I talked yesterday about my testing with the Viliv S10 and my 24w solar panel. Today I’ve implemented the solution as my desktop PC.

Previously (for the last 5 months) I had been using a Fujitsu U820 UMPC as my desktop. It was running Windows XP on a Intel Atom 1.6 CPU. The Viliv S10 is running Windows 7 Home Starter on the same Atom 1.6 CPU. Both solutions use a fast SSD. You can see that I have it set up to drive an external monitor, mouse and keyboard but I’m still using the screen on the S10 as an extended monitor. With the extended screen, Windows 7, quieter operation and a better USB solution (the USB bus on the U820 would often reset causing a keyboard and mouse lock-up) this is a better working solution than I had before.

Cont’d…

The 24W solar panel is only powering the screen but at 0937 this morning I was surprised to see it charging the running S10. At that rate I have the opportunity to get 6 hours charging out of this July sun meaning a full charge per day; enough for 8 hours usage in this set-up. The problem is that I lose the sun behind a tree and the side of the house at about 1300 hrs. I need to get the panel on the roof to solve that issue.

I’ve ordered a Turnigy watt-meter that I’ll use to measure power utilization so check back for results some time in August because in a few days I’m off on holiday!

Note on my PC usage: I work mainly within the browser using cloud-based applications like Gmail, Google Docs and iTweet. I use Windows Live writer as my main publishing tool and sometimes use Tweetdeck for some Twitter work. It’s a simple set-up that needs very little processing power.

Ever since then the weather has been bad. Look at the last three days below. With weather like that I would have no chance of charging anything. The forecast for the next 6 days is the same too.

The only good thing about the rain was that I was able to re-test my old tent. I suspected it wasn’t going to be water resistant any more and I was right!

As for the bike, i’m really thinking of doing it on the Kronan bike now. Its a solid machine and the seat is really comfortable. I’m going to order a couple of new tyres and some spares this weekend and get it back up to match fitness.

The first of my planned start dates is approaching. I was hoping to start on the 21st May but thats just over a week away. Its not looking good. I am looking at a second date now (10-19th June.) just in case the outlook dosn’t improve in the next week.