Solar Charging

Have you looked into these things? I’ve always been interested in trying them out. They make more expensive models, as well.

http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=256

Hey Ron, yea I’ve used Brunton and was about to
give you the web but John beat me to it.
I’ve used Brunton Solar Roll, great stuff but have to make sure you get the right size that fits your cam. Plus its flexible, waterproof and can easily be stashed in your luggage molded around clothe. I’ll PM you….

I second, the Brunton rolls work well, but I would advise getting the the larger either a 9 or a 14.

The new generation versions (26/52) are a bit spendy and might be overkill.

-M

Highly recommend Brunton and the great people there who were extremely helpful. Used the Solaris™ 26 in the remote rainforests in Peru for 8 weeks, worked perfectly, easy to carry, use and maintain. Also took a power inverter and AGM – Absorbed Glass Mat batteries to store energy. See here for more info re: basic set-ups http://www.freesunpower.com/inverters.php

hey ron,

it didn’t work perfectly, but i have a thuraya solar charger (kinda old), that accepts a car inverter. i’ve been able to charge 5d batteries on it if i plug the charger into the invertor, and the invertor into the solar outlet. It’s ideal because it’s small, but the downside is that it needs A LOT of direct sunlight, and a couple hours.

b

Hi Ron,
About the solar charging, the best thing I’ve found is that,http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/469418REG/Global_Solar_Energy_35125_SUNLINQ_Portable_Solar_Panel.html#specifications ,in 4 hours load a battery of 50Wh.There are other models in its web sunlinq ,of increased capacity, or you can use two or three panels.
Other interesting link for Independent batteries to power cameras, computers, .. and that can be charged with solar panel http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/503090-REG/Tekkeon_MP3450_MP3450_myPower_ALL_Universal.html#specifications
Ricardo Garcia.

thanks very much to all for your help and advice. an engineer is designing something to work with the brunton.

Not sure if it’s too late but if you guys at VII have the budget for an engineer to work on a custom setup, it might make sense to have him build an optimized setup instead of cobbling together off the shelf solutions. I used to work for one of the major “solar cell” manufacturers and found the thin film panels like the Bruntons to be very handy and durable but they aren’t very efficient. It all depends on how you are using it. If you are just going to be stationary in a remote location and the panels won’t be moving much, silicon solar cells might be a good idea. They are more efficient but not flexible like the Bruntons. Reflectors are also a good way to boost efficiency with minimal weight/complexity. Using a bank of Lithium Ion batts is also a good idea (more power density) vs the lead acid batteries most people use for PV applications. Make sure you test your inverter with your setup. Many of them run very different under load than the way they are spec’d, and will find out in the field that they cut out randomly.

thanks for the information.

Tommy, would that VII did have the kind of money to hire the likes of you! Alas, no way. Fortunately, an electronics manufacturer who has an interest in the subject area has taken this on.

I would also suggest looking into that ‘new-fangled’ commercial black silicon..

“‘Black silicon’ boosts solar cell efficiency”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/15/alternativeenergy

“Mazur said that photovoltaic (PV) cells using black silicon would significantly increase the efficiency of modern panels, the majority of which only convert around 8% of the energy falling on them into electricity. The very best convert around 20. He said that a black silicon wafer could approach the theoretical limit of converting around 30-40% of the energy falling on it into electricity.”

Black silicon is said to have more surface area, due to a spiked surface,
rather than that of regular ‘old-fashioned’ flat-surfaced silicon.

Correct me if I’m wrong.

it’s all good, pm, but still in R&D from what I hear…

http://www.sionyx.com/technology.asp

Neal, wish I were that valuable:)

Photovoltaics has a very long history of exciting announcements coming out of labs that never pan out in production. “Black silicon” looks interesting though, if it pans out it would be good for digital camera sensors also. Read somewhere that it could increase sensitivity by 100×. ISO 2,560,000?? LOL…

Forgot to mention, the ideal setup if you only want to charge this particular type of Sony battery is to have the panels setup to charge the Sony batteries directly. Much faster and more efficient than the typical convoluted off-the-shelf method of solar panel > battery bank > inverter > Sony charger > Sony battery. It may be a bit more complicated when dealing with “smart” batteries though since you might need to be able to communicate with the battery’s chip or bypass it.

Ron, I used these guys batteries while in Tibet…very knowledgeable about such ventures. They offer solar systems. Stuart is solid and would probably be willing to put something special together.

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