There are a ton of solar-charging power packs around but I find the Solartab an interesting and stylish one that might work well for camping trips and motorhomes. It’s not light (2.6 pounds / 1.2 KG) but that’s because it’s got a nice 48 Wh lithium polymer battery inside (13000 mAh and I assume the […]
I had the chance to test the Anker 14W solar panel this morning. This $49.99 panel caught my eye at CeBIT recently and not only because of the price and mobility. The two USB ports make it incredibly simple to load power packs and phones and now that micro USB charging is available on many […]
It’s the 23rd of March. We’re into Spring in Europe and the sun has just moved above my neighbor’s house. According to the local weatherstation there’s 365 W/m2 hitting ground level. I’m getting 1 Watt out of my 4W Changers Maroshi panel.
Weighing just 800 grams and packing 14 W of maximum output the Anker 14W portable foldable solar charger looks like a bargain at $59.99 / €49.99. I stumbled across this at CeBIT 2015 in Hannover and took a look over it. It’s well-built, has a regulated 5V output via USB and a lot of good […]
Last night in Bonn, Germany, the sirens went off. I heard them at 01:12 and wondered what the hell was going on. I turned to Twitter and found out within minutes that the alarm was for the fire service only (rarely if ever used now. It was part of a wake-up system.) and then that […]
I’ve just started a solar charging test with the ASUS Vivotab Note 8 Windows 8.1 tablet (running on the Intel Baytrail-T platform.) Normally it would require a 2A USB output to charge it but lets see what the 1.2A output of the Changers solar power pack can do. The tablet is registering that power is connected […]
At some point it will happen but 2014 isn’t the right year for integrating solar power into consumer phones, tablets and notebooks, especially for Apple. I read a report about solar power integration on the next iPhone this morning and while I find it stimulating to think about this, it’s probably not going to happen in […]
I’ve just finished a full review of the Toshiba Encore WT8 Windows 8.1 Tablet. As expected it’s incredibly efficient, and perfect as a solar-powered PC. You can do everything on this. From web browsing to video editing to Office work with a full keyboard and external monitor.
One of the problems of powering laptops and tablets by solar is that you need a buffer between the module and the device in order to protect the device against wild voltage variations. Often that’s a lithium ion battery pack. In many cases the battery pack doesn’t take full advantage of low-current situations at the […]
Using the sun to power consumer electronics is horribly inefficient and expensive but as technology advances, the process gets a lot better. PCs are running in 5W now compared to over 10W just 5 years ago. Screen technology is getting more efficient and the solar equipment used to collect and store the energy from the […]