Get more from every hour of sun

A reference for every number on the Solar Spotter main screen — what each one shows, where it comes from, and what it tells you about your own setup.

The Best Charging Window tells you which hours are worth being set up for, and where to put the panel for that window — it's a Pro card. Here's how to read it and how to set your own.

Panel Mode reads your panel's real tilt and direction — ground slope included — by laying the phone on the panel. What it measures, how to read the circles, and how to set it by ear. It's a Pro feature.

Overlay Mode puts your panel, at its real size, into the camera view — positioned for the charging window you pick. How it works on iPhone, how it works on Android, and how to match it. It's a Pro feature.

Each day's charging verdict, the power to expect and the window to be set up for — three days out, and it keeps working when the signal doesn't. It's a Pro strip.

Build a multi-stop trip and see the conditions at every camp on the date you'll be there — each stop on its own clock — plus the notebook that remembers the spot for next time. It's a Pro screen.

One message before sunrise: how good today's sun is where you are, how many charging hours are worth having, and when. How to switch it on and how to read it.

Charge in, draw out, day by day, read straight from the battery — and where each day's charge actually came from. What it watches, why it stays quiet, and what it will never guess at. It's a Pro screen.

Solar isn't the only thing filling your battery. How the app counts what the charger really adds, why it never names the source, and why none of it is projected forward. It's a Pro row.

The app never assumes your panels are out — you tell it, one tap under the panel row. What declaring changes, which answer lapses and which one doesn't, and why the reminder is never a notification. It's a Pro card.

There's no account and nothing of yours on a server — so one tap copies everything you've built into a bundle you keep. What's in it, how a restore goes, and the copy to take before you reload. It's a Pro section.

The arithmetic, worked through properly: what your panel really delivers, what a peak sun hour is, and how to get a straight answer for your own battery.

Short answer: almost certainly yes, and which type you pick is worth about a fifth of your panel. Here's what a controller does, and when you already have one.

Blankets are the most flexible setup you can own — and the easiest to under-use. AR Overlay shows where to reposition it for more charge and AR Panel Mode dials the angle in to the degree — both Pro. Real watts out of the gear you've got.

Set up so the fridge and lights cruise through to sunrise — and know before dark that you're sorted, instead of finding out at 2am.

A shadow across one corner can take a third of the panel with it, and a thin one lying the wrong way can take nearly all of it. What's happening inside the panel, and the two rules that stop it.

Cold suits a panel — it's the sun that changes, sitting lower for fewer hours. What to change when it drops, and why a flat panel suffers worst.

What's really happening when the clouds roll in, how much charge you still get, and how to make the most of a dull day.

Your panel's rating is a laboratory number measured at 25°C. Where the missing watts actually go, what a good day really looks like on a framed panel and on a blanket, and when a panel can beat its own rating.

A DC-DC charger that backs off before 100% is usually doing its job, not failing — but what counts as normal depends on the chemistry in the box. How to tell an ordinary taper from the four faults that really cost you charge.