[Q] Solar: Anyone else "going green"?

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DDowns

Member
Sep 29, 2008
14
2
Seattle Area
Just finished making a solar charging panel for my nook a fee days ago, and was wondering if anyone else has tried this. Being in the Cascade foothills of Washington State, I can't say that I've seen the sun yet!

Too new to be able to post a pic. Sorry.
db.tt/5KpHc9y
 
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cshehan

Senior Member
Feb 21, 2006
73
5
Pretty cool, how many amps does that put out? And yeah, no sun here in Michigan. It's snowing a couple inches today!!
 
Yup, I have but on a bigger scale for my laptop and other chargables while camping with 1957 travel trailer (no real moder electric system) My sytem has a 18 volt panel that charges a deep cycle battery, then I use the battery to charge my laptop and other accessories via thier 12 volt car chargers.

I have also purchased a few smaller portable panel and battery sytems for my Android phone. The best I have found is made by Solio.

I am interested in the details of your setup becaouse the Nook power requirements are in between my current setups.

Does your panel charge a storage battery? And what are your input and output specs?

Sounds cool, I love this stuff. :)
 
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ace7196

Guest
Yup, I have but on a bigger scale for my laptop and other chargables while camping with 1957 travel trailer (no real moder electric system) My sytem has a 18 volt panel that charges a deep cycle battery, then I use the battery to charge my laptop and other accessories via thier 12 volt car chargers.

I have also purchased a few smaller portable panel and battery sytems for my Android phone. The best I have found is made by Solio.

I am interested in the details of your setup becaouse the Nook power requirements are in between my current setups.

Does your panel charge a storage battery? And what are your input and output specs?

Sounds cool, I love this stuff. :)

I'd like to know the specs as well. I use my solio to charge my G1, but would like to build up a charger for the NC
 

Divine_Madcat

Retired Forum Moderator
Sep 9, 2005
2,936
2,608
USA
+1 to being interested in a write-up/parts guide to something like this. I love tinkering, and so something like this would be alot of fun to make...
 

DDowns

Member
Sep 29, 2008
14
2
Seattle Area
Pretty cool, how many amps does that put out? And yeah, no sun here in Michigan. It's snowing a couple inches today!!
Sorry to get back to you so late... Each panel puts out 200 mA;wired in parallel, with a Schottky diode 5819 on each, for a total 400 mA @ 6V and a resistor for a slight voltage-drop. Also wired in a standard USB type "A" receptacle to provide charging power from the panels to other USB devices like my phone etc. I've not had issues like others regarding the Nook Color being picky about chargers since installing the Customized Nookie FroYo eMMC distro. Got the panels from eBay:

cgi.ebay.com/New-1-PCS-6V-200mA-1-2W-Solar-Panel-Power-Cell-Charger-/160534678523?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25609ccbfb

Hope that answers it for ya. Been working GREAT for me.

I have to say... Soldering pins and resistors onto a mini-USB connector, at my age with my eye-sight issues SUCKS! ;)
 
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ace7196

Guest
Cool! Let me know how it turns out.
Just soldered and wired it up. Works great! Might grab some more and make a switch to change between 2000 mA and 500 mA :D

Pretty easy to do. Put them in parallel, attach diodes on positive side, and connect 5V and ground to usb!
 

daemonfly

Senior Member
Apr 8, 2010
185
6
I've been tempted to do a lot of solar powered projects, but engineers (mostly schools) keep coming up with better efficiency & lower cost on solar panels. Kinda waiting to see these results hit the market.
 

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    Pretty cool, how many amps does that put out? And yeah, no sun here in Michigan. It's snowing a couple inches today!!
    Sorry to get back to you so late... Each panel puts out 200 mA;wired in parallel, with a Schottky diode 5819 on each, for a total 400 mA @ 6V and a resistor for a slight voltage-drop. Also wired in a standard USB type "A" receptacle to provide charging power from the panels to other USB devices like my phone etc. I've not had issues like others regarding the Nook Color being picky about chargers since installing the Customized Nookie FroYo eMMC distro. Got the panels from eBay:

    cgi.ebay.com/New-1-PCS-6V-200mA-1-2W-Solar-Panel-Power-Cell-Charger-/160534678523?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25609ccbfb

    Hope that answers it for ya. Been working GREAT for me.

    I have to say... Soldering pins and resistors onto a mini-USB connector, at my age with my eye-sight issues SUCKS! ;)