Have you ever wanted a waterproof, weatherproof, lightweight portable solar charger for small electronics? Whether you're a backpacker, a survivalist, or just trying to preserve the planet so you can enjoy it outdoors a little longer, this is the project for you.
About a month ago I was on an 8 day backpacking trip through Shenandoah National Park. I'd arranged to have a friend meet me for re-supply halfway through. Unfortunately, I'd fallen in with a fast crowd and was 27 miles past where we'd arranged to meet. Fortunately, I was carrying my cell phone, which typically has about a week of standby time. Unfortunately, away from civilization the signal is much weaker, so unbeknownst to me I only had about a day and a half of standby in this case. I found this out on day three. I began thinking about backpackable solar charging solutions. I did manage to yogi a cell phone and get ahold of her, but in a less busy park things might have gotten really out of hand.
I'd had fantastic weather until day six, when I got hit with real backpacking weather: thunderstorms and cold, driving rain. When I got home, my digi-cam had water damage. It mostly works, but sometimes won't turn on or turn off now, and the LCD has cloudy water spots, this despite being inside a ziplock bag inside my pack. I began thinking about lightweight waterproof electronics enclosures.
Then, I started thinking "Hey, I can do both at the same time!" Nine prototypes later, this is what I had, the "Rain or Shine Solar Charger." In addition to being useful for backpacking, this charger attaches with parachute buckles, so you could attach it to a messenger bag, or a bookbag, or hang it in your kitchen window. It takes about ten hours to charge a typical cell phone, but it's a storage charger, so you could leave the charger in the sun to collect energy during the day, then plug the cell hone in at night to charge from the stored energy.
This is a fairly complicated project, which will likely stretch either your sewing skills or your electronics skills, but the results are well worth it.
If you'd rather skip all that and simply purchase this one, the Etsy link is http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6464822
About a month ago I was on an 8 day backpacking trip through Shenandoah National Park. I'd arranged to have a friend meet me for re-supply halfway through. Unfortunately, I'd fallen in with a fast crowd and was 27 miles past where we'd arranged to meet. Fortunately, I was carrying my cell phone, which typically has about a week of standby time. Unfortunately, away from civilization the signal is much weaker, so unbeknownst to me I only had about a day and a half of standby in this case. I found this out on day three. I began thinking about backpackable solar charging solutions. I did manage to yogi a cell phone and get ahold of her, but in a less busy park things might have gotten really out of hand.
I'd had fantastic weather until day six, when I got hit with real backpacking weather: thunderstorms and cold, driving rain. When I got home, my digi-cam had water damage. It mostly works, but sometimes won't turn on or turn off now, and the LCD has cloudy water spots, this despite being inside a ziplock bag inside my pack. I began thinking about lightweight waterproof electronics enclosures.
Then, I started thinking "Hey, I can do both at the same time!" Nine prototypes later, this is what I had, the "Rain or Shine Solar Charger." In addition to being useful for backpacking, this charger attaches with parachute buckles, so you could attach it to a messenger bag, or a bookbag, or hang it in your kitchen window. It takes about ten hours to charge a typical cell phone, but it's a storage charger, so you could leave the charger in the sun to collect energy during the day, then plug the cell hone in at night to charge from the stored energy.
This is a fairly complicated project, which will likely stretch either your sewing skills or your electronics skills, but the results are well worth it.
If you'd rather skip all that and simply purchase this one, the Etsy link is http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6464822
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Signing UpStep 1: Software: sewing the waterproof pouch
The sewing half of this project is making a waterproof zippered pouch, somewhat larger than the flexible solar cells that we will be using to power it. The pouch is primarily constructed from a silicone-impregnated ripstop nylon called SilNylon. This is a lightweight, totally waterproof material that is becoming ever more popular in backpacking circles. You'll need the following materials, I purchased them from www.thru-hiker.com.
SilNylon, 6.5" x 13"
#3 waterproof continuous coil zipper, 5 3/8"
#3 zipper pull
1/2" nylon webbing, 6"
2 1/2" parachute buckles
100% rayon thread. (cotton/poly snags!)
First, cut a rectangle of SilNylon, 6.5" x 13." mark for the seams 1/2" away from the long edges, and 1/4" away from the short edges.
Next, cut a piece of continuous coil zipper to 5 3/8" long. Open it up from one end about 2" and insert the zipper pull. Slide the zipper pull to the middle of the zipper. Stitch across the ends of the zipper on both sides to prevent the zipper pull from coming out as shown in the image.
SilNylon, 6.5" x 13"
#3 waterproof continuous coil zipper, 5 3/8"
#3 zipper pull
1/2" nylon webbing, 6"
2 1/2" parachute buckles
100% rayon thread. (cotton/poly snags!)
First, cut a rectangle of SilNylon, 6.5" x 13." mark for the seams 1/2" away from the long edges, and 1/4" away from the short edges.
Next, cut a piece of continuous coil zipper to 5 3/8" long. Open it up from one end about 2" and insert the zipper pull. Slide the zipper pull to the middle of the zipper. Stitch across the ends of the zipper on both sides to prevent the zipper pull from coming out as shown in the image.
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Step 18 Testint Testing 1 2 3
Still a great ible
Although, its probably a good idea to install a diode between the solar panels and the cigarette adapter because I have seen instances where cheap cell phone battery chargers still drain the battery of the cell phone even when they are plugged into a cigarette adapter when the car isn't running. Diodes are super cheap and easy to install, so it shouldn't be too difficult. The regulator IS the cigarette adapter that changes the voltage to a normal level for your cell phone.
The black box or end of the connector contains the transformer, diodes, and anything else that would prevent you from overcharging or damaging your battery pack.
lol
Thanx for the instruction i had in plans to make a exactly similar last summer but now it will be finished'
What I did was plug the panel into one of those car booster packs, let it charge all day, go to work... whatever. Then when I got home, I would run my laptop off of the charged booster pack through an inverter. (stay off my case about the waste of time going from DC-AC-DC, i know, this was an experiment) It worked great! The only thing i didn't do was charge the laptop off of the booster pack or run it at full CPU. These two things would kill the booster pack very fast! The booster pack usually died almost fully, I could have extended this charge by bypassing the extra step (DC-AC-DC). I was up north working and this was a little experiment I did to stop myself from going nuts with boredom... (no soldering for 2 MONTHS!)
-describes considerations in designing a system of similar size/use.