We held our Brown Dog Gadgets Solar Charger Instructables Build Night during the Land O'Lakes Library Makerspace Open House, and invited people to play with the solar chargers and brainstorm ideas. Most of the ideas came back to the basics: Use the solar charger for its intended purpose - charging gadgets - and creating easy ways to do that.

While there are multiple charging devices for vehicles, the solar wallet offers a couple of convenient advantages for charging devices in a car:

If your existing charging receptacle in your car is in use by another device, like a dash mounted GPS (that you prefer using over your phone for whatever reason), having an alternative charging option is useful
If your car is off, you can still charge your phone or device (during the day, of course!)

Step 1: Materials

Pretty straight forward - You need:

A car dashboard (preferably attached to a car)
A Brown Dog 5W Folding USB Solar Cell
A USB cable Hook & Loop fastener
And a cell phone or whatever other small device you want to charge

Step 2: Attach Hook & Loop to Solar Wallet & Car Dashboard

Attach hook and loop to either end of the solar wallet, and corresponding pieces to your dash.

Step 3: Attach USB Cable to Solar Wallet

This step is optional, but you may want to incorporate it so you'll always have your USB cable with you. Just attach a small strap of hook & loop to the cable, and then you can attach it to one of your existing hook and loop fasteners on your solar wallet.

Step 4: Attach Wallet to Dash

Match up your hook and loop sections and press in place

Step 5: Charge!

Next time you're stuck waiting in the car for someone and don't want to waste gas idling, throw your solar wallet on the dash, plug in and you're charging!