Prices coming down - quality going up Solar

[Wise Old Owl]

Bruton had the right idea - just an outrageous price, solar is getting cheaper and taking less room. It's still important to get the largest flexable lightweight array you can. We have had a few threads before that talk about what is needed for the trail to work properly. Having a charged spare Li Ion battery for your cell phone is a great idea. A UL (Ultra light charger) would be wonderful.

I have found several sites and a couple stood out.

I will add to this post as I find more.
http://www.siliconsolar.com/travel-solar-battery-chargers.html

[JoshStover]

Please do...

[MintakaCat]

My recommendation is that it have a voltage regulator. The one you referenced doesn't. I'm not sure, but I don't think it even has a diode for reverse discharge. But hey, you get what you pay for.

[Wise Old Owl]

Yea but anybody can go down to RS and buy a diode and drop it in line. A Voltage Regulator board doesn't weight anything and can be added as well with a little help from freinds.... I don't see this as a big deal when I am trying to cut price and I am willing to build or remove a VR circuit from a old toy. But yea you caught it.

[shelterbuilder]

Not trying to throw water on the "solar parade", but...

has anybody tried to rig up a "crank flashlight" so that it can also recharge batteries? Yes, I know that these flashlights are heavier than most UL folks would carry, but solar's biggest drawback is its inability to function "at-peak" when partially shaded, as it would be on most of the AT.

[Snowleopard]

This flexible one is interesting: http://www.siliconsolar.com/flexible-solar-battery-charger-sollite4aae-p-16200.html
It's weight is 0.8 oz. I assume that is the flexible panel and doesn't count the battery holder. The problem is that the charging rate seems to be 150 ma at 6 volts. At that rate it would take more than 10 hours to recharge 4 dead 2000 mah batteries (well, maybe not quite that bad because a 2000 mah battery still has some charge left when it's too discharged to be useful). At that rate it might be OK for topping up the charge each day when you're not using them much.

It's light enough that you could put several of them in parallel, but then the cost ($39.95) gets high.

[Wise Old Owl]

I follow what you are saying SL and 2 is still cheaper ( I think ) over Bruton. Or just charge 2 batteries while using two.

SB - when I was playing with old painted cells back in the day my AM radio would still operate on cloudy days ( might not charge ) but still deliver power. These cells are far more sensitive and I will look for a little more MA. As to the Crank, I forget the details but remember it required an half hour to an hour of cranking... (unless you want to mail me one and I can add a 2AA socket for experimentation)

[Wise Old Owl]

Nuts..saw the specs. don't see the prices.

http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=256

[Wise Old Owl]

I started this thread without checking the charge & ma times and came to the wrong conclusion... Bruton was expensive and I will admit I was wrong. Bruton makes a quality product and it pumps out more energy than some of the other arrays out there..

So guess what I found....an overstock!

http://www.rei.com/outlet/product/793401

[Silver Bear]

Can you hang the panels on the top or back of your pack & charge as you hike?

[Wise Old Owl]

Can you hang the panels on the top or back of your pack & charge as you hike?


there are several holes for attaching a boot string, to hang off the back of the pack, because this is the AT forum and much of the AT is the woods you will read some disuaders. I think if you are camping out the night before in a clearing and set it up to catch the morning sun before you get going and use it when hiking through towns It can make a difference.

[Lostone]

Someone stole my thunder. I am a current cpap user, Severe. absolutely positively got to wear it.

I am using these to charge a Lipo battery to run the cpap over night.

There is a lot of variables maybe too many to compensate for. Weather and terrain is a couple.

My cpap consumes 600ma at 12 volt so for 8 hours it should take about 4.8 Ahrs. My plan is to carry a 2 12Ahr packs at 18 oz a piece. I have 4 nights worth of sleeping in the battery.

My plan was to supplement with solar panels. With two pack I can charge one over 3 days while using the other. The solar panels are good for 500ma max. so 250ma is a safe average. So over the course of three days I should be able to recharge the dead battery pack

[Wise Old Owl]

ouch - too close to home before you go through all the trouble Lostone I too went through that ten years ago. I am 225 and 6 foot and had to loose some serious weight for my snoring. I did cpap for about 5 years and then got some serious help from LA weightloss. I dropped 40 lbs and got the operation from one of the best in the area... He removed the third plates from my nose and the thing at the back of the thoat, and earlier I had some of the bone and cartalige removed from the central plate in the nose. I said goodbye to the cpap and I haven't looked back since.... I still snore but its a fraction of what it used to be, such as blown eardrums.... FYI...

[Lostone]

No operation or weight loss will help me. Genes are a great thing. Great grandfather snored to the point grandma slept in another part of the house. Grandfather and father the same. Grandfather died from congestive heart failure I suspect from snore induced apnea. I threw centrals during my study........and I had some PVC's. Cpap it is.

So I am stuck with it for the rest of my days. I don't mind it......I actually sleep with it.

[JoshStover]

What do you mean by "throwing centrals"?

[Chance09]

The problem is that the charging rate seems to be 150 ma at 6 volts. At that rate it would take more than 10 hours to recharge 4 dead 2000 mah batteries (well, maybe not quite that bad because a 2000 mah battery still has some charge left when it's too discharged to be useful). At that rate it might be OK for topping up the charge each day when you're not using them much.

Could you just charge two and achieve a faster charge time? I'm looking for something solar to power my ipod on the PCT next year. I have a ipod charger that takes two AA and that looks like it would work out great and add no weight

[Wise Old Owl]

Cpap motors use too much power, I had to charge a car battery every day to make it through one year at Scout camp. I vowed never to do it again,,, get a surgeons opinion, they will tell you yea or nea,,,,

[Lostone]

Centrals are when apnea disrupts brain activity.

I am a clinical engineer by day. Trust me if I get enough sun it will work.

I chose a goodknight 420g, no humidifier, it is very tiny light and works on 10-15 volts dc. At my pressure settings the unit draws from .3 amps-.6 amps based on breath cycle(I used and amp meter in line and took a direct measurement). So worst case 8 hours of sleep .6 amps........that is 4.8Amp Hours per night. with the new Lipo batterys 15.8 amp hours is just over a 3 nights of sleep.

I currently use 2 SLA battery rated at 7.2 amp hour batterys....the problem is they weigh almost 6 pounds by themselves. The lipos weigh 2.8 lbs for 15.8 amp hours. Less than half the weight.

I use 2 of the 6 watt Burton panels.......In the best conditions they together will charge at .9 amps. I have no data on cloudy days or low light. I will figure that out. so for an hour of optimal charging I get almost 2 hours of sleep. Plus augmenting charge at re-provisioning stops and hostels I should be fine.

I am curious, how did you have your machine hooked to the car battery. I hope not thru an inverter. Depending on the inverter there is a could be a pretty substantial loss in the conversion.


Boy, I have too much time on my hands don't I.