Build Your Own Solar Cable Kit with eBay Parts vs Harbor Freight's Solar Accessory Kit

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As noted in other articles, Harbor Freight sells it's solar panels and solar accessories in separate items. Their charge controller is similar to of the affordable ones off eBay or Amazon with a few differences. You end up having to splice the end of a cable with a SAE connector on one end that plugs into the solar panel itself in-order to make electrical contact with the solar connectors.

Harbor Freight offers a cable kit for $13.99, which can be useful, however they do NOT contain a cable with an appropriate end to interface directly into the charge controller. The extension cable included in the kit has two SAE connectors. The thunderbolt solar panel has a SAE connector on it which makes it easy to plug it into something. The cable in the kit offered has two SAE ends on it which works good for an extension. It is probably not practical to cut the SAE end off the solar panel itself or the extension kit as for feasibility.

Harbor Freight Solar Cable Kit Contents

1. SAE Extension Cable
2. SAE to SAE connector
3. Alligator Clips
4. SAE to DC Jack
5. SAE to Cigarette lighter FEMALE
6. SAE to Cigarette lighter MALE
7. SAE to LIGHT tester

Some of these items assume you are plugging the solar panel directly into your application WITHOUT a charge controller. In my opinion, the most useful items here are the SAE to SAE connector which can be purchased off eBay, the SAE extension cable, and the SAE LIGHT tester. The SAE light tester is a nice tool to show whether or not your solar panel works.

Most of these items can be purchased off eBay directly however all in all the kit is in fact worth it, in my opinion. The Motorola radius cables can in fact be used in conjunction with this kit or with the solar panel directly and totally avoid the kit. The typical Motorola Radius SAE cable on eBay, although generic has up to 15 ft of length and an inline 15 AMP fuse.

Build Your own Kit - eBay Parts

The most quintessential item to hook your solar panel(s) up to charge controller is the Generic SAE cables off eBay - designed for Motorola radius models. These cables are generally 15 ft long and feature an inline fuse block. Typically these cables have a SAE on one end and simply bare wire on the other. You could just hook this up to charge controller or solder on terminals that would clamp down inside the controller. Additionally, SAE to SAE connectors and SAE to SAE extension cables are available for under $10.00.

TAB	Build Your own Kit with Separate items - eBay	Harbor Freight Kit BUY IT NOW
INLINE FUSE		NO
EXTENSION CABLE (SAE to SAE)	YES (AVAILABLE IN MULTIPLE LENGTHS) BUY IT NOW	YES (ONE LENGTH AVAILABLE)
CHARGE CONTROL CONNECTION READY (BARE WIRE AT ONE END)	YES BUY IT NOW	NO
SAE to SAE (REVERSE POLARITY)	YES	YES
TOTAL COST	..	$13.99