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Anybody got any experience with Solar Powered USB Charger(s)?

I've seen some cool gadgets like bags with build in solar panels to charge you phone with ie. this:
http://www.luggagepoint.com/lpProductDetail.asp?productId=12201
or
http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/products/Solar_chargers/freeloader.asp
These would be idea for me as from pretty much anywhere I could charge my xda exec and my O rokr glasses which would be nice, I was wondering if anybody on here had any experience with anything like this in the real world and would like to share their experience.
I'm considering getting the second product as it's only £30 and modifying my briefcase so it's like the first product only much cheaper, but I am concerned the panel is much bulkier and smaller.
Thanks everyone

yeah, im quite keen to find out a little more about these although i think i will go for something bigger that would let me run my ameo continiously during sunlight hours.
there is a 13w briefcase style fold out one that ive got my eye on.
anybody else had luck with solar?

i just bought it. 60 quid off ebay.
http://www.vellemanusa.com/us/enu/product/view/?id=521432
not exactly pocketable, but more being able to listen to online radio etc while in the park all day.
(yay its nearly summer, Edinburgh Meadows kicks arse)

Freeloader
Hi there
I actually have a freeloader so I can tell you it's pretty small. It's only marginally bigger than my mobile (motorola) and I have been camping with it a few times and it took a bit of a beating (although USB connector got broken when I trod on it )
I got mine from www.wavemaker.co.uk which is a bit cheaper, and they do a bundle with 2 batteries so you can be charging one whilst using the other - I have used it for a load of stuff - mainly my phone and iPod though
I did a review of it on my site as well Whoopie review for freeloader
If this helps!
Iain

Hi
i bought a Juice bag about 6 months ago @ £150 so not cheap, it is such a cool gadget. I am currently living in the UK so not used it that much, but when there has been sun I have given it a go. It takes about 3 hours to charge a phone. I did get to use it while on holiday to charge my iPod while I was sitting by the pool.
I would highly recommend one to people.
Sean

Obviously there are different reasons to buy a solar charger, but in the case of saving electricity with the Freeloader one that only costs £30, how long is it going to take to recoupe the money?
A monthly electricity bill may only be £30, and charging a mobile must be a fractional proportion of that (0.1%?). I'm still tempted to get one though.

PaulMdx said:
... that only costs £30, how long is it going to take to recoupe the money?
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You should be able to count the £ £ for the electricity if you know how much it cost you per Watt hour (Wh) is electricity. Say, if your battery is 5 Volt (V) and it has 1000 mAh, the total power in your phone battery would be 5 x 1000mAh = 5000 mWh = 5Wh.
Anyway, I don't think it would be cost effective to get your £ 30 by charging the battery using the sun. If it were to be that significant, £ £ wise, there would have a lot of people charging their phones in their office
I think the major purpose of the charger is more to getting the power you want in places you can't possibly get a power socket. A cheaper alternatives is those wind-up dynamo thing that you can charge by winding/rotating the handle(?) that you can get from eBay. Consider a charger may take 1 hour to charge the battery.. probably it is not a good idea to have your phone fully charged using this good for emergency usage though.

hanmin said:
You should be able to count the £ £ for the electricity if you know how much it cost you per Watt hour (Wh) is electricity. Say, if your battery is 5 Volt (V) and it has 1000 mAh, the total power in your phone battery would be 5 x 1000mAh = 5000 mWh = 5Wh.
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Cost per kWh: £0.10 (roughly)
Universal battery: 3.7V, 1620mAh
Charging power: 3.7 * 1.620 = 5.994Wh
Cost per charge: 0.10/1000 * 5.994 = £0.0005994
Looks like it's not very cost effective!

No bothered about cost effectivness
The idea is to have power where ever i go for my glasses and phone - I'm still thinking about getting a juice bag because you have the panel on the outside of you bag so you don't need to set it up to charge anything.
also if you were wondering about how much energy you save most of the power goes on keeping your phone charger plugged in on standby, not charging it.

Emergency battery charger

i buy time ago this product
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/solar-powered-2000mah-rechargeable-portable-emergency-power-with-phone-adapters-led-light-42139
and was working awesome to me, when i have my N1 give me some juice when i was camping and no energy around, and the light its a plus i like so much, perhaps isnt working for atrix seems motorola needs more power to feed up anyone knows a cheap emergency battery like this?? i dont want expend a lot in power mat since i use this when im out of city

I use a Zagg Sparq from zagg.com. I got one of them for 50.00 US.
I used a coupon from one of their promotions. If you enter their contents and are not in a hurry you can probably get a coupon as well. I use it all the time while camping and it works great.

"seems motorola needs more power to feed up"
Well, yes, a standard single-AA cell "booster" can't suplly the entire ~1900mA that the Atrix battery can take. So it may only give you 1/2 or 3/4 charge and then you'll need a new battery and still more time to recharge.
But if you look around for any standard "booster" that has a miniUSB (and micro converter) or microUSB adapter on it, it WILL charge the Atrix until it runs out of power. Some of them use a 5v lithium cell instead of a AA cell, that's more likely to do a good job but again, that needs to be recharged too.

External Batteries

I was just wondering whether external batteries are generally quite reliable, and if so what the best brands are to go for? I am looking for a relatively powerful one - I am not afraid of a little bit of cost, but obviously I don't want to spend masses.
Thanks

Ive got a New Trent and its well built and reliable. The 11000mAH will last you for several days. Have a look on Amazon.

I have a "Just Mobile Pro" or something like that.
4400mAh with 1000mA output.
But the EasyAcc 5600mAh (which I don't have) does sound better and cheaper (on Amazon).

Second new trents 11000mah one that thing is a beast

Chartist said:
Ive got a New Trent and its well built and reliable. The 11000mAH will last you for several days. Have a look on Amazon.
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24inchsub said:
Second new trents 11000mah one that thing is a beast
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yeah i got that bad boy too and its a beast. well worth the price

Chartist said:
Ive got a New Trent and its well built and reliable. The 11000mAH will last you for several days. Have a look on Amazon.
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Thanks not heard of New Trent before. Looks good. Can you confirm it's output charging current though? I can't find the spec on it anywhere. I'm assuming it's the full 1A, as it says it can charge an iPad, but could you please confirm? Looks like I'll be needing one!
Cheers.

wnp_79 said:
Thanks not heard of New Trent before. Looks good. Can you confirm it's output charging current though? I can't find the spec on it anywhere. I'm assuming it's the full 1A, as it says it can charge an iPad, but could you please confirm? Looks like I'll be needing one!
Cheers.
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i can try to charge my ipad when i get home haven't tried actually.

I bought the Anker 5600mAh battery for my HTC Desire. Great quality, compact and it fits in my pocket very nicely. I bought it for $30 on ebay
http://www.ianker.com/products_astronew.html

gordongartrell said:
I bought the Anker 5600mAh battery for my HTC Desire. Great quality, compact and it fits in my pocket very nicely. I bought it for $30 on ebay
http://www.ianker.com/products_astronew.html
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Flashlight feature's a nice touch.

isound portable external battery. Has built in flashlight too. Comes in two flavors, 16000mah and 8000mah.
If you look around you can find it cheaper elsewhere
http://www.isound.net/shop-by-type/accessories/i-sound-portable-power-16000-mah.html
Zagg Sparq 2.0 6000mah. Not worth the $100. Went on sale for $50 before..
Love the design and its built it power plugs. Loses charge over time. Google user reviews.
http://www.zagg.com/accessories/zaggsparq.php

knoxploration said:
Flashlight feature's a nice touch.
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It's good and bad . I was on the train heading home from work and I was charging my phone with the Anker charger. I accidentally pressed the power button twice and the flashlight turned on. Sitting across from me was this fairly attractive woman with a skirt on. She automatically crossed her legs and looked at me weird. I hope she doesn't think that i'm a pervert.

gordongartrell said:
It's good and bad . I was on the train heading home from work and I was charging my phone with the Anker charger. I accidentally pressed the power button twice and the flashlight turned on. Sitting across from me was this fairly attractive woman with a skirt on. She automatically crossed her legs and looked at me weird. I hope she doesn't think that i'm a pervert.
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Hah! Good thing I didn't have a mouthful of soda there...

Good thing to remember with external battery packs is that during usage some of the charge goes to charging the battery while some is lost in heat. I think I read some where its normaly 30-40%. So for example a 11000mah battery will give you some where near 6600mah of charge so about 3 and half charges of the HTC One X.
I'm considering either the:
TeckNet® iEP387 7000mAh Dual-Port 2.1Amp Output Universal USB Battery Bank
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294
New Trent iCruiser IMP1000 11000mAh External Battery Pack
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294
Although not 100% sure I need either at the moment

HTC-Gunge said:
Good thing to remember with external battery packs is that during usage some of the charge goes to charging the battery while some is lost in heat. I think I read some where its normaly 30-40%. So for example a 11000mah battery will give you some where near 6600mah of charge so about 3 and half charges of the HTC One X.
I'm considering either the:
TeckNet® iEP387 7000mAh Dual-Port 2.1Amp Output Universal USB Battery Bank
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294
New Trent iCruiser IMP1000 11000mAh External Battery Pack
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294
Although not 100% sure I need either at the moment
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The heat loss is inevitable but the capacity should be unchanged.
What the heat loss means is that you need more than 11000mAh to charge up the full 11000mAh battery due to the losses.
The tecknet is very good value. I am considering it at the moment

tsleng said:
The heat loss is inevitable but the capacity should be unchanged.
What the heat loss means is that you need more than 11000mAh to charge up the full 11000mAh battery due to the losses.
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Yes but I'm talking about in the other direction. So once you have 11000mAh in the device and you charge a device that take 1800mAh you will actually use aprox 2520mAh in doing so. My numbers and calculations maybe a little flawed but my point is that you cant do a simple 11000 / 1800 = 6.1 charges as you need to take into account heat loss which is around 30 - 40% (so I read on one of the amazon reviews)
Either way both devices are nice and cost quite reasonable.

Hampa_D said:
i can try to charge my ipad when i get home haven't tried actually.
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tried it with my ipad last night and it worked great, it worked as if it was on AC

Have got the Tecknet IEP987 7000mah battery myself. Has run through two charges of a sensation XL and my Fiio Headphone amp, and still around half full.
Am more than happy with it.

HTC-Gunge said:
Yes but I'm talking about in the other direction. So once you have 11000mAh in the device and you charge a device that take 1800mAh you will actually use aprox 2520mAh in doing so. My numbers and calculations maybe a little flawed but my point is that you cant do a simple 11000 / 1800 = 6.1 charges as you need to take into account heat loss which is around 30 - 40% (so I read on one of the amazon reviews)
Either way both devices are nice and cost quite reasonable.
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Ah yes of course. Did not realise you were talking about the other way round charger>>phone
Not sure how efficient but if say 10% loss, we still get around 5 times charge with a 11000mAh batt. to a One X.
I am leaning towards the 7000mAh. Not sure if I need it or not...

tsleng said:
Ah yes of course. Did not realise you were talking about the other way round charger>>phone
Not sure how efficient but if say 10% loss, we still get around 5 times charge with a 11000mAh batt. to a One X.
I am leaning towards the 7000mAh. Not sure if I need it or not...
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Also don't forgot not to simply divide the battery pack's capacity by your phone's battery capacity to see how many times it will charge, unless you are charging it with the phone turned off.
With the phone on it is obviously using the usual amount for running the phone, whilst it is being charged. Add the current being drawn for keeping the phone running (say 250mA when awake) for the time it takes to charge (for me 2 hours) and you are looking at 500mAH. Add that to the capacity of your phone battery before dividing it by the capacity of your battery pack to figure out how many charges you'll get from it. Figures used are just for example purposes. Use a current widget if you want to know how much your phone is using.
Plus like a phone's battery, a new battery pack will take several charge cycles to reach full performance. Where as with a phone's battery which only takes about 2 weeks (charging it every day), a battery pack will take that much longer to get the full performance out of, as you wont likely be charging it more than once a week/month.
And then there's the battery indicators. These New Trent ones look sensible, but I once purchased a Proporta Turbocharger 5000mAHr unit. It had three blue LED battery status lights that were always on if charging. If you looked directly at them they'd burn your retinas out your skull. They could be seen from space. Stupidly and comically bright. They HAD to eat into some of the capacity.
Copper losses over the cable at the distances involved in your average charging cable will be negligible. If you really want to reduce it, don't use those silly skinny retracting yo-yo charging cable things that some of them come with. Use a decent quality USB to microUSB cable. The higher the guage of the cable and quality of copper, the less volt-drop there is. I keep a good few of these kicking about at home as they are well made but not too costly, and come with a nice cable tidy clasp...http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-NOKIA-CA-101-CA101-USB-DATA-CABLE-LEAD-5230-/140579882085?pt=UK_MobilePhones_MobilePhoneAccesories_MobilePhoneDataCables_JN&hash=item20bb36c465

fi3ry_icy said:
since the battery isnt gonna be removable, i am currently considering buying a portable charger..
here are some i found.. would like an opinion on which capacity would be good..
http://www.netimes.com/shop/power-master-9600mah-portable-mobile-power-p-3052.html?cPath=445_711
http://www.netimes.com/shop/2000mah...pack-with-led-light-p-3264.html?cPath=445_711
http://www.netimes.com/shop/dualport-5000mah-external-battery-pack-p-3109.html?cPath=80_731
http://mobilemate.yetaa.com/accessories/pineng-5000mah-power-bank.html
the last link has the same capacity as the 2nd last but it is way cheaper.. is it safe?
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here u go..
posted this in another thread..
cheers..

Spare Batteries. How fast will they drain when not in phone?

Hey, I just had a general question. I was thinking about picking up a two pack of Anker 2200mah batteries from ebay for $15. They will be used as spares, so I was thinking of leaving one in my car and the other at home. I was wondering if anyone would have an estimate on how fast the batteries drain when not in the phone? For example, I charge one of the spares to 100% and put in in my car (ignoring temperature fluctuation in the car), then two weeks later I am in need for the spare so I pop it into my GS3. What percent will the battery be at? Do you guys think it will be more than 95% after two weeks? one month?
Also, how much will temperature fluctuations in the car affect the drain? My car temp fluctuates from 45F to roughly 75F
Thanks

master4g said:
Hey, I just had a general question. I was thinking about picking up a two pack of Anker 2200mah batteries from ebay for $15. They will be used as spares, so I was thinking of leaving one in my car and the other at home. I was wondering if anyone would have an estimate on how fast the batteries drain when not in the phone? For example, I charge one of the spares to 100% and put in in my car (ignoring temperature fluctuation in the car), then two weeks later I am in need for the spare so I pop it into my GS3. What percent will the battery be at? Do you guys think it will be more than 95% after two weeks? one month?
Also, how much will temperature fluctuations in the car affect the drain? My car temp fluctuates from 45F to roughly 75F
Thanks
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You should buy a set and test it out. Lol.
They don't discharge much. They do slowly. At the store, new phones have batteries that sat around. They are usually 25% - 50%. I charged a E4GT battery almost 3 weeks ago. Sat around, I turned it on and it said 90%+.

In my experience the temperature fluctuations are what cause the quickest drain. As awesome as the idea of leaving a spare in the car is, it's about the worst thing you can do to a battery as far as storage goes.
Sorry to rain on your parade, this is one of those "I hate reality" situations. If you could create a climate controlled storage area within the vehicle it wouldn't matter...
Make sure to run a charge through the battery at least once a month to keep the cells in good shape.

Yeah, you'd be better off just carrying one on you instead of leaving it in the car to bake. Get a man-purse!
I got one made of Chilean leather, and I get a lot of complements on it. I carry my S3 and all my other crap, including a data cable for USB charging. Doesn't weigh much, so I hardly notice it, but it sure comes in handy.

Sorry, I left mine in my computer room. No temp changes.

Mine stayed in the 90% if within a week or two. I alternate them so that they don't go bad and get a fresh charge here and there.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

solar charger for N5

Hello everyone. This is my first post so please be reasonable with me.I just bought a 6000 amh portable solar charger from amazon.ca .I have done a lot of reaserch on this and found that a lot of peopel online suggest using ground zero solar panels. Has anyone tried this with the Nexus 5?
I could use any feedback on this if possible. Please see attached.I will also post a update as well as nothing really mentioned any were .

Ground Zero or Goal Zero?
I have the Goal Zero kit from Costco and it works fine when charging from the battery pack (which is charged by the solar panel).
I wasn't patient enough to sit there and charge my phone directly from the panel.

Solar chargers
I ment to say Goal Zero.Sorry about that. I have been playing with my new solar charger and I must say that it is vary effective. I can charge my Nexus 5 in a hour and can charge it up to 3 to 4 times if needed. I would recommend this product if you need a extra power supply for small devices like 7 inch tablets or cell phones but nothing bigger(Referring to the EZO power charger from amazon.ca).If you want to do anything more then that the Goal Zero is what alot of people all over the internet recommend.(Goal Zero 12301 Nomad 7M Solar Panel ).Which is 55 dollars on amazon.ca.

FrostyKnight said:
I ment to say Goal Zero.Sorry about that. I have been playing with my new solar charger and I must say that it is vary effective. I can charge my Nexus 5 in a hour and can charge it up to 3 to 4 times if needed. I would recommend this product if you need a extra power supply for small devices like 7 inch tablets or cell phones but nothing bigger(Referring to the EZO power charger from amazon.ca).If you want to do anything more then that the Goal Zero is what alot of people all over the internet recommend.(Goal Zero 12301 Nomad 7M Solar Panel ).Which is 55 dollars on amazon.ca.
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I think the idea of a solar powered charger is cool, but, emergency situations aside, I can't really think of when I'd need this. I have an Anker 13Ah external charger, which would charge a Nexus 5 5.6 times from completely dead. That's almost a week of battery for the phone. I can't think of any situation where I'd be without a charger for an entire week (except, as i said, extreme emergencies, but in that case, the cell towers will probably be down and my phone would be useless)

xVehemencityx said:
I think the idea of a solar powered charger is cool, but, emergency situations aside, I can't really think of when I'd need this. I have an Anker 13Ah external charger, which would charge a Nexus 5 5.6 times from completely dead. That's almost a week of battery for the phone. I can't think of any situation where I'd be without a charger for an entire week (except, as i said, extreme emergencies, but in that case, the cell towers will probably be down and my phone would be useless)
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But how else would you be able to play angry birds in the zombie apocalypse lol.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

xVehemencityx said:
I can't think of any situation where I'd be without a charger for an entire week (except, as i said, extreme emergencies,
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Multi-day back country hiking?