solar minty lives !!

[sandman1962]

my two versions:one using an ipod touch retail container, and another using stacked altoids can (big battery)


solar charger by Sandman1962, on Flickr


solar charger 2 by Sandman1962, on Flickr


solar charger 3 by Sandman1962, on Flickr

[ransomhall]

Nice! I mangled a tin trying to do cutouts like that. I'll probably go with laser cut acrylic once I'm done with the monitoring project so I can trick out the container a bit. That big 6.6A LiPo rocks! I'm still testing how long I can run various gadgets with it.

[ransomhall]

I finally stopped playing around with all the parts (monitoring setup earlier in thread) and wrapped up the 6V 3.7W panel, Minty, and solar lipo charger in a nice fluorescent blue acrylic housing. Along with a 6600 mAh battery, I can now charge the heck out of USB powered gadgets. See http://www.ransomhall.com/Pages/solbooster.aspx for more details of this build. I am going to create an Instructable for this and enter it in the Epilog laser cutter contest. I'll post links when that is ready. In the meantime, the enclosure design file is available at my showcase on Ponoko: http://www.ponoko.com/design-your-own/products/sol-booster-6376.



The back:

[adafruit]

thats a nice build!

[ransomhall]

Wow, up on the blog again! Thanks.

[sumatra]

Ladyada -- As ransomhall notes, combining the charger and mintyboost on one board would be a great product. Building on that, I think it would be good to have selectable output voltage: 3v or 5v, and of course raw battery voltage.

Thanks!

[ransomhall]

hmmm... sounds like another fledgling kitbiz could be in the making... just need to find more space in the basement "inventing room", as my son calls it

[adafruit]

We have a design in the works, but we want to make sure its really good so its taking time. There is no ETA