Solar USB Charger - Results

I'll keep this short and sweet :)

I have put all the components into a case and done a days testing in the patchy cloudy day.

Full sun - 4.7 volts @ 197 milliamp   WOOT!

Part shade - 4.7 volts @ 50-90 milliamp less woot

Shade - 2 - 4.7 volts @ 10 or less milliamp. Not worth mentioning

The charger hasn't done the 2000mA battery full but I tested my mp3 player and my mobile phone both were very happy to charge off it.

Phone reported 130mA coming through the charger (Android phones rock)

Links

Solar USB Charger Parts

Solar USB Charger Assembled 

Solar USB Charger Results

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

Camping and Fossicking

Touch up came out well! ;-)

Well after two nights and days camping out at the farm we are a bit tired. The experiment with Fossicking went well! I had a great time digging up muck and rocks - not finding much but the farm isn't in a gem rich area - our next trip(s) will be to more rugged areas looking for Sapphires and Rubies, mostly Sapphires though.

Camping on a whole went very well. We weathered through a few showers of rain, cooked a few great meals and drank through about 18 beers :D Woot!

Japan, Gems, oh my

Well it has been a long time since I have posted but it has been a long two months. The house saga continues to drag on but on the upside we have saved a lot more money for the initial deposit as well as saved enough for a trip to Japan! So this week we will be booking our tickets to Japan for 28 days! Score

We will fly into Fukuoka (Bottom Left).

View Larger Map
We will then travel up through the countryside and visit most of the major cities along the way but also we really want to see the countryside so stopping at mountain villages etc on our way to Nagoya (Right Middle). There we will stay for a week and half or so visiting friends, going to markets we used to go to and generally experiencing natsukashi (Feeling of nostalgia). Once we are done in Nagoya we will travel perhaps to Kanazawa to visit a friend and her family and continue onto Toyko. We will do all the Tokyo stuff and then fly back to Brisbane :)

We are going to do an idea I had as well which should make for an interesting website when we return. As we travel, when we get up in the morning we will write a quick journal entry about what we are going to do. Then we will take photos during the day and then at night we will write about what actually happened. So in the end we will have something talking about what we expect to do/happen, the photos and then what actually happened.

On a side note, Kasey and I are going to try our hand at Fossicking, which is the australian word for hunting for gems and gold ;-) Not really doing it for profit or to get rich quick but to go out camping and have something to do during the day and it might pay off a little here and there. One of my workmates here turned me onto it by showing me the stones he has collected over the years - WOW!

Well that is all for now! Be back soon.