www.TheDoItYourselfWorld.com

Not making fun of you, but... My feeling is "No" not completely independent. Motors, bearings, pumps, filters all wear out. You need an outside source to procure those things that quit working. For a Mars facility, Earth would be able to supply the items it needed. It would be almost impossible to b...

Salan3 - I'm definitely not knowledgeable in batteries or scooters, however to me it sounds like there may be something wrong with the scooter itself, if well charged batteries will not move it. It may be something as simple as an scr or other control breaking down. Perhaps you can find someone that...

Troy, I used some of the solar powered led christmas lights around my chicken pen to keep out the wild critters. It seems to be working so far (about 1.5 years). Red christmas lights seem to work all night long when set to "flash" http://www.ebay.com/itm/Solar-200-LED-Fairy-String-Light-For-Christma...

hazzic - that reminds me of a youtube video I watched where the person was showing how to set up a solar power system. One of the comments was from a lady that had a 100 watt panel and she wanted to know what size inverter she needed. Huh??? That's kinda like "how big is big?". She could run a 2kw i...

Can the LiFePO4 batteries be paralleled with a 12 volt lead-acid battery?
Is the 4 cell configuration a 12 volt configuration? I see it is only $76 (plus shipping I assume) and that is a better price than a new 12 volt lead-acid of comparable AH rating.

John, Troy may be able to answer your questions better, but... Ebay is one option for solar cells. Look for $1US per watt, or less if you can find it. At $1/watt that will run you $1000 for each kilowatt, plus the costs for the charge controller and batteries. If you want ac power it would be best t...

Sounds like fun and educational! It looks like you'll be needing those relay boards you got. Have you considered the wireless shields so that you can control/monitor everything from your laptop? Hope you keep us posted with sketches(programs), wiring and results! Dang! You may have to start another ...

Troy,
A couple of days ago you said that you had ordered 3 Arduino Uno's. How are you planning on using them, and have you worked out any sketch (program) to do what you want?
I do have an Arduino Uno R3, but haven't done much with it, just played around mostly with the blink sketch.

The battery is not dead, so it would be used just to maintain. I was just wondering if the PWM controller would be of any benifit. But I think oldcodger answered that for me! (just be a waste of time and money)

Hi Marks Fletchers - I am far from an expert, however I think it depends on what you are using it for. Best for flooring, best for burning, best for furniture, best for carving? I don't think there is one over all best for all different applications. In my area the best firewood is either oak or hic...