Modifying the Solar Energy Hub~ Faster Charging

In the above photo displays the Solar Energy Hub. This unit was personally modified as the Solar Input on it was not responsive all the time, as well as causing slow charging issues. Another aspect that was modified was the USB phone charging port, where it was only able to supply a constant current of 500Ma at 5.00v. This power output was not enough to charge modern phones which require a minimum of at least  1.0 to 2.0 Amps at 5.0V.  On the left shows the unit before modifications.
Underneath to the left shows the unit after the modifications. Two active components installed was the XL0009 Variable Step Up converter and the TP4056 Li-ion Protection Board. The XL009 was connected in parallel with the Phone Charging USB Port, and was calibrated to 5.0V to suits phone charging specs.

A Switch was installed in on the unit which was in series with the Step Up board to prevent discharge over a long period of time

XL009 Step Up Board

The Step Up board can Step up Voltages from 3.0V to 30 V at around 3 to 4 Amps depending on Heat Dissipation. The potentiometer on the board allows for variable Voltage changes.

TP4056 Protection Board

The TP4056 has 3 pairs of connections. First for Charging Input shown the left red green wires. Second for Battery Input and Third for Battery Discharge. When the Voltage of the Battery Reaches a certain threshold, the board will disconnect the battery from the load, saving the battery from overdischarge.

Version 1 Solar Charger and Load controller

Above shows the basic diagram of how a charge controller should be wired up. On each of the connections, there is a switch to allow for closing and isolating a section of the charge controller. On the picture on the right is a prototype on how it all planned out. In addition, the left picture also includes 10 amp fuses on each of the sections of the charge controller to prevent any short circuits or overloads from damaging the components.
However, in the version one, the bus bar used was an aluminium bar, which proved to cause too much resistance in the circuit. This large resistance caused for a drop in voltage and create inaccurate voltages read by the charge controller. The bar shall be replaced with a more electrically conductive material to increase efficiency. As well, the current size of the project is too large, so version 2 will be condensed down. Even though this circuit had power losses. For 2 years, the circuit had run smoothly and resulted in 3000 accumulated amp hours in charging and 2000 accumulated amp hours in discharging.