Solar panel to charge a small battery and power a dc motor

Using Arduino Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hello community, I have a question regarding a battery charged through a small solar panel. Here is what I want to achieve. First of all, I am not using an Arduino since this project doesn't require a microprocessor, so I apologize if this question shouldn't be here.
I want to power a small dc motor through a 3.7v 380 mah lipo battery. At the same time, one or two 5v 30 mah small solar panels would recharge the battery while not in use.
So far, I have this hardware:
Solar panel
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XTX3L6L?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_874T1QTEYJVA2JGP5HRF
Charging controller

Lipo battery

The motor

I was thinking maybe to add a step-up booster for when there is not enough light to charge the battery. If so, is there any you would recommend?

The motor will be activated with the push of a button, and the whole setup will have a switch to turn it on or off. The battery will still be able to charge when the device is off.

My question is regarding the use of a step-up booster. Is it really necessary in order to get enough power going through the charger module?
Would that be enough with one panel or should I add an extra one?

Thank you so much for your time.

2

That won't work. Solar panels are primarily current sources, not voltage sources. Also, the charge controller you picked is not designed to work with solar panels.

With such small solar panels, you would be much better off using 2 or 3 NiCd or NiMH AA batteries, and no charge controller -- just a diode for trickle charging, and to prevent draining the battery when there is too little light to charge.

3

Thanks for the info.
What about something similar to this?

It has a usb-c port for charging, but you can also hook up a solar panel, although in this case is much bigger.

Thanks again!

4

Or better yet, this one looks promising.
What do you think?

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