Portable AAA & AA solar charging options

[majormayhem]

First post, please be gentle.

I am looking for the best choice for a packable solar recharging rig, that can ideally charge AAA & AA eneloops as well as some standard USB devices.

Does anyone have any experience with this or advice?

It needs to be very compact & packable in a ruck.

I was looking at the following options:

http://www.amazon.com/AAA-Solar-Battery-Charger-Batteries/dp/B0042Z14FO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1297983556&sr=8-7

http://www.amazon.com/Solar-Folding-supply-battery-charger/dp/B000XD9O2E/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&qid=1297983611&sr=8-17

http://www.amazon.com/PowerFilm-USB-AA-Solar-Charger/dp/B001RMBHMK/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1297983611&sr=8-18

http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-SP2000-Battery-Pack/dp/B002ONCCPW/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1297983611&sr=8-25

Thanks.

[Mike90250]

Many will take 2 days of full sun 10am - 2pm to recharge. They just do not use large enough PV panels. Larger panels are harder to pack...

[majormayhem]

Many will take 2 days of full sun 10am - 2pm to recharge. They just do not use large enough PV panels. Larger panels are harder to pack...

Thanks for the reply. That's discouraging, I think I'll hunt around some more.

Burton makes some solar cell rolls that are about 4 feet long, maybe those would work better?

[russ]

It is a function of area and since these are CIGS type efficiency may be in the 7% range.

More area = more watts.

Russ

[Mike90250]

My "stock" suggestion is to get a panel in the 60-100w range, 17v, and a small charge controller, with a cheap deep cycle battery, and use the 12V battery, as a car battery to power a regular charger that has a 12V input (like the Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger)

[Mike90250]

As reported from Slashdot, Nokia just tried to to get a solar backplate to work on a phone, it doesn't.

"Nokia's research into solar-powered cell phones ended with a (barely audible) thud. Under the best of conditions researchers were able 'to harvest enough energy to keep the phone on standby mode but with a very restricted amount of talk time,' Nokia wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the prototype phone, which had a solar panel on the back cover, performed better in Kenya than in other testing locations, like southern Sweden and the Arctic Circle."

http://www.itworld.com/networking/237289/nokia-phone-charging-using-solar-power-comes-many-challenges

http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/01/03/solar-charging-panel-generates-call-time-for-test-team/

http://solarcharging.nokia.com/

Solar PV power is not very dense, and proper panel orientation to the sun is critical.

[vinniethePVtech]

Private Pile what you need is a military grade solar panel to charge those batteries!!!

[Jeffw1]

The military grade above is acceptable but far too large, and the powerfilm if I recall too small I think its 6.5 watts at 433 mAH.

You need a Sunlinq 12 Watt 800 mAH and marry it to an Ansmann digicharger it says 1 amp but it works fine.

4 AA batteries about 45 minutes
4 AAA batteries about 30 minutes

Also you have plates for varies camcorder batteries and a direct cig adapter that can charge USB devices, just make sure you cig adapter has a variable volt from 4->12 set the voltage plug it in and whoola charge away! I’ve charged my sons Ipod, Iphone, Car GPS, own phones, MP3 for years…….

Mine have taken a beaten over the years with mud, rain etc and still keep on ticking, it has never let me down and its packable in the lid of your rucksack (as it folds up into a parcel 5" x 9" x 3/4") When hiking you can use the O rings and small crabs and clip it to your pack with the wire going to the charger in the lid holding the battery, just watch out for sun direction and use a small elastic band to hold the batteries in place.

For weight for a rucksack, yeah I know how important it is lugging 40-50 lbs for weeks..I’ll go weigh mine

Sunlinq 12 Watt 320 gramms
Ansmann 143 gramms
Leads 146 gramms

The next model up is 25 Watts I think, but you have the extra price and the extra weight. I think the Sunlinq 12 Watts was £180 -> £230 shop about and the Ansmann digichargers about £30 -> £50

You don’t need to go upto the £300 25 Watts panels if just charging batteries and some USB devices, the above will do you.

EDIT: Here! We'll you guys helped me, I thought I'd return the favour. This took me a **** load of money back in the day to figure out! The crap I bought and threw in the bin....This is all hikers need. I think the digicharger has changed now to the Ansmann Digicharger Vario or Vario Plus (same thing) This is mine I've just taken a snap of.

mini-SANY0086.JPG

[Sunking]

My "stock" suggestion is to get a panel in the 60-100w range, 17v, and a small charge controller, with a cheap deep cycle battery, and use the 12V battery, as a car battery to power a regular charger that has a 12V input (like the Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger)

That is the best and least expensive option. It works and is simple.

[PNjunction]

It needs to be very compact & packable in a ruck.

Of the 4 you listed, the PowerFilm AA charger is the most viable option. I recommend it highly for cargo-pants pocket transportation. With totally discharged standard 2000 mah Sanyo Eneloops, you are looking at abut 6.5 hours to fully charge. 8 if you want to really top them off. That's two days of typical 4-hour solar insolation. However, if you take advantage of opportunity charging, or just charging two at a time, (the unit charges in pairs unfortunately) cut that in half to about 3.5 hours or even less if you don't just drain them all the way before recharging.

One of the big problem with charging AA's in the field is that under passing clouds or temporary shading, many chargers will reset, and consistently try to achieve the delta-v trigger, which if not caught in time, or done too many times will overcharge the battery. If you are humping around a panel and a large battery, then of course you can charge at your leisure anytime and not worry about it.

The PowerFilm (which I own) is the only self-contained solar charger that does a proper job of charging. Shading problems with delta-v detection is not an issue, as the charger (600ma each circuit) quick-charges up to 80% SOC, and then slow charges in the last 20%. This is on purpose. Still, I would not recommend using it in the direct sun at over 85F.

In addition, there is a soft-start to try and revive overdischarged cells rather than blasting 600ma into them which usually results in an error - the Powerfilm is smart to try and bring these abused cells up slowly before resuming a normal charge.

It is about the only serious self-contained AA charger I've ever met, other than attaching a Maha/Powerex C9000 to a large battery and panel setup. Note that I'm talking about the AA-only charger, and NOT the AA/USB model which I'm not fond of.