Solar panels or Dynamo for small devices?

T

task force k

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Anybody have any thoughts or experience on this? I carry a pocket PC with an extensive library of reference, medical reference, language reference, and books for entertainment everywhere I go EXCEPT to the woods...the one place where this stuff would be invaluable. I'm looking for a way to recharge this thing if my situation went to hell and the world were suddenly sans electricity. I don't like the idea of recharging from batteries as, soon enough, those would be gone, too. I've looked at both the foldable/rollable solar panels and hand crank dynamo types but wanted to gather some input from y'all on this specific application. Also, if anybody else uses a Pocket PC and wants some reference e-books, let me know.
 
I used to have a solar panel strapped on the top of my rucksack, to charge cells for my walkman. Made the charge regulator myself.

What type of battery does your PPC have? If it takes standard NiCd or NiMH, then it's easy. If it's a lithium battery it might be more complicated.

What is the sunlight like where you are? In the UK it was dismal most of the time, but I still got enough to keep my NiCd's going with a big solar panel. Also, if you are in the woods a lot, you might not get enough light.

The hand cranked chargers are OK, but I can think of many things I'd rather be doing in the woods than winding a handle! Sunlight is effortless, apart from a little weight.

Just some thoughts.

Rick.
 
I have thought about getting some sort of roll-up panel for recharging AA batteries for lights, GPS, etc. I have a 4-slot solar charger that I obtained for Campmor. It is small and simple, but it takes maybe 1.5-2 days to fully charge 2 NiMh batteries from being almost dead. Hhaving 2 or 3 sets of batteries makes the recharge time not such a big deal. If I was stuc somewhere for a long time, just the fact that I could recharge batteries would be awesome. I can't complain oabut the $16 or whatever this charger cost Santa.

I also have a crank charger/LED flashlight that works very well for our cell phones. It did come with about 5 different adapters, but I'm not sure if any of those would work with your PPC.
 
Well, of course they're lithium. I mean, if there's going to be complications with something electronic, that's the something I'll have. LOL.
 
The sailing community has done a lot of work with portable, durable solar power for radios and nav aids on long distance sailing, check some of their web sites, also, shortly there may be a very flexible very adaptable power panel that will handle almost all cell phones, and most PDA type things on the market soon.
 
True, solar technology is poised to reduce in price size and portablilty. It's just not ready yet. Small dynamo units are no picnic either.

For the moment, I pick solar if you have the room for a 5 watt panel and the cash. 5 watt would give you a usable charging capacity even on cloudy days.


The breakthrough will come with commercially available fuel cell micro generators. Prototypes already exist that approximate the size and weight of lithium batteries but with a substantially higher performance. The added benefit being that you can refill the fuel cell in the field with something like a butane canister. I dont know about you but I wouldnt mind carrying 4 or 5 butane canisters to power a laptop for 2 weeks.
 
alco,

I hadn't seen them from Brunton, thanks. That Solarport 4.4 looks like it could rock hard. I appreciate it.
 
That Brunton charger looks similar in regards to power and price to the Silva Solar 2, which I've been looking to get. It seems like the minimum for power and maximum for weight for on-foot travel. The Brunton is not available here, but every Silva product I have had has been top quality. One thing to remember is that for these things to work well, or indeed at all, you need open space and good weather. The technology itself isn't too failure prone, and I wouldn't trust any novelty crank-dynamos to stay serviceable.

Of course, if the load - and investment - isn't prohibitive: something like these could be nice. Actually the weight isn't too bad for the power...
 
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