Skip to content

Lazyweb I want a solar powered USB jack

Simple: a solar panel, 2.5W, output 5V and 500 mA, with a USB jack attached. In sun, you plug your USB device (ipod, phone etc) into the solar-powered USB jack, and it charges.

Pure, simple. Who’s got it?

http://www.rei.com/product/770230 – $115 == $40 a watt, that’s Not Right.

http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/sf_solar_uno_slim.php – another candidate, fifty dollars, much closer… but still, $20 a watt… that’s Not Right either.

This was written by Vinay Gupta. Posted on Tuesday, February 19, 2008, at 5:05 pm. Filed under Cool Tools. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

3 Comments

  1. viridari wrote:

    I think the tricky bit is in taking the wildly unpredictable output from the PV panel and regulating it before it gets to the USB device.

    Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 4:00 am | Permalink
  2. Vinay Gupta wrote:

    Hm. Point. I guess an inline voltage regulator? Although when the panel is producing a lot of energy, all the regulator is going to be doing is throwing away volts…

    I guess this is why most of these devices seem to buffer with batteries…

    Hm. Thoughts?

    Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 7:50 am | Permalink
  3. viridari wrote:

    Check this out:
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080213/od_nm/shirt_dc;_ylt=AhCTihHmzUov_ihS_edDBdUDW7oF

    Use your shirt to recharge your cell phone or iPod.

    Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 2:13 pm | Permalink

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *
*
*