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Author Topic: Solar chargers for phones and tablets  (Read 2380 times)

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Offline terravista

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Solar chargers for phones and tablets
« on: February 24, 2015, 09:00:16 AM »
Hi
My daughter moved to Rockhampton just in time for an earthquake followed by the cyclone.
Power has been out a few days and it brought home to her the dependency on I Phone, I Pad and a Samsung gadget for maintaining contact.
There seems to be a bucketload of options from bigger batteries, small battery packs to boost the appliances and simple little solar panels.
The simplicity of a small solar panel looks good, but does anyone have any experience on what works, and what size would be required?
Cheers
Ian
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Offline Gunsrunner

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Re: Solar chargers for phones and tablets
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2015, 09:45:39 AM »
Most phone charges are 2.1amps at 5volt which is 10.5watts. Not much needed really. Make sure voltage is changed to 5volt with an adaptor or regulator.
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Offline pedrogb

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Re: Solar chargers for phones and tablets
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2015, 02:00:43 PM »
Hi all
I have a goal zero setup, 7w panel that charges a bank of 4 AA batteries, you then use the bank via usb cable to charge your phone.
Wasn't too expensive, travels with us, just in case.

Works quite well, needs almost a day to charge the bank, but you could maybe get a couple of phone charges out of the bank.
Have  look on evil bay, there are a few others around.
Pedro
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Offline terravista

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Re: Solar chargers for phones and tablets
« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2015, 03:41:06 PM »
Thanks for the responses.
I have seen the solar packs with built in batteries and did not know if they were gimmicks or workable items.They do appear to be better than just solar panels.
I also saw one for around $150  that had the solar charging a bigger battery setup, including a torch, USB charge points and the ability to jump start a car up to 20 times.
Sounds too good to be true but hopefully someone can tell me otherwise.
We did purchase a cigarette lighter adaptor that is rated to 2.7 watts, but on trying it out all that works is the small LED that says it's working, but there's no power getting out the USB holes.
Thanks Harvey Norman. More useless crap.
Cheers
Ian
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Offline Dingo0163

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Re: Solar chargers for phones and tablets
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2015, 05:47:06 PM »
We get a lot of blackouts so I made up a small solar unit. It runs two small LED strips , charges our phones and iPad. I haven't used 240 to charge phones or iPad in nearly two years. All it is , is a 10 watt panel , a 7 ah battery a small regulator and one of those extension leads with two cig plugs and two USB plugs built in. All for about $80. I'm thinking of a bigger panel and battery just so I can run more lights.  :cheers:
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Offline RiCoda

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Re: Solar chargers for phones and tablets
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2015, 05:08:49 AM »
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