I’ve been messing around with Solar energy again today…
It turns out that the Viliv S10 has a 9.5v input. Having an input voltage below 12V is always an advantage for solar work and it’s even better when the X70 car adaptor works on the S10. I’ve connected the S10 up to a 24W solar panel and it’s charging the device even when it’s in-use. Given pure sun (2hrs either side of peak sun) it should charge the S10 in about 5 hours. That’s 10 hours usage in 5 hours charging. Unfortunately the S10, like all other PCs, doesn’t fast-charge so this solution would probably work exactly the same with a 12W panel as only about 7W-10W is needed in charging.
The S10 has 3G built-in, a fast SSD and a great keyboard. It’s turning out to be a great solution for working completely off the power and wired networking grids.
I’ve written up some more details over at my little solar computing blog.
Warning: Direct solar charging without a regulator and a buffer power store is always a risk to your devices.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:49 am
New article: Off-Both-Grids With the Viliv S10 http://bit.ly/bxLvG2
July 19th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Off-Both-Grids With the Viliv S10: I’ve been messing around with Solar energy again today…
It turns out that the V… http://bit.ly/cCusGH
July 19th, 2010 at 11:18 am
RT @umpcportal: New article: Off-Both-Grids With the Viliv S10 http://bit.ly/bxLvG2
July 19th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Yeah great lappy. Shame they went overboard with the price. It would have been a fantastic netbook for power-mobile users, but $800’ish is just crazy for an Atom machine.
July 19th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
When I deployed to Iraq I considered buying a solar charger for my laptop. It seems that we are not there yet when it comes to solar. The panels aren’t portable enough and they are still expensive. I have seen some alternatives somewhere else but still. Maybe one day we get small panels on the back of laptops… that would be sweet.
July 19th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
The military version of the 24wh panel I have costs over $800. Yes, solar energy has a long way to go. Forunately we see on average 20% power improvements in PCs per year. IN about 5 years, we’ll have about half the power requirements for a netbook – about 3W which brings USB charging and the possibility of running it all from a 7W panel the size of a newspaper.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
For the time I spent in various parts of Germany, there didn’t seem to be many long periods of sunshine. But that could have just been a bad month weather wise last July.
And USB 2.0 can draw what, a maximum of 3 watts ? (5V DC * 0.6A) and I believe USB 3.0 has upped the maximum power draw to 5.4 watts. That extra two and a half watts could probably open up a number of doors as far as charging devices via USB, no?
July 19th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Pardon me, that should probably be 2.5 watts (5V * .5A) and 5.4, respectively.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Hehe chippy, do you remember your trouble with the german tax to get your Viliv N5. I had my knowledge from tax trouble with a solar battery/charger.
http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/high-capacity-solar-charger-and-battery-20000mah/
I will test if it can run my U820. But until then i use it for the motion head of my time lapse unit.
Setup via http://issuu.com/timelock/docs/dom
Testresults via http://vimeo.com/13295527
Regards from Cologne
TL
July 19th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Just watched the video. Very cool! Interesting battery pack too although that solar panel is too small to be of much use in charging the device, especially in mid Europe. Slows the discharge somewhat I guess though.
July 19th, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Jep, it is no real solution for full autonomical work.
But with my solar bag for powering up my HSDPA phone
http://timelockin.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/no-5-lives/
and the solar battery i can work a day long without need a power plug.
More is better but this is your proving ground and i will exhaust your results :-)
July 27th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Sun Ultra Mobile Personal Computing http://bit.ly/notThatKindOfSun