solar powered charger for $20

[crazynorwegian]

So I went out on a limb here, and bought a solar powered keychain charger from www.cellularfactory.com. From what I've read the company has horrible reviews, but mine was pretty good. The charger is obviously Chinese made and the instructions are very poorly translated. But the product didn't look or feel very cheap and it was only $20. It has a built in 1000mA battery but that is rated at 3.7 volts. so at 5.5 volts its only good for about 500mA. It doesn't have a connector for the G1 but you can used the usb data cable, and connect it to the female usb connector that is provided. The keychain charger can either be charged via usb, wall charger, or solar powered. When i received it I charged it to full on the wall charger unplugged it, and then decided to give it a test on my g1. I turned off the gps, wifi, and bluetooth, then turned the phone off and on to make sure no background programs were running. I started off at 29% on my g1 and after 35min the battery in the keychain charger was done. I checked my phone and I had an increase of 30% on my battery. I haven't been able to test the solar charging yet since its raining all weekend here. But so far, this is a great compact emergency charger. Plus you can power anything usb with it.

[Cyrus]

not bad thanks for looking out

[EclipsedExistence]

now, if the solar charger works, I'll never have to go without power here in Dallas. It rains rarely enough that I would have very few instances of no power/no charger.

[RegGuheert]

I'm guessing the solar charger only puts out about 1/10W or so. Very doubtful the solar charger will be able to replace anything close to the ~1W that the G1 draws. It may charge the G1 battery when off, however.

Still, with an internal battery that stays charged, it might be nice to have that 30% boost for the G1 when you really need it.

Thanks!

Reg

[MattKilla]

1W? I'm usually at ~4000mV. at 1150mA, that's a 4.6W draw.

[RegGuheert]

If you draw 1150 mA from an 1150 mAh battery, your phone dies in less than 1 hour (since it's likely rated at a C/10 or C/20 rate, like most batteries). Does your phone die in less than 1 hour?

BTW, how do you measure battery voltage. I saw another post with that. Does the phone report it somewhere? TIA!

[juice]

This thread is fantastic.

[crazynorwegian]

Some clarification:

You can not charge the phone directly from solar power. you would need almost a 10" solar panel for that, and i dont want to carry that around. You have to charge the battery in the keychain charger first by putting it out in the sun for about 8-10 hours. then you can connect it to charge your phone. Good for people who like to go camping, or a lengthy power outage.

[crazynorwegian]

btw heres a direct link to the charger

http://www.cellularfactory.com/det.jsp?d=15918&c=103806

[WILL R US]

Hey guys firts post here . (after having this phone for a month) I don't remeber which site i saw this on but there a charger that you can use 2 AA batteries. IMO i think it a better bet for about the same price.