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Comment by cr3ative | Hacker News Reader

I'm a little confused about the need for the inverter here.

The SmartSolar can provide output the Pi can use. Why not just throw a 12v-compatible USB power supply on there?

Going up to mains then back down to 5v seems inefficient. Am I missing something?

edit: I'm wrong! My SmartSolar has "LOAD" output but OP's does not. Ref: https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-charge-controllers/smart...

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Still, there's the UUGEAR Zero2Go board that you might use to step down from 12v to 5V:

https://www.uugear.com/product/zero2go-omini-wide-input-rang...

IMO, these types of listings (power supply for <insert popular development board>) prey on people who don't have a ton of EE knowledge. A pack of 10 2A buck-converter modules from Aliexpress will run you about $5

The author already powers the Pi directly from the battery, and they switch off the inverter when it's not used. (see the image diagram and one of their responses in the comments) Anyway, you wouldn't need a 'load' port in the charge controller, just put it in parallel with the battery.

Why do you think the Pi is powered via the inverter? I can't see mention of this, and the picture of their setup shows the Pi being powered by a step-down from 12 V.

That picture is not his setup.

I'm talking about the picture with the caption "the latest iteration of my solar setup".

Maybe you tripped over the text "So I decided to build a new setup inspired by Will Prowse solar demo setups, which is pictured below:", which I understand as "So I decided to build a new setup, pictured below, which was inspired by Will Prowse solar demo setups:".

If it isn't, then my question "why the inverter" still applies I suppose. Anything else might just be out of scope or not shown, I'm not sure. It just seems like overkill for just the pi and display.

edit: His desktop computer is powered by this at times. Not pictured and not labelled on the photo. Makes sense though.

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