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Thread: Solar Chargers any good?

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    The Irish Drunk! neonplanet40's Avatar
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    Solar Chargers any good?

    Hi guys when I'm in new zealand I'll be on the road a lot and im wondering if there are any good solar chargers for my digi cam and sony x series mp3 player?

    Or are the chargers pants?
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    Senior Member chrestomanci's Avatar
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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    Depends how big the solar cells are. They need to be big to generate a useful amount of power.

    When I was working at Nokia someone suggested doing a solar powered phone, with solar cells on the back so you could charge it by leaving it out in the sun for a few hours. However when you do the maths, it turns out that the 100 square cm of solar cells you can fit on the back of a phone, would only just keep up with the power usage in standby, and would not actual add any charge for calls, so it would not be of much real use.

    On the other hand, I have seen a ruckack which has the whole back covered in solar panels, and does have enough of them to delver a useful amount of charge to small gadgets you might keep in it while traveling such as a phone or an MP3 player.

    The other thing to be aware of is theft. If you are going to leave your gadgets out in the sun connected to a solar charger for hours on end, could someone pinch them while they are left out in plain sight?

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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    To be honest I was thinking of just doing it will travelling. But i guess the windows in a bus etc would disrupt solar transfer and in the end not be worth it. Shame

    Thanks for the info!
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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    I just bought one from Maplin - it charges 5 aaa NiMh cells to provide a 6V supply that in turn can power a phone or charge another device. Early days yet, but seems OK - advantage is that you can charge the internal cells (which you have to buy separately) indepently of the external device. (it will charge an external device as well)

    maplin do a range of solar chargers - the one I bought is this one (although the design of mine (same code) looks slightly different) For £10 (plus the aaa cells - worth a try) Note that the adaptor kit does NOT include a microusb connector, so if your 'phone has one of those, you will need to buy a separate connector
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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    Maplin had loads! Just hard to pick which ones best as their are very few reviews
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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    Yes! The thing I liked about the one I bought (and links with Chrestomanci's comments about theft) as that you can charge the internal cells on their own, and then connect that to the device to charge while it is out of sight. The DC output from the battery is 6V (a separate socket) the output from the cells is slightly higher, but will vary with load that in turn will depend on the brightness of the light. It doesn't have to be in direct sunlight. (Just got the multimeter out - it is a bright but cloudy sky here - and the output voltage is about 9.5 and it is also putting some charge into the batteries. However I haven't done any load testing and the spec sheet doesn't give any output current/load curves. (But then it is only ten quid! )

    Just found this - same unit (and this is what mine looks like), different supplier and has a bit more tech detail.
    Last edited by peterb; 24-07-2010 at 02:33 PM.
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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    if you can wait a little while, might be worth waiting for solar fuel cell technology. i saw a link only 2 or 3 days ago for a solar powered fuel cell charger, it was about £400 but prices will drop of this next year. sorry i can't find the link again. but here is a taster of a similar device without the solar panel.

    http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/06/17/...harging-needs/

    ohh i found the link to the charger, probably a bit out of your price range. but the price will drop in the next year or so.

    http://www.i4u.com/article36647.html
    Last edited by j1979; 24-07-2010 at 02:35 PM.

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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    We have one of these:
    http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/sho...loader-pro.htm
    combined with one of these:
    http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/sho...harger-pro.htm

    Not cheap (they are cheaper if you don't buy direct from the manufacturer) but do the job quite well.

    However, we have had to have our's replaced 3 times as it kept malfunctioning - our current one works fine though (and I think we may have just been incredibly unlucky). Having said that, the product support/returns process/communication from the company is very good so if you do have a problem then it's not as horrible an experience as it could be.

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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    IMO, they (or at least the one I bought) aren't worth the energy required to make them (from a green perspective), nor the space/hassle (slow in the best condition and hampered easily). A spare battery or some sort of charge pack is far more practical. Or maybe a solar backpack.

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    The Irish Drunk! neonplanet40's Avatar
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    Re: Solar Chargers any good?

    Can anyone reccommend a charge back that can be used on the Sony X series mp3 players?
    Home Entertainment =Epson TW9400, Samsung 65" HDTV, Denon AVRX6300H, Panasonic DPUB450EBK Ultra HD Blu-Ray and Monitor Audio Silver RX 7.0, Monitor Audio CT265IDC(x4) Dolby Atmos and XTZ 12.17 Sub - (Config 7.1.4)
    My System=Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 Wi-Fi, AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, Patriot 16 GB DDR4 3200MHz, 256GB Crucial SSD, Kingston 256GB SSD and 500GB Samsung F3, Palit GTX1070 GameRock Edition , Enermax Liberty 620W, Akasa Eclipse-32,Dell 2715H & Dell U2311H
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