I made another find at the flea market besides the old lantern. It is a solar panel with cord, but no markings of what it might be for. The guy only wanted a dollar so I snatched it up.
I thought I might have to splice the wire and find a plug to fit a charger, but it fit right into the TR01.
It actually works! It took my little Sonshine 16340 from 2.67 to 3.74 in about 3 hours. This is through a window that has a screen in it. I don’t know why but only the right channel works. I’m guessing it doesn’t get enough voltage from the panel to power both. If the angle isn’t right it won’t charge at all. Still a pretty cool contraption for the layman like me
You measure solar panel current by shorting them with an ammeter. That size of a panel will be around 200-300mA SC current. Open circuit voltage is around 12V. That makes it a 2-3W panel.
Edit: an excellent price I might add! You might find them for around $15 or more online.
Not as convinient as my wall plug, but cheaper I guess This makes me want to buy a bigger one… I don’t think this would do much more than keep my phones charged up with light use during a long term power outage, taking 18650s from this charger and outputting from the usb on my wp2. Better than nothing though.
Wow, good catch!
Ive been thinking about buying solar panels and making some bigger-power DIY chargers some day.
This for 1$ would be perfect solar-charging world opener for me :D!
This makes me want to buy a bigger one… I don’t think this would do much more than keep my phones charged up with light use during a long term power outage, taking 18650s from this charger and outputting from the usb on my wp2. Better than nothing though.