It has been a long wait and I’ve been gone for most of that time. But if past BLF projects are any judge, it’ll be well worth the wait.
As usual, my hat is off to the folks who can and do get involved in these project lights.
If you draw too much current from a bare panel with no regulator, the voltage will plummet and you’ll lose power.
Panels with regulators vary a lot, depending on the regulator design. A panel with a basic regulator will still see plummeting voltage and lose power if you try to draw too much current. A better regulator may be able to mitigate that effect, but it will still have to throttle down the output power to do it.
This then raises the question of how the device you’ve plugged in will react to having its power supply throttled down. If it gracefully draws on whatever power is available - as many powerbanks do - you’ll be fine. If it’s picky about its power - iPhones are infamous for that - then it may just give up and stop charging at all.
That’s why the standard recommendation for charging personal electronics from portable solar power is “solar charge a powerbank, then use the powerbank to charge your other devices”. It’s less efficient - having the extra charging step costs you energy - but it’s more likely to work reliably.
You don’t need to do that for the LT1, though, it’s designed to pick up where it left off and charge whenever there’s enough power.
On a related note, some solar panels have a regulator which will turn the power off and on again from time to time. This sometimes helps in variable solar conditions, because cycling the power like that may reset a picky device and convince it to start taking a charge again. It doesn’t always work, though.
Unfortunately, manufacturers don’t seem to specify what their built-in solar panel regulators can do - they just say “5V USB output”, maybe adding a current rating and that’s it.
Ultimately, you just have to try it and see what happens (having first checked that the panel can never produce too much voltage, of course).
The ability to change the stock 1.5A charging current to 0.75A adds versatility, because a panel producing 5W - 5V at 1A, for example - will struggle (at best) with the stock 1.5A configuration. Letting people modify the LT1 to charge at 0.75A means they can adjust it to better match the lower-powered solar panels they might already have.
In addition, lower charging current also means that a larger solar panel can continue to operate even in less favourable conditions (thin, hazy cloud, for example). Some people might prefer to give their LT1 a better chance of charging in less favourable conditions, even if that means sacrificing full-speed charging in better conditions.
Ok, I dug through the group chat and found some testing DBSAR did with a few different solar panels. This may be in the first post as well, didn’t check there.
Oops. Too late.
Interested as well.
Bonsoir fneuf,
Sofirn is very much interested in a French translation. I'll send you further information via PM.
Merci et bonne soirée,
Thomas
Looks nice…
Please, add me to the list for 1 piece. Thanks! 
Much like Phlogiston mentioned above, for those in off-grid areas, and with some power banks/boxes i tested the lower 0.75 amp mode does not pull the voltage down as far as 1.5 amps when using older or small solar chargers, some car adapter chargers and portable solar/generator rigs. (one example i tested is when at 0.75 amps, two devices charged stable at the same time from my boat USB power box and a few unites i tested without overloading the ports, but at 1.5 only one can be sustained. (the trade off is a longer charge time, but even then a day is plenty of time to fully top up the LT1 after a night’s of running.
I’m definitely interested. Put me down for 3.
Please add me to the group buy list for one lantern.
I’ve loved my Q8 and I’m looking for a white gas lantern alternative.
Please +3 my request.
Will do….that puts you up to 8
Please put me in for one more (three total)
Put me down for 1 please.
You’re already in for 3 so I didn’t add you again. But I’ll add you if you actually want 4.
Sorry to be a PITA, but should I being seeing my username on the list? I should be in for 2 at this point.
Thanks.
You’re in for 3 based on post 258 dated 8/18/2016 (for 1 lantern) and post 7364 dated 10/5/2019 (for 2 lanterns). Since updates are only posted Sunday evenings you’ll see the last 2 in post #1 and the files linked to in that post sometime tonight.
Where exactly are you looking? I currently see you in post #1 as number 129 and in both of the linked files as number 128. The numbers differ but that is unimportant.
Please +1 mine for two total
I was looking at the bottom of the list, #2000 some odd. Let’s leave it at 3, I’m sure my brother will want one.
Edit: Ahhh! I see how to look it up now! Very slick!
Here are this week’s additions and files linked to in post #1 have been updated. As we are getting close to going live with the buy please verify that your blf user name is correct in the files linked to in post #1. You don’t have to do this if you’ve done it before.
IMPORTANT
Also verify that the total number of lanterns you want are correct in the names file since there is the possibility that we will be sending out single use codes rather than a generic code. Obviously this means that you would be receiving separate PM’s for each lantern you expressed an interest in.
2552 brenden23
2553 Kame Sennin
2554 TheNetRanger
2555 funkychateau
2556 wedlpine
2557 wedlpine
2558 Gj
2559 Gj
2560 Gj
2561 Gj
2562 RollerBoySE
2563 TrueNerd
2564 TrueNerd
2565 ada_potato
2566 Perception
2567 jescereal
2568 micknatt
2569 CalDellinger
2570 Cythras
2571 redsuns
2572 NuggetMcNugget
2573 NuggetMcNugget
2574 NuggetMcNugget
2575 That’ll Leave A Mark
2576 LowLander
2577 k13w
2578 Nat.ie
2579 byarnell05
2580 FleshlightJones
2581 pies
2582 3061fps
2583 write2dgray
2584 BrianK
2585 BrianK
2586 Thefire
2587 psmbfuer
2588 CheapThrills
2589 Stryker
2590 Stryker
2591 Stryker
2592 Caver_Rave
2593 amishbill
2594 amishbill
2595 amishbill