Am I misunderstanding the specs of this solar panel or electric motor

brushless-dc-motordc motormotorsolar cell

I've been trying to figure this out, but the answers I've come up with thus far have been counter-intuitive.

The solar panel's specs are as follows:

Maximum Power: 50W 
Maximum System Voltage: 600V DC (UL) 
Optimum Operating Voltage (Vmp): 17.8V 
Optimum Operating Current (Imp): 2.8A 
Open-Circuit Voltage (Voc): 22.4V 
Short-Circuit Current (Isc): 2.95

The motor's max volts is 30, and max watts is 4800, presumably bringing the max amps is 160, and by this measure, it seems I would need nearly 50 of my solar panel to power the motor… is this right, or am I misunderstanding something? If I am, how is anybody achieving anything with solar? This is a small motor for an RC boat :/

This is the motor in question (more for trucks than boats, but oh well): Turnigy TrackStar 1/5th Sensorless Brushless Motor 760KV

Best Answer

The answer is simple:- you chose the wrong motor. For your application you need to turn a large prop, but not very fast. So you should be looking for a geared motor or an outrunner, with a rating of at least twice the power you will put actually into it (because you want to run it at close to peak efficiency, not maximum output power).

12V trolling motors typically draw about 500W, which would require 10 50W solar panels. Put the same power through a low Kv outrunner such as the Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 5055-280kv, and you should be good to go. The only other question is what size prop do you need to draw that power?

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