Solar Charger

[duboost]

Im looking for a portable solar charger, mainly to charge my iphone and eneloops. I've come across the solio charger and the brunton solar mats, but all seem to have mixed reviews :shrug:. Are there any others out there worth checking out? Tried searching, but didn't come up with much, so apologies if this is a common topic.

 

[AlexLED]

Im looking for a portable solar charger, mainly to charge my iphone and eneloops. I've come across the solio charger and the brunton solar mats, but all seem to have mixed reviews :shrug:. Are there any others out there worth checking out? Tried searching, but didn't come up with much, so apologies if this is a common topic.

Charging an iphone is pretty simple, you can use about any cheap solar power source.

Charging eneloops is quite more complicated, since you need a rather high current.

The Brunton mats are high quality and very flexible in usage, but you will need a decent charger for your eneloops to plug into the Brunton. And beware that this setup of course only works during the day.

Although the Solio products have a built-in Battery, so you can charge your iphone at night, too, you will have a hard time charging your eneloops from those.

 

[DaveTheDude]

When the Marketplace reopens for business, run a search on solar chargers...you'll find at least one fellow offering a relatively high-voltage solar charger that works well for 3.7v li-ion cells.

 

[duboost]

Charging an iphone is pretty simple, you can use about any cheap solar power source.

Charging eneloops is quite more complicated, since you need a rather high current.

The Brunton mats are high quality and very flexible in usage, but you will need a decent charger for your eneloops to plug into the Brunton. And beware that this setup of course only works during the day.

Although the Solio products have a built-in Battery, so you can charge your iphone at night, too, you will have a hard time charging your eneloops from those.

I actually have a c9000 charger for my eneloops, although im unsure how that would hook up to the brunton mats.

I also came across this powerfilm usb+AA charger. Seems to have some pretty good reviews on amazon, however it seems u need to charge the nimh batteries with the mat, then in turn plug in a usb device and the batteries charge the device. On the plus side, you can charge a device at night, on the down side it seems you couldn't put the charged batteries in something else and have the mat alone charge your usb, unless i'm understanding this wrong. Also i've read a few reviews that say it actually discharges their phones, which worries me a bit.... Any thoughts on the powerfilm charger?

When the Marketplace reopens for business, run a search on solar chargers...you'll find at least one fellow offering a relatively high-voltage solar charger that works well for 3.7v li-ion cells.

will do :thumbsup:

thanks for the replies guys

 

[Teobaldo]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]I am a big fan of the solar energy and use my Brunton Solaris 6 to charge my NiMh batteries. I bought a small charger that functions with the panel. You must find the adecuate charger for the type of panel that you have, isn't a minor question. The matter of mAh input is very important (I burn a charger for stupid). Actually I use a Targus charger, but the 480 mAh of the Brunton is insufficient to charge AA's batteries (only works with the AAA's). I will buy a Brunton 26 Watt for charge mi Asus Netbook and the Targus charger too.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]But, in the other side, the Brunton 26 Watts is too much for the Shekor charger for my 18650 batteries (acceept a input of 500 mAh, not the 1,3 amp of the solar panel). Maybe covering the half of the panel give me the necessary current, I will prove when have the panel.[/FONT]

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Good luck, duboost, and I expect to have been of aid.[/FONT]

 

[cottonpickers]

I have some solar panels & chargers. PM if these are close to what you are after & interested. I'm about to include nimh charger also (no extra charge) and introduce panel sizes at both ends (.25w & 3.5w) but large might be perfect for you

 

[ama230]

Anything with a dark film will do, this is known as an amorphous photovoltaic panel. These are going to put out the most current and charge your batteries quicker as they do not need direct sunlight to run properly.

Also you need a panel assembly that will do +5W and make sure to buy a quality or name brand assembly as the fake or imitation panels are very crappy. They will take from either 10-24hrs to charge an internal battery of external batteries.

The nit you had said is a decent one and you can only charge something externally when the batteries are charged up. Also when the batteries are charged and then when they get rundown to half when charging a large phone(with a capacity of about 2200mah or larger), the potential is now lower and will discharge the phone. Again there should be a diode in there to make sure this shouldn't happen, this is a money saver for the company but will damage a panel if there isn't reverse power protection.

If you really want to be really safe and happy you should get a +10w amorphous fold-able panel. This would make sure you have enough power to charge the batteries to full capacity and then again getting a good device charger out of it, good luck as I have been doing a project that uses waste heat with thermoelectric power and to charge a cell phone is easily +5W for an effective charge. Again this is not going to fully charge your phone, its going to only charge it a bar and maybe two, or even keep it neutral(no charging or slight discharging). Its basically going to help you phone stay on a little longer while you make that last call.

Hope this helps,
Eric Ramirez

 

[mano]

I'm a little late to this party, but I have a brunton 26w mat and the C9000 charger, and my set up has the brunton feeding a 3A charge controller that in turn charges a 12v 7aH SLA battery (pulled from a APC UPS). The Maha charger is connected to the load terminals of the charge controller. I charge eneloops and other NiMH cells from this rig. One thing that failed for me - running Break-In mode off the 12v battery. The break-in process takes 36+ hours to complete, and I ended up fully discharging the SLA before the sun came back up the next morning to recharge from the panel.

But using the regular charge cycle on the Maha, this rig gets the job done. To charge my iPhone or any other device that can charge from USB, I connect a USB car charger to the 12v SLA. This charger has a iPhone/iPod cable on it, and a generic USB port so I have a lot of flexibility to charge a variety of smart phones and USB-powered electronics. I'm thinking of getting a bigger battery, maybe 12Ah or 33Ah.

-mano

I actually have a c9000 charger for my eneloops, although im unsure how that would hook up to the brunton mats.

I also came across this powerfilm usb+AA charger. Seems to have some pretty good reviews on amazon, however it seems u need to charge the nimh batteries with the mat, then in turn plug in a usb device and the batteries charge the device. On the plus side, you can charge a device at night, on the down side it seems you couldn't put the charged batteries in something else and have the mat alone charge your usb, unless i'm understanding this wrong. Also i've read a few reviews that say it actually discharges their phones, which worries me a bit.... Any thoughts on the powerfilm charger?


will do :thumbsup:

thanks for the replies guys