Recommendtions for a good solar charger...

LEDBE
ditto I'd like to know too...just to warn you, when I did my own research some time ago, all I could find were ones that would take days to charge (portable size ones at least I"m assuming..)
 
flasherByNight said:
ditto I'd like to know too...just to warn you, when I did my own research some time ago, all I could find were ones that would take days to charge (portable size ones at least I"m assuming..)
Click to expand...
Well i found this one but its only for AA's or AAA's.
http://store.sundancesolar.com/poaafosobach.html

But i would think that a 12v one would work if you have a charger that runs off of DC power.:shrug: I am hoping someone will point me in the right direction. :)
 
Hello Brian321,

As far as finding a portable solar charger to charge AA and AAA cells, there are a few around, but their performance is "less than spectacular."

Some people have solar pannels tied into charging a bank of 12 volt batteries. These work much better, and you simply find chargers for your cells that accept 12 volt power.

The various hobby chargers are capable of charging many battery chemistries, and are powered by a 12 volt battery. Add to that a suitable sized solar panel, and you would probably have something that is reasonably functional.

Tom
 
to charge Li-Ions you can just buy one of them e-bay china solar phone chargers with the built in battery. Cause the built in battery is a Li-Ion :) (of the li-poly variety)
just wire in your battery instead of thiers. the medium sized ones max out at about 120ma . basically it could potentially charge in one day. the curcuits are pretty sad , so test the one you get.

if your solar is about 5.5v as the voltage differential goes down between the solar and the battery it slows down to properly end the charge, then all you need it a proper termination of charge. these things are about 6V solar cell items, and they dont slow down "enough" so they arent perfect curcuits, but they can do the job, also they can have startup issues sometimes when the battery voltage has dropped to low (then they restart after usb connect).

i would say you could make a good medium speed li-ion solar charger for less than $30, because i have.

These things charge an internal li-poly cell and output 5-5.5V at about 65-300ma (depending on model) out the USB connect, now what do you figure you could do with that :) so also potentially you could use thier USB output to drain the internal battery into an external battery, with of course the dc-dc losses.
 
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Bones said:
As long as your budget approaches that of the DoD, PowerFilm Inc. can provide you with an extensive line of truly serious solar-power products:

http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/

They're even the OEM of the fold-able charger you linked in post 2:

http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/... foldable-products/
.
Click to expand...

They also make a USB+AA foldable charger. You could use that in conjunction with one of these excellent USB Li-Ion chargers. Or, you can build your own USB from the barebones circuit. I'm not sure how well the USB charger will work at the low current provided by the solar panel, though...
 
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Here is a system that will work, the charger will take care of the battery, you can use 12v or 110vac. No one said it had to be portable.

Solar panel:
http://www.batterymart.com/p-12v-15w-batteryminder-solar-battery-charger.html

Battery:
http://www.power-sonic.com/site/doc/prod/95.pdf


12vdc to 110vac sine wave:
http://www.wagan.com/index.php?page...tegory_id=15&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=100

THe battery is about the largest that can be used and still get a full charge in a resonable length of time.

You will need to add various cable and connectors. The inverter is sine wave safest for electronics. Size is small to limit the load on the battery.

=D~~ Kilted
 
If you're just trying to make a solar charger for lithiums and NIMH cells, you can skip the 120VAC inverter Kilted recommended. Assuming your existing battery charger runs off a wall wart, most of those output some DC level which drives the actual charger. My Pila IBC takes 6V @ 2A and my MAHA C9000 12V @ 2A. You can get the 12V directly from the 12V 18AH battery that the solar panel charges, and use a resistor to get 6V if you need it (or use two 6V batteries that you can connect in series or parallel if you want to be more efficient).
 
tsmccull said:
If you're just trying to make a solar charger for lithiums and NIMH cells, you can skip the 120VAC inverter Kilted recommended. Assuming your existing battery charger runs off a wall wart, most of those output some DC level which drives the actual charger. My Pila IBC takes 6V @ 2A and my MAHA C9000 12V @ 2A. You can get the 12V directly from the 12V 18AH battery that the solar panel charges, and use a resistor to get 6V if you need it (or use two 6V batteries that you can connect in series or parallel if you want to be more efficient).
Click to expand...

tsmccull: what you suggest is only partly true my Maha C808M only uses 100-240 AC no dc input. I have several other wall-wart chargers where there are no easy DC options for. If you do a resistor divider the voltage will vary depending on load. If the charger is not well protected the damage will be unknown.

Using two six volt batteries in series/parallel will work nicely you just need some 4-contact Cinch-Jones connectors. If you just try to pull 6v from one battery then you are going to unbalance the pair and will eventually lead to early battery death.

I chose to recommend a simple off-the-shelf system that has basic battery protection built in. The inverter was chosen to provide a waveform that will not cause early death of electronics. There are jump start/portable power packs that include 110VAC, I left those out because they are MSW (Modified SQUARE Wave) which is known to be hard on some electronics.

You most certianly can use 12v DC directly which would be the most efficient, or use the 6v-parallel, 12v-series, but you cannot charge from the solar panels while in 6v parallel mode.

Be safe, check the "TK Monster explosion" thread I do electronics for a living and it woke me up.

If this is meant to be a usable system meant for an emergency then simple is best, especially if there are other people in the house hold. Kludges tend to fail when needed the most. I have a garage full'em. In an emergency you will not know what you will need to plug into the inverter.

You may scale up to your hearts content.

=D~~ Kilted
 
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Nothingworth a hoot in commercial products that Im aware off .

You need to build your own ,

Head over to kaidomain and check out the Shekor charger , nice voltage input range , one or two good solar panels , and away you go , well thats what I plan on doing in anyway ...

You want something thats going to take maybe 4 hours for 2 CR123A's max on a nice day , and maybe all day when overcast ..

Anything more than that , and its a TOY !

And it would be real nice , if it could charge 1 x 18650 per day ...
Im still looking at cells and panels , some good deals in the USA but the Shipping is a deal breaker .
 
Here's my 'Toy' (expensive though ;-)

The panel is a 2.2w panel from ebay which comes with a USB port. You can charge anything that needs a USB to charge. Cost was about £12

The charger is SabreWolfs micro usb charger, which cost around £25 I think

The voltage meter is a 1 cell hobby li-po volt meter. Cost around £3

Its tiny which is what I wanted.

I charged my Draco 10280 battery this morning. It works with just a little light, and charges as quick as from my PC. (took an hour and I was done, even at 9am in the UK)
 
that is great, cool picture too.
i gotta know where/how you got the meter from, i use 2 types like that, one wont do low (enough) voltages and had to be resister modified, and the other is way to big.
 
They shouldn't be too hard to find. Most radio controlled aircraft these days use Lithium Polymer batteries. Several manufactures make a little device that can be plugged into the balance plug of a LiPo battery to check each cell and overall pack voltage.

http://www.amazon.com/Cell-Spy-Lipo-Voltage-Tester/dp/B0026JMXEO

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXXYN5&P=FR

http://www.e-fliterc.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=EFLA111



Video demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRfPxEyQyN8
 
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