There are a ton of solar-charging power packs around but I find the Solartab an interesting and stylish one that might work well for camping trips and motorhomes.
Solartab portable solar charger
It’s not light (2.6 pounds / 1.2 KG) but that’s because it’s got a nice 48 Wh lithium polymer battery inside (13000 mAh and I assume the ‘normal’ 3.7V cells) and it comes with a protective case. The panel is designed right into the battery and the whole unit looks very stylish. The 5.5 W monocrystalline panel is not big enough to charge the unit in anything less than 3 full-sun days (my estimate) and that’s if you keep the unit constantly pointing at the sun, at the right angle so look at this as a battery pack that has a solar top-up feature. If the charging electronics are well designed (with ‘smart’ features that can help trickle-charge a Lithium Polymer battery) then this might work better than using a separate power-pack and panel.
There’s two USB outputs on the unit that supply 1.0 and 2.1A output, micro-USB charging, an LED charge/ capacity indicator system and the cover is made of polyurethane.
At $119 its cheaper than my current favorite, the Changers solar kit, and it has way more battery capacity but if it doesn’t charge in low-sunlight and you live somewhere like me, in Germany, then you might be better off just buying $119 worth of power packs and charging them from the mains. $119 will buy you over 200 Wh of USB power packs at Amazon.com right now.
As I said, treat this as a battery with solar top-up capabilities and consider it for camping, motorhome or balcony use and not as a complete mobile solar charging solution.
I had the chance to test the Anker 14W solar panel this morning. This $49.99 panel caught my eye at CeBIT recently and not only because of the price and mobility. The two USB ports make it incredibly simple to load power packs and phones and now that micro USB charging is available on many Baytrail-T windows tablets (and the new Surface 3) you can charge your PC.
I plugged a Dell Venue 10 Pro into the Anker panel and had nothing else to do. The charging rate was slow though and I suspect that like many other tablets it would just about hold its charge while using it. There’s also the security issue to think of (how long are you prepared to leave a tablet unattended) and the safety issue too. I wouldn’t like to leave this setup in direct sunlight for long. I know what happens when things overheat! This makes a nice home solution though and I’m tempted to buy one having seen it working so easily.
Slow charging means lost energy so although this is a quick and easy solution and it might work in some situations it’s still nothing close to Intel’s Alternative Power Architecture based around Intel’s Diamond Creek regulator.
It’s the 23rd of March. We’re into Spring in Europe and the sun has just moved above my neighbor’s house. According to the local weatherstation there’s 365 W/m2 hitting ground level. I’m getting 1 Watt out of my 4W Changers Maroshi panel.
Weighing just 800 grams and packing 14 W of maximum output the Anker 14W portable foldable solar charger looks like a bargain at $59.99 / €49.99. I stumbled across this at CeBIT 2015 in Hannover and took a look over it. It’s well-built, has a regulated 5V output via USB and a lot of good reviews on Amazon.com. I’m almost suspicious of the 4.5 rating from 700 reviews though because I see some issues, and it’s not because there’s a partial solar eclipse over my head as I write this!
Last night in Bonn, Germany, the sirens went off. I heard them at 01:12 and wondered what the hell was going on. I turned to Twitter and found out within minutes that the alarm was for the fire service only (rarely if ever used now. It was part of a wake-up system.) and then that the whole thing had been a mistake. This morning I started thinking about those essentials you might need if something really happens. Food, water, family…and some comm’s equipment. FM radio tops the list. A rugged and long-battery-life laptop is in the list along with an efficient smartphone. I also thought about solar power kit and couldn’t quite remember where I had put everything. My small Changers panel is to hand but my large panel with regulator and adaptors was tucked away in various locations in the house. If only you could integrate and consolidate this equipment.
I also remembered that I have forgotten to post this video of the latest update to Intel’s Diamond Creek – the tiny regulator that can be integrated inside a laptop to allow direct solar-panel charging. It’s part of Intel’s Alternative Power Architecture. Video below…
I’ve just started a solar charging test with the ASUS Vivotab Note 8 Windows 8.1 tablet (running on the Intel Baytrail-T platform.) Normally it would require a 2A USB output to charge it but lets see what the 1.2A output of the Changers solar power pack can do. The tablet is registering that power is connected here but there’s a question over whether it’s really charging. I’ll update this post when I’ve got some results.
In general, this tablet should be able to run with screen-on and connected from about 3W of power and charge from 5-10W so obviously there’s little chance of doing both at the same time here. If it holds a charge while on standby I’ll be happy. If it can charge while off, ill be even happier’
Update: Charging from the power pack is working while in connected standby at a reasonable rate for a 1.2A output. 4-5hrs seems possible for a full charge. I have yet to test concurrent solar charging –> power pack and power pack –> ASUS Vivotab Note 8.
At some point it will happen but 2014 isn’t the right year for integrating solar power into consumer phones, tablets and notebooks, especially for Apple.
I read a report about solar power integration on the next iPhone this morning and while I find it stimulating to think about this, it’s probably not going to happen in 2014 because solar technology advances aren’t keeping up with the rising demands for power in mobile phones; much of which comes from the requirement for backlighting on ever-increasing screen sizes. Placin any sort of solar panel on or behind a screen of any size simply won’t generate enough power even to run a backlight. Think about it. How often do you require the backlight? Always. When can you charge via solar energy? In the daylight. I doubt that you could generate more power than that which would be lost through trying to store that energy in the battery. At best you could probably power a static e-ink screen and I doubt that Apple is going that route with the iPhone 6.
I’ve just finished a full review of the Toshiba Encore WT8 Windows 8.1 Tablet. As expected it’s incredibly efficient, and perfect as a solar-powered PC. You can do everything on this. From web browsing to video editing to Office work with a full keyboard and external monitor.
