Bushwalk Australia

by **L2obin** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 12:23 am

The title states it all. =}

by **Franco** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 6:24 am

There is a thread in the DIY section of the Backpackinglight forum about solar chargers that I think you may find interesting.
Something else you could consider is the portable power type battery, USB in USB out.
I bought a 12000mAh one from E Bay for about $26 delivered.
About 250g with cables.

Website · by **pazzar** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 6:49 am

I use the PowerMonkey Explorer. It's pretty light, and the solar panel is the size of a flip phone, which charges a battery, that you then plug into your device. Comes with all the plugs you will ever need. There are bigger verions too - the Extreme and the Power Gorilla.

by **Kinsayder** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 9:10 am

pazzar wrote:I use the PowerMonkey Explorer. It's pretty light, and the solar panel is the size of a flip phone, which charges a battery, that you then plug into your device. Comes with all the plugs you will ever need. There are bigger verions too - the Extreme and the Power Gorilla.

How long does it take to charge in moderate sunlight?

by **ninjapuppet** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 9:19 am

Anything less than a week and I prefer my I.sound powermax 16000mAh. For longer remote trips, I use a goal zero Sherpa 50 kit which takes 8-10 hrs to fully charge is battery.

I have gone thru 3 other solar brands that were just junk.

by **Franco** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 11:55 am

I have gone thru 3 other solar brands that were just junk.

Can we name names ?

by **ULWalkingPhil** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 7:47 pm

Franco wrote:I have gone thru 3 other solar brands that were just junk.

Can we name names ?

i like to know.

I own a GoalZero Nomad7 with the battery pack, the battery pack is excellent, it uses 4x AA rechargeable batteries, including batteries the battery pack is 160grams, has a 1amp USB output.
The Nomad7 solar panel requires full sunlight to be effective. In scattered sunlight in our forrests, the nomad7 is useless, your better of just carrying the battery pack with spare AA's

by **Mark F** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 9:22 pm

I have a Power Monkey Explorer (80g without solar panel) which works quite well. The solar panel (80g) is rated at 200ma and you can use up to 3 panels to give 600ma (the same as the wall charger). This is confirmed by PowerTraveller. As the capacity of the unit is 2200mAh so 12-15 hours to charge with a single panel. If you want AA/AAA then try the Power Chimp (27g without 2 batteries) which uses the same solar panel or AA batteries. Both output 5v for USB style charging. I am tending to use the Power Chimp and accept more frequent partial charging of my devices using AA's. Having just bought a Panasonic GX1 I now have the problem of a 7.2v camera battery that I need to solve for longer trips.

by **ninjapuppet** » Tue 06 Nov, 2012 11:01 pm

Phillipsart wrote:
Franco wrote:I have gone thru 3 other solar brands that were just junk.

Can we name names ?

i like to know.

I own a GoalZero Nomad7 with the battery pack, the battery pack is excellent, it uses 4x AA rechargeable batteries, including batteries the battery pack is 160grams, has a 1amp USB output.
The Nomad7 solar panel requires full sunlight to be effective. In scattered sunlight in our forrests, the nomad7 is useless, your better of just carrying the battery pack with spare AA's

The 3 that I wasnt impressed with was:
1 - a no-brand one from dealextreme.com for $50 and free shipping.
2 - Solio power charger

3 - yep. a power monkey. I'm glad it works for some people above. But for me, its weight is not justified and I would rather carry a 16,000mAh portable battery pack.

my i.sound Powermax is 16,000mAh and my iphone 4 battery is 1420mAh. Theoreteically it can be recharged 11 times, but I think i maxed it out at 6 times before the battery went flat. Bring 2 of these along and you can recharge your iphone every day for 2 weeks even if its raining! Its about $80 bucks from amazon or ebay. it has 5 USB outlets so you can also charge your other devices which is handy when travelling to different countries so you dont have to bring multiple electric plugs. WIth this, i charge my iphone, ipad, helmet cam, satellite phone, and GPS AA batteries via a usb battery charger.

If you absolutely need a solar panel, and if money is no object, the best in the world at the moment is Feather 2. It wins in both the watt per kg category and the watt per square metre catergory.
http://www.explorersweb.com/tech/news.php?id=19998

by **ULWalkingPhil** » Wed 07 Nov, 2012 5:45 am

ninjapuppet wrote:
Phillipsart wrote:
Franco wrote:I have gone thru 3 other solar brands that were just junk.

Can we name names ?

i like to know.

I own a GoalZero Nomad7 with the battery pack, the battery pack is excellent, it uses 4x AA rechargeable batteries, including batteries the battery pack is 160grams, has a 1amp USB output.
The Nomad7 solar panel requires full sunlight to be effective. In scattered sunlight in our forrests, the nomad7 is useless, your better of just carrying the battery pack with spare AA's

The 3 that I wasnt impressed with was:
1 - a no-brand one from dealextreme.com for $50 and free shipping.
2 - Solio power charger

3 - yep. a power monkey. I'm glad it works for some people above. But for me, its weight is not justified and I would rather carry a 16,000mAh portable battery pack.

my i.sound Powermax is 16,000mAh and my iphone 4 battery is 1420mAh. Theoreteically it can be recharged 11 times, but I think i maxed it out at 6 times before the battery went flat. Bring 2 of these along and you can recharge your iphone every day for 2 weeks even if its raining! Its about $80 bucks from amazon or ebay. it has 5 USB outlets so you can also charge your other devices which is handy when travelling to different countries so you dont have to bring multiple electric plugs. WIth this, i charge my iphone, ipad, helmet cam, satellite phone, and GPS AA batteries via a usb battery charger.

If you absolutely need a solar panel, and if money is no object, the best in the world at the moment is Feather 2. It wins in both the watt per kg category and the watt per square metre catergory.
http://www.explorersweb.com/tech/news.php?id=19998

i might be able to get a good discount in bulk buy with something similar to your i-sound, will let you know, when i know more, if anyone interested send me a PM, if i can get enough interest this might be worth it,

by **Franco** » Wed 07 Nov, 2012 9:11 am

Thanks Ninjapuppet, great info...
I am still following the thread at BPL, looks like some good improvements can be made to existing panels.

by **weeman** » Wed 07 Nov, 2012 9:27 am

I've got a Brunton Solaris 12 solar panel which I use for charging my 16,000mAh battery pack on longer trips. The 12w panel will fully charge the battery in a day and still works well in non direct sunlight.

For most trips my 16,000mAh battery is overkill & weighs 340g so I am looking at using a cheap & lightweight 18650 usb charger for shorter 2-3 day trips.

by **Strider** » Wed 07 Nov, 2012 4:55 pm

Can you guys provide some costs for these items? Would help determine whether they're in my ball park or not...

by **stuey69** » Wed 07 Nov, 2012 5:54 pm

I have the Power Monkey Extreme, which does well and weighs about 460g, which includes the battery unit and a flip solar panel.
It seems to work quite well.
Ninjapuppet, the isound powermax, how much does it weigh?

by **Nuts** » Thu 08 Nov, 2012 6:39 am

http://www.suntrica.com/ss-w202.php

Small compact unit made for iPhone/ pod. 65g's. Not cheap but I bought a few from UK a bit cheaper than the local agent. Can't say they're the best, I also have a small voltaic panel and separate battery which is more useful for a range of devices (and bigger, heavier, more fragile) but the strap is definitely simple/ small/ light and well made.

Website · by **pazzar** » Sat 10 Nov, 2012 7:31 pm

Kinsayder wrote:
pazzar wrote:I use the PowerMonkey Explorer. It's pretty light, and the solar panel is the size of a flip phone, which charges a battery, that you then plug into your device. Comes with all the plugs you will ever need. There are bigger verions too - the Extreme and the Power Gorilla.

How long does it take to charge in moderate sunlight?

It does take a few hours to fully charge my iPhone and iPod, but you can get 2-3 charges out of one full battery, and if you keep the panel on your tent when you are camped, and on your pack when you are walking, it is almost always fully charged. It fits most 5V devices, puts of 600mA of power from the battery.

by **ninjapuppet** » Sat 10 Nov, 2012 9:13 pm

Thats Interestin

pazzar wrote:
It does take a few hours to fully charge my iPhone and iPod, but you can get 2-3 charges out of one full battery, and if you keep the panel on your tent when you are camped, and on your pack when you are walking, it is almost always fully charged. It fits most 5V devices, puts of 600mA of power from the battery.

I'm really interested to know if you really are able to get 3 charges from this, as I am not able to with my power monkey. Are you talking about 2-3 charged from a totally flat iPhone? or just top up charges?

According to this specs sheet for the power monkey explorer, the battery capacity is only 2200mAh, which is not much more than my rechargable AA battery.
https://powertraveller.com/_code/download.php?f=Powermonkey_eXplorer.pdf
And my iphone battery is 1420mAh, so it should only theoretically be able to charge it 1.5 times assuming 100% transfer efficiency, unless you got a different battery pack.

Website · by **pazzar** » Sun 11 Nov, 2012 8:27 am

I must admit I never let my phone go completely dead, so it probably does equate to 1.5 charges from that point.

by **sim1oz** » Sun 16 Dec, 2012 4:32 pm

We are heading off for a week's walk soon and hubby has decided he wants to keep his phone charged. Personally, I love the "no-phone, no-communication, I'm on holidays" aspect of bushwalking, but I do like to keep him happy. I was really keen on ninjapuppet's suggestion of the no-sun-needed i.sound Powermax 16,000mAh until I discovered it isn't compatible with the Samsung Galaxy. Are there any devices which work for an iPhone and Samsung Galaxy that someone actually recommends?

The Feather 2 sounds out of this world but is more of an aspirational item for us at the moment!

by **Picaro** » Mon 17 Dec, 2012 8:14 pm

Is this what you're looking for ?
http://www.itsdirect.com.au/com_products.php?view=detail&category_id=82&sub_category=502&Product_ID=17743&keywords=UltraCharge_Portable_Power_Supply

by **Son of a Beach** » Tue 18 Dec, 2012 7:47 am

Moved to "Techno-Babble" forum. (Thanks to the person who reported it being in the wrong forum.)

by **tas-man** » Fri 19 Apr, 2013 12:30 am

Bushwalk Australia

Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar charger

Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar charger

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Re: Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar char

Re: Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar char

Re: Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar char

Re: Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar char

Re: Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar char

Re: Your recommendations on the best phone/iPhone solar char

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