Solar USB Charger - Assembled

My last post was on the parts and what I was trying to achieve. The parts arrived and I quickly got to work!

Here we have the parts, small huh!
We have 4 x 5v @ 100mA (.5 watt) solar panels
The 2000mA battery
The board which charges the battery and ultimately to  the USB device

Some perspective

This is my 5v @ 100mA (.5 Watt) solar panel.

Soldered them in parallel to boost the amps from 100mA to 400mA
(5v @ 400mA which is 2 Watts)

Here is the size of the panels, almost exactly the size a CD case.

Take it into the bathroom and I find a sleeping monkey! Saru! oh and the completed solar charger :P Is it working I wonder?

YES! (See Red light under the CH)

Awesome :D Next will be to take it out into the real world and time the charge.

Links

Solar USB Charger Parts

Solar USB Charger Assembled 

Solar USB Charger Results

Solar USB Charger - Purchased Parts

Well folks I have decided to make my own solar USB charger with battery.

I have bought a usb solar charger from china and it works fine but the solar function on it is less then adequate for multiple USB devices and it seems to take a long time to charge up. Thinking what the heck I should be able to build something better right? I jumped in the deep end tonight and bought the following parts

4 x	0.5w Solar Panel 55x70 - $23.80 ($5.95 each) SKU: POW112D2P
2 x	Seeed JST 2 Pin power connector - $2.98 ($1.49 each) SKU: ARD110C4M
1 x	Seeed Polymer Lithium Ion Battery - 2000mAh - $19.95 SKU: POW103C1P
1 x	Seeed Lipo Rider (Charger) - $9.95 SKU: POW115D2P

So these solar panels are the correct voltage of 4.5-5.5v for USB charging and are a nice 100mA size. I got 4 to give me a max of around 2watts of charging goodness. The device I bought previously was between .5-.7w so my new kick ass setup should go 3-4x faster on the old charge :D

I added in a Polymer Lithium Ion Battery (Like in all your mobile/cell phones) to allow the gettup to bank some power.

All of this is nicely regulated by the Lipo Rider which will be doing all the power transfer from Solar to Battery and Battery to USB.

I'll take photos and see what the end result is :D   Any ideas for cases / mounting for this charger?? The 4 panels I am thinking it put in some kind of plastic sleeve so I can fold them up into a nice travel pack.

Links

Solar USB Charger Parts

Solar USB Charger Assembled 

Solar USB Charger Results