate, not all power banks actually respect this, but it may help,
