Nokero AA Solar Charger?

[Tommygun45]

Anyone have any experience with this guy? Says that it is a waterproof single AA charger. Also comes with an 800 mah battery. Good part is its only $14 bucks. Looks like a good emergency system to throw BOB kit. Anyways anyone seen it at all or have any experience?

 

[ChrisGarrett]

You know you're in trouble when they don't give any meaningful specs, like charging rate and when they only give you an 800mAh battery. I imagine charging an Eneloop would take a couple of days, lol.

I'll pass.

Chris

 

[Dustinbikes]

Well, at the price point I could see myself getting one of these to put in the ol' bug out bag.

 

[independent]

I've tried and own(ed) just about all the decent single solar aa chargers made including both of the expensive powerfilm ones. I build my own solar regulators and I rate these. They have a 0.5w solar panel with the specs clearly written on the rear of the panel (as well as on the website I think) and have built-in regulation. 180mA goes into the AA. Mine has been reliable after using it every day for several months. There are a couple of things that could be better, mainly to do with the design but also including more output, but there is no competition in the single AA solar charging world and they are reliable.

 

[reppans]

..I imagine charging an Eneloop would take a couple of days, lol.

Website says 800mah/day, so about 3 days for an Eneloop.... ouch. I'll stick with the Powerfilm 4AA charger at 4oz and size of 2 packs of cigarettes. It'll do 2 Eneloops in 4 hrs.

 

[independent]

Website says 800mah/day, so about 3 days for an Eneloop.... ouch. I'll stick with the Powerfilm 4AA charger at 4oz and size of 2 packs of cigarettes. It'll do 2 Eneloops in 4 hrs.

I'm on my 3rd Powerfilm 4AA charger. For what they are they are OK, but the wires will break at the folds if used every day for a few months, even if used carefully every day unfortunately. The company is great at replacing them under warranty. I have a lot of respect for the Powerfilm company, it's cool stuff. The Nokero C110 is actually 32 grams, not 45 so 4x of them are roughly the weight of an 4xAA powerfilm and a bit less in total output. The Nokero C110s have their faults (hey a few hundred more mA would be welcome) but they are reliable. Also, all of these chargers, the Powerfilm included don't have any fancy charging system, they all only charge to ~%80 SoC. Generally speaking only, but on a good day if I've used Eneloop cell to 1.3v it will be at full, %80ish full, ie 1.415v by sundown or the afternoon if it's been sunny all morning. So, in real world terms, these are usable and reliable and can be easily ganged up to supply more than 1xAA at a time ie, 2x C110s for a TK20 for example. This is my big problem with all Solar AA chargers I've tried. Nokero is a bit less bad, but Powerfilm uses what look to be high quality Keystone AA holders. You can't use them every day without damaging the cells! It's a real problem. My old sony ICF-7600D has a little piece of ribbon so you can lever them out without even touching the cells and I intend to do the same on my Nokero, that is put in some ribbon into the AA compartment. The Nokero is slightly better as there is an extra mm or so at the end of the cell where the nipple is to use your thumb to get the cell out without damaging it.

 

[reppans]

Thanks, that's good info on the Powerfilm. Curious what the indicators are when the wires break between the panels, and are they field repairable.

Solar is still too slow for me to rely on, so the Powerfilm just represents emergency back-up, so mine won't see as much use as yours. Do like any of the Goal Zero or Cottonpickers Mono crystalline panels?

Ever think about posting a review thread of what you've tried, since you sound like you've tried many.... and extensively enough to break them!

 

[independent]

The cottonpickers look nice, I've had a look in the past but they are lithium polymer chargers, charged either by USB or solar. The Goal Zero AA charger is only 4x AA only (I think) so this isn't much use for most people in.uding myself. My interest for a few years now has been micro- and nano- solar systems but have concentrated on AA sized commodity cells. I've built my own lipo chargers in the past for external cellphone battery charging as well and it can be quite sasisfying. The other place to look if you are keen to DIY is the adafruit solar Lipo charger. It does USB and psuedo MPP off solar, user configurable to something over an ampere charge rate. They sell the Voltaic brand of panels for a reasonable price have cheap shipping to boot. The Voltaic brand of panels are efficient and extremely well made, if you are in the States you can get their 15w panel for US$50 in the garage sale section of the Voltaic site right now. I really rate these guys as well. I wrote to them a couple of weeks ago after I found one of the batteries I owned for some time had a 0v 18650 cell inside. I was doing a charging mod to the battery (it's off the Generator solar bag) but I hadn't used the battery and had only recently found a use for it . So, the battery was old but unused, cracked open to do a charging mod, and they are sending me a brand new battery! In the post as we speak. How's that.? The battery has electronics and 4x 18650 cells in series and one cell was 0v while the others were all 4.15 and 4.1 so clearly a cell failure and not sad old battery. They are an amazing company and I will support them as much as I can in the future. Currently, I am building my own solar chargers and the designs are all documented on fieldlines.com. It is also a Maximum Power Point (without the Tracking) solar charger providing a regulated 5v for USB charging. It is ~84% efficient and uses commonly available 12v panels (I like CIGS panels). 2 or 3 of us are doing similar things using LM2596 regulators with good results. Cellphone or USB charging directly of solar with a proper regulated output with no intermediate battery which is really satisfying. It's a bit of a roundabout way to charge AAs but charges my GNU/Linux smartphone as well. For AA/AAA charging off USB I use the eneloop USB charger.