Building of a Portable Solar AC & DC Power Supply

This paper presents the building process of a small scale, cost effective portable solar power supply. The end product comes with a solar panel to capture and convert solar energy to electrical energy. The electrical energy was stored in a rechargeable battery with a charge controller to regulate the charging process. A battery level indicator was in place to monitor the battery storage capacity. A low-cost square wave inverter was built to generate the AC power supply required for the operation of low power rated household devices. A voltage regulator was constructed to step down the 12V DC voltage to a regulated 5V DC power supply for the charging of handheld devices like smart phones and tablets. The final product carries a weight of 5.5kg that provides both simultaneously a portable 230V 50W AC power generator and a regulated 5V 1W DC power supply source in times of emergency.