[Polylactic_acid]

I tried running an rpi on a lead acid battery and a 40w panel. It seemed to be running fine for the first 2 weeks but then I think it had a few days where it drained the battery to 0 which ruined it and then it was turning off every night. I'm not sure what to do with the setup now since it seems like lead acid is not the way to go but all of the DIY solar charge controllers use lead acid.

[jandrese]

Did you use a deep cycle battery? Letting a standard lead acid battery go to 0 is a surefire way to kill it.

[Polylactic_acid]

It was just a standard one but the deep cycle ones are super expensive and it doesn't seem worth it for a rpi that costs about $1 a year to run.