The Solar USB Charger!

Have you ever been camping or driving and your phone runs out of battery?  These moments are very frustrating, and they led me to make my own solar phone charger.  Most retail solar chargers cost $40-$50, but by following this instructable, you can make your own for around $20!  Another great thing about this instructable is that is requires no soldering, so it is great for students or kids.  If for some reason something happens to your phone while charging with this device, I am not responsible.  Have fun!

Step 1: Materials

You will need...

* A 9v 0.5 Watt Solar panel (Radioshack)
* A DPDT mini toggle switch (Radioshack)
* A USB extension cable- Male to Female (Dollar Store)
* 4 rechargeable AAA batteries (already had mine)
* 4 AAA battery holder
* Thin stranded wire
* Electric Tape
* A relatively small project enclosure (Radioshack)
* Optional- Labels
* A standard blocking diode


Tools
 
* Drill with drill bits
* Hot glue gun with glue
* Wire stripper

Comments

[nickpalmer789]

I hope to try this soon! Looks great!

[nickpalmer789]

This is a great tutorial!!!

[nathancb]

This works on my wife's HTC one x, but not my Motorola atrix hd... any suggestions?

[mpilchfamily]

Is that actually charging your iPod Touch?

I know for a fact a simple little power source on the power lines of the USB connector are not enough to enable charging of an iPod Touch. Most of Apple's Phones, iPods and iPads need a signal on the data lines of the USB connector to enable charging. This would be fine for some more basic USB devices but not for many smartphones.

[DoctorDv]

I am aware of that. The charging symbol did show up, but it didn't charge. It works with my phone though. do you have any tips to make this work with my ipod?

-Doctordv

[TheBookworm]

ladyada has done lots of research on this for her Mintyboost kits. I believe most of it is up on either her own website or Adafru.it

[mpilchfamily]

When you plugged it in the screen turns on but the little lightning bolt doesn't show up in the battery indicator at the top of the screen.

If you look up the pin-out for the 30 pin connector the iPods use you will find the info there. I'm reluctant to give you the info directly since its part of the instructable i've been working on for the past several days. I'll be entering it into the kit challenge when its done. I'm just waiting for my parts to arrive.

Just look through the list of other solar phone chargers listed to the right here and see what they did.

[DoctorDv]

Ok, send me a message when you publish your instructable. Thanks!

-Doctordv

[mrmerino]

I live in phoenix... I will never have to worry about power ever again.

Oh, but can I solder it anyway?

[JoshuaZimmerman]

Another option would be to use two or three AAs and a boosting circuit in order to boost it up to 5V. Then you could use a lower voltage solar cell to charge your batteries. Plus then you could get a low voltage high amperage solar cell for quicker charging.

Also, 4 AAAs would give you 4.8V. USB is 5.0 - 5.2V. Not everything would charge off of it.

It's a swell idea, but you could easily add a couple of tweaks to make it much more efficient and hold a whole lot more energy.

Shoot me a PM if you'd like to talk more about it.

[Phil B]

A 1/2 watt solar panel producing 9 volts would have a current flow of 55 milliamps. A typical USB port would produce nine times as much current. Would I be wrong in assuming a charging cycle would take quite a few hours to complete?

[mrayw]

The AAA batteries would take a while to charge up, but that doesn't relate directly to the time that the USB device would take to charge from the batteries. Poking around, it looks like Ni-Cd AAA batteries can output much more current than a standard USB (although I could be wrong, as I'm having difficulty finding a reliable source).

Basically, it looks like you'd have to leave the charger in the sun for quite a few hours to charge it sufficiently, but once fully charged, the charger wouldn't take all that long to charge up a phone.

[DoctorDv]

Correct, but I am looking to make an emergency charger for camping. Thanks!
-Doctordv