Is there a simple setup to run my 123/18650 chargers off a solar panel ?
I have found that one of the best ways is to charge a 12 volt battery with a solar panel and then you can easily charge your 123/18650 batteries by using a DC adapter on your 18650 charger and connecting it to the 12 volt battery. I use a little female lighter socket clipped to the pos and neg of the 12 volt battery.
This system works better than charging a 12 volt battery and attaching an inverter to the battery and charging with your AC charger.
It's better to go from DC to DC than to go from DC to AC and back to DC.
you can use a 5v solar charger with battery with an usb charger like that ...but is slow
or use solar panel of 12v using a low mha 12v car battery and a charger that handle 12v like trustfire tr-001 or xtar wp2
or a card like that(expensive) plus a solar panel of 15v for that result(that is too expensive is not smart ship an acid battery from cina..)
not cheap solutions gl xD
Wow, I never thought to look for solar chargers at DX. I had no idea they were so affordable these days.
The car cigarette lighter style ac/dc power converter is a good idea ran straight to a battery.
I was also wondering if they made one with some kind of control box to change the output and you could charge your batteries directly and other things without lugging around a huge battery.
Since they put out the correct current without a converter they have small portable solar panels that will directly charge your iphone and some charge up a 4x AA pack that will then recharge your iphone 1 or 2 times when its full without sun. But i was looking for one that has more plug in options and output settings.
User "Cottonpicker" on the dark side sells exactly what you're looking for in the marketplace.
+1 I have several solar feeder lights from 7.5 up to 48w arrays with up to 140A 12v AGM storage batteries. AC inverters are a waste. There are many chargers that will work with 12vdc & 120/240vac adapters including many hobby chargers. Just my 2¢.
+1... nice guy, good panels. (I've got one of his little ones and a couple of the mini chargers.) Only minor detail is that it's Cottonpickers.
still best compact solution for low mah batteries is:
have built in battery is a good pro can't rain/bad weather forever but if do how to charge also if you have 10w panel? xD
here the solar charge of Cottonpicker
we can link all here no?
Absolutely! That's why BLF was started, to post direct links to interesting products. :)
those who bougth this how much mah per hour does it charge? the battery is 1500mah and if it takes 4-5 hours to deplete wouldn’t that make the solar panel or charge 300mah only?
This is what we are using for our group off the grid camping trips. Goal Zero is what we have and have been happy w but I am very glad to see _Cottonpickers _offerings…another place to spend more money! I like his performance based approach. Our experience w cheaper solar units to charge phones, portable battery packs, MP3s etc was pretty much a waste of time & money, everything worked to some extent but not the way you expected…
I have some 12v panels laying around for years but I don’t know what to do with them…6w peak or so each.
I also have one of these little allinone solar charger with build in battery, mine is crap weak battery and weird behaving…
So I am interested in this also…just the imagination that we harvest the light on day and play with it in the night is rather cool.
The question is: is it possible to connect a 12V solar panel directly(perhaps add a blocking diode) to a 12V 18650 charger(maybe a trustfire cheapo or a i4)?
me neither. glad to see prices coming down, but I have to wonder about quality a little.