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.
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1 comment:
I'd be keen to look into it further with you, just don't plug something to expensive into it the first time.
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