I'm toying with the idea of doing the GR10 in the south of France next year in the summer and wonder if anyone can recommend a good solar charger that I can attach to my rucksack to keep my Android phone charged up. It's got to be lightweight, hopefully not hideously expensive and definitely not a piece of tat that will pack up after 10 minutes.
Solar mobile phone charger
- Thread starter boisdevie
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You may get away with a solar Power Monkey. I have one and it's pretty good when there's plenty of sunlight. I'm not sure what your budget is, but for ruggedness they're pretty bullet proof.
Yeah I run the power monkey exporer as well, it keeps both of my Android phones running when I work away. I should also point out that I have a number of solar charging solutions.
The freeloader pico is the smallest solution and to be honest for a smart phone not the best solution as the internal battery capacity isn't overly high, but it has the ability to charge the phone and the internal battery at the same time and can take input from laptop / mains and the sun simultaneously.
Solar monkey, I have two (the second was bought as an add on) and a Y junction to combine the power, these are the solar panels and they are used to charge the power monkey. The power monkey can fully charge a smart phone from completely dead when it's at full capacity and still have enough left to charge a normal mobile phone. However it cannot charge a phone whilst it is being charged itself or at least the model that I have can't (I bought when they were very new to the market).
Solar gorilla and Power / Mini Gorilla. Basically a larger version of the Power Monkey explorer with the ability to charge or run anything upto 19V. The Solar Gorilla has a dedicated current limited 5V usb output specifically for charging devices such as smart phones and Ipod.
My favoured setup if my Netbook / Tablet / Laptop are not involved is to take the two Solar Monkey's and the Y junction and rig them to the power input of the Freeloader pico, I now have two larger dual panels and a smaller solitary solar panel all charging the internal battery of the pico, at the same time I can be charging the battery on my smart phone and after a couple of hours of good sunlight I can then start charging the backup phone. After this I can start to charge any other mobile phones that require it.
I work / teach in the outdoors and am sometimes asked by the students if I could charge there phones whilst they are on residentials. From this I have learnt that if you own an Iphone your best bet is to switch it off when charging as they are really power hungry.
I bought a Freeloader and a Freeloader Pro, with the Super charger attachment, it worked brilliantly in the UK to power my iPhone, but for some reason they wouldn't work in Sweden whilst I was at the WSJ in 2011, a few other people had similar problems with other brand solar chargers too.
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I wouldn't bother with solar. If from a fire theres this from another thread on here
www.flamestower.com/
something I've just seen, a little bit chemically and specialist
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2085694/PowerTrekk-Mobile-phone-charger-runs-water.html
or my personnel favourite from a thread on here
www.nectarpower.com/
or just a large usb rechargable battery
if you have to take a solar there are lots of solar options on ali baba that are not too expensive. if you want a charger that will power a phone in all weathers, you have to look to 5 watt chargers for the poor weather. I would go for a amorphous silicon over a mono or polycrystaline as they work in the heat and cloud better than the other types and quickly the efficiency equals among the solar panel types. There are other solar panel types such as powerfilm that are made from gallium and such like, but they have an expensive tag for not that much more performance.
www.flamestower.com/
something I've just seen, a little bit chemically and specialist
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2085694/PowerTrekk-Mobile-phone-charger-runs-water.html
or my personnel favourite from a thread on here
www.nectarpower.com/
or just a large usb rechargable battery
if you have to take a solar there are lots of solar options on ali baba that are not too expensive. if you want a charger that will power a phone in all weathers, you have to look to 5 watt chargers for the poor weather. I would go for a amorphous silicon over a mono or polycrystaline as they work in the heat and cloud better than the other types and quickly the efficiency equals among the solar panel types. There are other solar panel types such as powerfilm that are made from gallium and such like, but they have an expensive tag for not that much more performance.
Solar is my only option - I could be away from a mains plug for 6 weeks. And given that it's the south of France in June the performance of solar should be good.
I have tried several chargers, and many were simply not up to the job. To big, to heavy, no power, etc etc. But foremost, that many phones, stop charging, when a cloud comes by, shadow of a branch etc.
Since last year i used the Suntactics sCharger5. (Suntactics.com) 1,5 hours from 5% to a full iphone 4. While charging you can use the phone.
the sCharger uses 2 big cells, has a usb port. It weighs 236 grams. and is folded, 15 x 15 x 1 cm, except te usb port is a bit thicker. unfolded 30 x 15 x 0,5 cm.
The charger needs sun. So a high capacity battery of 5000 tot 10.000 mAh is usefull, when the phone is full, and the sun is still there, for the days that there no sun at all.
For as i know, this charger, keeps every few minutes restarting loading, and if a cloud comes by or somebody walks by, it is no problem at all.
The pouch in which the charger comes, is not very usefull, and i made one from some foamsheet, tyvek, and patches of velcro.
My whole set, exept the high capacity, with: small charging cable, small bamboo sticks to keep it at an angle, a small 3,7 volt usb charger for the camera battery, a piece of rope, and cable for capacity battery, weighs 323 gram. With this i stayed 4 weeks, of grid for my camera and iphone.
The owner Dean Sala, is always happy to answer any questions. As he did mine, for drilling holes to hang the cells from. In the corners i drilled a 3 mm hole for the small rope.
Because the material can be stiff, i made on the back two holders from ductape, so i van put a small bamboo stick in.
He advices not to use the charger on a backpack. unless you are walking in the dessert, but to empoy it as resting. I tried this, and he is right. half an hour statically in full sun at the right angle does more than a day, on a backpack at the wrong angle.
For me, its lightweight, waterproof, and actually works dependable.
Since last year i used the Suntactics sCharger5. (Suntactics.com) 1,5 hours from 5% to a full iphone 4. While charging you can use the phone.
the sCharger uses 2 big cells, has a usb port. It weighs 236 grams. and is folded, 15 x 15 x 1 cm, except te usb port is a bit thicker. unfolded 30 x 15 x 0,5 cm.
The charger needs sun. So a high capacity battery of 5000 tot 10.000 mAh is usefull, when the phone is full, and the sun is still there, for the days that there no sun at all.
For as i know, this charger, keeps every few minutes restarting loading, and if a cloud comes by or somebody walks by, it is no problem at all.
The pouch in which the charger comes, is not very usefull, and i made one from some foamsheet, tyvek, and patches of velcro.
My whole set, exept the high capacity, with: small charging cable, small bamboo sticks to keep it at an angle, a small 3,7 volt usb charger for the camera battery, a piece of rope, and cable for capacity battery, weighs 323 gram. With this i stayed 4 weeks, of grid for my camera and iphone.
The owner Dean Sala, is always happy to answer any questions. As he did mine, for drilling holes to hang the cells from. In the corners i drilled a 3 mm hole for the small rope.
Because the material can be stiff, i made on the back two holders from ductape, so i van put a small bamboo stick in.
He advices not to use the charger on a backpack. unless you are walking in the dessert, but to empoy it as resting. I tried this, and he is right. half an hour statically in full sun at the right angle does more than a day, on a backpack at the wrong angle.
For me, its lightweight, waterproof, and actually works dependable.
Take a good look at the power traveller range. The power monkey extreme or adventurer should fit the bill. I have the extreme, I mainly use it just as a battery pack when camping in the UK but the solar works well in the summer. In s France it should work very well. Under optimal conditions you maybgwt a full battery pack charge in a day. That's 9000 mah (5v) so you should get 3 and a but smart phone charges. The new one also does 12v. I recently got a power chimp 4a from them which is a small aa AAA battery charger for solar or PC plus it can be used as a power pack. I got it to charge my head torch batteries and for bike lights for work. Its slower to charge than the main battery but may be handy.
how much will you be using your phone ? 1 charge or less or more ? A phones battery is 5 watt hours. It will take 5 hours at 1watt to charge. Roughlyhen you take into account that the sun is at its optimum usage between 10am and 2pm, and solar is not perfect, it is about 2/3 efficient under cloudless skies around noon, ie a 5w charger will give you 14 watt hours, the rest of the day would top it up to about 20 watt hours, or 4 phone charges. But its umlikely you will see that due to angle of the panel, moving around, clouds shadows etc. So a 5 watt panel might charge your phone 2 time a day in good conditions .
You can take something like the goal zero 7 watt and just charge around noon. You should achieve alot more than a smaller panel all day long, especially if you get it angled at the sun.
Charge to a battery is always best
I had to look up the GR10 walk. It seems there are plenty of stop off points along the route so perhaps carrying a couple of spare batteries and charge via mains supply at stopovers would suit you? A simple non 'smart phone' will last a long long time if you only turn it on to make calls, do you need your android phone as the primary communication device? Have you looked at external chargers running on AA batteries? I've used an external 4xAA battery charger for several years now (cost nowt on Dealextreme, about £3 delivered http://dx.com/p/aa-battery-usb-emergency-backup-power-and-charger-pack-15048 ) which will get your phone up and running (Samsung Galaxy 2 &3 and HTC HD7 for sure) and AA's are very easy to find pretty much anywhere. You can buy a lot of AA batteries for the price of a solar charger.
I have one of these. I got it a couple of years ago for a cycle tour in Belgium. It kept my phone going nicely all week. It has found it's way as a permanent fixture in my pack now to keep my electronic devices going. You can use it to charge/power anything that can run off a normal USB socket. Build quality is excellent, you don't have to worry about it being on your pack during the odd down poor as it's water proof. Highly recommended.
J
Bought one from aldi and tbh used it once in the middle of summer which scorching heat and it hardly touched it. Went for a Chinese 50,000mah battery pack and it just keeps charging my phone. Last time I checked it does 5 charges flat to full before needing a charge. Better with that if you ask me.
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I fell for one of those. That are useless. A power monkey is a different beast. A battery pack is a great option if you have access to power points. If you want to be more self sufficient for a longer period of time in a sunny place good s OK at chargers are the way to go.
I actually thought this in the first place. Then I realised something very important lol. We are in the United Kingdom! Where Mr sunshine is rare! Lol.. But that's what's bushcraft is all about. Different ways of doing things.
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I have had no issue with my power monkey getting enough sunshine to charge when using it in Kent, London, Netherlands, Germany (in March), Belgium. Even on overcast winter days in Kent, it has had enough oomph to put some charge into the battery. The battery on it's own is enough to charge my smart phone 3-4 times.
The only bugbears I have are:
- Would be nice to be able to add more than one panel to get extra oomph when needed.
- 5v output - Mine is a good 2 years old and is a USB version, they have since bought out a version that has a dual 5V(USB) and 12V output which is listed on the power monkey site, but I've not used it directly.
Neither of these is in anyway a deal breaker and it's still a great device and worth every penny. I really like mine, but I will certainly consider the 12V in the future.
No connection, just a happy customer.
J
H
hdoqw
Guest
Try my RAVPower 14,000mAh , it provides enough power on the go and you can charge two devices at the same time.
GR10 in the south of France for a phone is probably no problem with most chargers. For other applications (running a GPS tracker on the phone and using an online map) in other places, power goes away quickly.
The palm-sized devices usually have a ridiculously small solar panel and for all practical purposes are no more then extra batteries. They still work, under ideal situations.
I figured that I need 4.9 Wh per day with a mix of GPS tracker, mobile phone and internet usage. That is 4.9 Wh at the USB port of the device and not to be confused with the rated but unregulated power output of the solar panel. Getting 4.9 Wh to your devices, the panel has to deliver almost 3 times as much (I calculated 13.5 Wh) every day. With a 10 W panel, that means 1.3h full sunshine, perfectly oriented to get 4.9 W to the USB port.
In less than perfect weather, times go up quickly and you have to use the panels on the move. Orientation is random and you loose again. Use the following approximate losses. They accumulate (multiply) and come on top of the conversion losses above (0.4).
- Blue sky: 1,.0
- Hazy, high clouds, still with a clearly defined shadow: 0,5
- Overcast, you can still identify the direction of the sun: 0,1
- Rain or any more cloud cover: do not bother
- Perfect orientation: 1,0
- Opposite orientation with blue sky: 0,1
- Opposite orientation with hazy clouds: 0,5
- Random orientation while walking: 0,3
- Conversion (solar panel, battery controller, power bank battery charge/discharge, USB power converter): 0,4
So if you are hiking in the south of France (blue sky 80% of the time) have a 7 W panel on your pack for 8 h you will get output = 1,0*80%*7W*0,3*8h*0,4 => 5,376 W*h every day to charge your device. That is about one phone charge.
On my last trip in Lappland, I had overcast weather most of the time . A 10 W panel gave less than 1 Wh a day (output = 0,1*0,8*10W*0,3*8h*0,4 => 0,768 W*h). The last week I ran down the power bank and was almost out of juice.
The palm-sized devices usually have a ridiculously small solar panel and for all practical purposes are no more then extra batteries. They still work, under ideal situations.
I figured that I need 4.9 Wh per day with a mix of GPS tracker, mobile phone and internet usage. That is 4.9 Wh at the USB port of the device and not to be confused with the rated but unregulated power output of the solar panel. Getting 4.9 Wh to your devices, the panel has to deliver almost 3 times as much (I calculated 13.5 Wh) every day. With a 10 W panel, that means 1.3h full sunshine, perfectly oriented to get 4.9 W to the USB port.
In less than perfect weather, times go up quickly and you have to use the panels on the move. Orientation is random and you loose again. Use the following approximate losses. They accumulate (multiply) and come on top of the conversion losses above (0.4).
- Blue sky: 1,.0
- Hazy, high clouds, still with a clearly defined shadow: 0,5
- Overcast, you can still identify the direction of the sun: 0,1
- Rain or any more cloud cover: do not bother
- Perfect orientation: 1,0
- Opposite orientation with blue sky: 0,1
- Opposite orientation with hazy clouds: 0,5
- Random orientation while walking: 0,3
- Conversion (solar panel, battery controller, power bank battery charge/discharge, USB power converter): 0,4
So if you are hiking in the south of France (blue sky 80% of the time) have a 7 W panel on your pack for 8 h you will get output = 1,0*80%*7W*0,3*8h*0,4 => 5,376 W*h every day to charge your device. That is about one phone charge.
On my last trip in Lappland, I had overcast weather most of the time . A 10 W panel gave less than 1 Wh a day (output = 0,1*0,8*10W*0,3*8h*0,4 => 0,768 W*h). The last week I ran down the power bank and was almost out of juice.
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