Database Develop

Battery pack?

Can anyone recommend a decent external batter pack for on the go charging? I found this one below but it looks like the capacity is only ~2500 mah:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7927
Thanks for helping!

http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=166301 is 4400mAhr so its a bit better, I use one that is around 5400mAhr made by U2O http://www.gpsforless.co.uk/product_details.php?id=5490
which is good combination if used with the Athena - Mike

Here you have two good battery packs, one with 9600 mAh battery and 5.2v/1.25A output and another with variable voltage output, USB, 8800 mAh and up to 1.5A continuous amperage.
The first cost 60$ plus s&h, you can find it here:
http://www.tang-shop.com/universal-external-battery-powerbox.html
The second cost 89.95$ plus s&h and is here:
http://www.tang-shop.com/universal-external-battery-3685.html
The second battery is more expensive but have two outputs, one USB and one variable from 3.5 to 20v. I have the first and the battery have very much capacity and you can make four X7500 charges.

im using the neofree since a few month, and can say it proofs what it promises. it loads the advantage full even when you use it (a thing a lot of car chargers dont do). first i use it for inline skateing tours where the advantage is used to track the way with gps and play music, it makes my device last the hole day (before i have to change battery at least once a day). meanwhile i wont leave the house without it. i bought also some adapters to charge all my devices with it when im away from home.
regards mad

thanks for so many good suggestions! I've ordered the one that fits my needs. Thanks again!

10000mAh external battery

Did anyone ever see this?
www.amazon.com/New-Trent-Extreme-Pack-IMP1000-Blackberry/dp/B003ZBZ64Q
10000mAh? Powerful!

Haven't seen that one but I do have the Proporta USB Turbocharger 3400. It works great and supplies about a days worth of power - highly recommended.

Hmm...
'Ultra reliable Lithium-Ion battery, 600% iPhone 4 Battery life, 100% 3G iPad battery life'
so the iPad has a battery of 11000mA????? Don't think so.

I think these kinds of things are great if you're camping or traveling. The 3 reviews on Amazon would make me cautious until it's had more feedback.
One tends to learn as much from negative feedback as from positive feedback (especially since there are companies that get paid to give positive feedback).
Edit: Just found this at half the price:
buy ((REMOVE THIS PART)) .com/prod/energizer-8000mah-universal-battery-pack-w-ipad-tip/q/loc/111/216795526.html

I just got the device today, and as I will be out all night, I will make a field test report in the morning to report on it's performance.
First review: Barely pocket sized and heavy. A good indication
Capacity listed on back: 11,100mAh, 3.7V (41Wh)
Output: 5V, 1A
Input (charging): 5V, 2A

For 1/3rd the price, I just cobbled up a 2-D cell battery holder powered with 10,000 mAH Low-Discharge NiMH and wired them up to a circuit board that I puleld from one of those Energizer Pocket Chargers (the things they normall bundle with 2 AA Lithium Cells).
I bolted a belt clip on it, and I'm good to go-and in a pinch I can always slap in a pair of Alkaline D cells.

wazmo said:
For 1/3rd the price, I just cobbled up a 2-D cell battery holder powered with 10,000 mAH Low-Discharge NiMH and wired them up to a circuit board that I puleld from one of those Energizer Pocket Chargers (the things they normall bundle with 2 AA Lithium Cells).
I bolted a belt clip on it, and I'm good to go-and in a pinch I can always slap in a pair of Alkaline D cells.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never thought of that.
But an update on this product. Turns out, you can't leave it plugged in to the wall all the time. Mine died because of that. I sent it back and am awaiting a new one.
But the performance is really good on this thing. This thing sat through 12 hours of continuous use and wasn't near dead when I was done.

I use the PowerTraveller device which is pretty good. It holds almost twice the charge of the phone, and has been a lifesaver twice in my month-long owenership. The only flaw is that it does not seem to turn off if you unplug the phone = discharges if you forget.
That said, for £34.99, it is useful on the go.
http://www.amazon.com/Powertraveller-PowerMonkey-Portable-Charger-iPhones/dp/B0043X9IE4/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1288026378&sr=1-7

One of the reasons I avoid those LiOn packs is that when the battery packs die you're sorta screwed in trying to find replacement cells-and based on my experience, I've yet to see LiOn cells last more than 300+ charge/discharge cycles. That's why I still have as my primary Bluetooth headset a Motorola H300 that takes AAA cells. Sure it may not look sexy-but I don't have to pitch it when the cells crap out.

WOW! this is brilliant! could you please post a photo (kind of manual-type). What is the brand of your 2Ds? Aslo, could you please provide some review/technical feedback on how it behaves? How long it charges? how many full cyclescan it go for?
wazmo said:
For 1/3rd the price, I just cobbled up a 2-D cell battery holder powered with 10,000 mAH Low-Discharge NiMH and wired them up to a circuit board that I puleld from one of those Energizer Pocket Chargers (the things they normall bundle with 2 AA Lithium Cells).
I bolted a belt clip on it, and I'm good to go-and in a pinch I can always slap in a pair of Alkaline D cells.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I use AccuPower AccuEvolution low-discharge NiMH D cells:
http://www.amazon.com/AccuEvolution-Self-Discharge-NiMH-Cells/dp/B00124BN4U
The circuit board I ripped from the Energizer Energi-to-Go cell phone charger:
http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Ene...7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288832498&sr=1-7
Here's what the beast looks like cobbled together:
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The D-cell holder has a belt-clip bolted on to it. The circuit board from the energi-to-go is hot-glued on to the top of the battery holder. When the phone is plugged into the pack, the blue LED blinks through the hot-glue.
I expect that I'll get hundreds of cycles from the thing.
I have a smaller lash-up using two sets of AA cells wired in parallel. With the NiMH AA I get about 5-10 charge cycles using Sanyo eneloop AA's depending on the discharge of the phone.

thanks again
wazmo said:
I use AccuPower AccuEvolution low-discharge NiMH D cells:
http://www.amazon.com/AccuEvolution-Self-Discharge-NiMH-Cells/dp/B00124BN4U
The circuit board I ripped from the Energizer Energi-to-Go cell phone charger:
http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Ene...7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288832498&sr=1-7
Here's what the beast looks like cobbled together:
The D-cell holder has a belt-clip bolted on to it. The circuit board from the energi-to-go is hot-glued on to the top of the battery holder. When the phone is plugged into the pack, the blue LED blinks through the hot-glue.
I expect that I'll get hundreds of cycles from the thing.
I have a smaller lash-up using two sets of AA cells wired in parallel. With the NiMH AA I get about 5-10 charge cycles using Sanyo eneloop AA's depending on the discharge of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks again for detailed explanation! I will try to get the "ingredients" and try to assemble on my own.
I had an urge of buying Energizer Energi-To-Go before, but then i learned that it cannot be used with rechargeables. Is it true?
Correct me if I am wrong with following "naive" calculations - 2 D cells 10000 mAh, 1.2 V each as source and 1280 mAh, 3.7 V HD2 battery as a subject. Assuming the conversion efficiency is somewhere around 80% one gets 0.8x(2x10000x1.2)/(1280x3.7) = 4 for number of full charges of dead empty HD2.
Is it what you experience? (actually that is what i meant under query for number of cycles)

Having ordered from newtrent before, I can say the IMP products work well. I bought one for a collegue, she got 3 full charges off her IMP500 before having to recharge the battery.
They're decent products, well packaged and they do give a decent battery life.

lusjash said:
Thanks again for detailed explanation! I will try to get the "ingredients" and try to assemble on my own.
I had an urge of buying Energizer Energi-To-Go before, but then i learned that it cannot be used with rechargeables. Is it true?
Correct me if I am wrong with following "naive" calculations - 2 D cells 10000 mAh, 1.2 V each as source and 1280 mAh, 3.7 V HD2 battery as a subject. Assuming the conversion efficiency is somewhere around 80% one gets 0.8x(2x10000x1.2)/(1280x3.7) = 4 for number of full charges of dead empty HD2.
Is it what you experience? (actually that is what i meant under query for number of cycles)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Older NiMHs cells probably don't have the same load characteristics as the low-discharge cells do-I have used low-discharge cells with the stock energi-to-go and can usually get 2 cycles depending on the state of charge of the phone. However, my Nokia N900 does need a higher input voltage to kick the circuit over-in that case I slap one alkaline and the NiMH and all is well.
I usually don't let the phone get to a complete dead state-that tends to make charging much more challenging. What I have done is I created a cutout in my case where I can connect the headphones and power.

220.000 mAh ext. Battery
More Power ... HAR - HAR - HAR:

karendar said:
Having ordered from newtrent before, I can say the IMP products work well. I bought one for a collegue, she got 3 full charges off her IMP500 before having to recharge the battery.
They're decent products, well packaged and they do give a decent battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the IMP100/880E. over 24 hours and it's still not dead
hellraiser-rh said:
More Power ... HAR - HAR - HAR:
View attachment 434354
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's called **** bricks power

Ya mean Varta actually still lives? Last time I saw a Varta-manufactured cell it was at an IKEA store-now even they went with Chinese-manufactured cells.
Too bad-they could have gone to an American-made battery-Panasonic!

wazmo said:
Ya mean Varta actually still lives? Last time I saw a Varta-manufactured cell it was at an IKEA store-now even they went with Chinese-manufactured cells.
Too bad-they could have gone to an American-made battery-Panasonic!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're damn right, Varta is down the drain.
But it was the firts pic i found
This will also be needed for extreme ext. Power Supply:

This one is the best choice you can make

romskii said:
This one is the best choice you can make
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now if we can figure out how to generate power from the wheel: Lucy 4.0 has spun her wheel 360+ km in 430 days per www.hamstertracker.com...

Buy yourself a cheaper battery: using lower amp batteries with the Nexus S

I have always thought that the amperage of a battery made no difference to the voltage due to the factory adjusting the internal resistance of the battery. Amperage I understood was measured in current, however, which does have an effect on overall voltage.
Recall:
V = I * R
With electronics, it is my understanding that the mAh battery doesn't matter as long as the voltage is the same, although you'd get less longevity out of a 1650 mAh vs a 1440 mAh.
Thus, I believe this battery would work. Thoughts? The part number matches exactly what was in my Nexus S and the batteries look identical. If this is the case, save yourself some money buy not searching Nexus S battery and instead searching ab653850ca in eBay instead of paying $30-$40 for a new/replacement Nexus S battery when they are the same thing.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-OEM-SAMSUNG...Accessories&hash=item3a5dd479e2#ht_1287wt_900
Thoughts? Both are 3.7 volts.

mAh is a unit of electric charge, not current (notice the 'h' making it milli-Ampere-hour). So, yes, a lower mAh battery will definitely work, but it will last less time.
Also (just trying to explain better) a battery is not a "powered resistor", so the relationship between its voltage and its current is not just ohm's law (the one you recall). More specifically, the 3.7 volts is due to the chemical reaction inside the battery and is more or less fixed (although it decreases as the battery discharges). The current flowing is basically a function of the load of the battery, so it changes according to what parts of the phone are working at that moment. The output resistance of the battery is a formal way of describing how close the battery is to an ideal voltage source and is not related to the amount of current it's actually providing.
Sorry if I was not clear enough, it's late here!

Missed the h. Not sure why, I see mA all the time and I just missed the h. Interesting and helpful. Thanks man. Clear to me.

That's strange, if it is the same model (AB653850CA), why is it only 1440mAh? But I'm sure it will work.

All I know is that this Samsung Moment battery I got off of Amazon for $6 is almost as good as my stock battery.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

The 1440mAh batteries work perfect, I have 2 of them. While you are at it, buy a wall charger to charge them in so they will charge to 100%. Having 2 spares means you will always have a FULLY charged battery to pop in and never have to tether the phone to a charger. Plus you get 2 to 4 extra hours of use.

Very informative!

turbodroid said:
Plus you get 2 to 4 extra hours of use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean by that ? That the 1440 mAh battery only gives you 2-4 hours ? I doubt it lasts so little time. I hope it doesn't.

No he means charging the batteries in an external charger gives them a more complete charge as I find the same thing. I've got 2 genuine batteries and a third on the way and the external charger charges them to 100% whereas the phone only charges them to around 95%. The batteries charged in the external charger last longer than those charged in the phone.

Hard to know when you're legitimately getting a battery with "more capacity" though, so I just assume I'm always buying another stock battery anyways.

maltloaf said:
No he means charging the batteries in an external charger gives them a more complete charge as I find the same thing. I've got 2 genuine batteries and a third on the way and the external charger charges them to 100% whereas the phone only charges them to around 95%. The batteries charged in the external charger last longer than those charged in the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I got it, thanks !
Anyway, for 6$, I think I'm going to buy one, too. Coupled with the 2nd battery dock, it should work flawlessly.

Hey guys,
I went ahead and ordered one of these too. I noticed that the Watts/hour is 5.55 on the Nexus S battery but on the battery I ordered (but have yet to get in) it says 5.3. Is this going to make a difference outside of how long the battery lasts?
If you guys buy one of these 1440s report back with what you've found out.
And if this is a success, then please urge XDA to sticky this thread or put this on the main page. Paying $50 for a second/replacement Nexus S battery is outrageous, and if this saves my fellow XDA members $45, more people should know about this. :]
UPDATE:
Looks like turbodroid already ordered these and said they work great! Thanks guys! Thank me if this was helpful.

NC solar charger setup

One of the main reasons I got a NC was for being able to have on hand lots of useful books for TEOTWAWKI or SHTF and also was concerned about recharging it after services are interrupted or go down for long periods of time.
Here is the basic setup that will also be used to charge AA/AAA and 123 batteries:
Sunlinq 12W folding Solar Panel
http://www.globalsolar.com/en/products/portable-solar-chargers/commercial/12-watt.html
This actually puts out 15 volts and close to 1 amp and has a car cigarette lighter type outlet adapter.
Champtek USB Car Charger Kit
http://champtekinc.com/champtek/CC-210.html
This is rated at 5v 2.1 amps output.
I have only tested this once and it appears that there is enough current being generated to have the N on the plug glow orange and the NC indicate it is being charged. Going to have to do a test to compare charging time compared to regular house current.
I think I will eventually add a 4000 mah external battery since that can be used for more than just backup power for the NC.

Looking forward to seeing the results! How large/heavy is that solar panel?

The specs on the sunlinq 12W are:
folded: 9" x 5" x .7"
open: 29" x 17.5" x .03"
weight: .7 lb
I bought it about 3 years ago for around $150. There is a 25W version, but it is much bigger and cost around $350.
One of the backpacking magazine writers tested out a unit during a trip to Alaska and it suffered no ill effects of freezing, thawing, and rain while strapped to top of a tent.

I was also thinking about solar powering
but in the more cheap side of things
I'm actually installing this in a car ( rear deck probably )
so I don't care about weight and even size much
What do you think about this ?
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/0...boost-a-solar-power-charger-for-your-gadgets/
Could this work? Maybe 2 panels connected in parallel?
I live in Israel and we get 10+ good sun hours a day here

Cool stuff. I also use my nook while backpacking/geo-caching. I live in michigan though, and even when we have sun, it's not that much for a solar charger. I'm looking into getting one of the fuel cell chargers, like the SiGNa's mobile-H2. here's a write up about it, http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/just-add-water-to-recharge-batteries.ars .
They said they're going to launch with a 5watt/hr one first. which is not really enough for the nook color. I'm hopeful though. With the success of the ipad(lol I know dirty word around these parts) and android tabs. I would expect a larger, more like 15 or 20watt/hr, device to be released. Best part is, any water will work even the yellow kind.
Hydrogen fuel cell tech is the real future of energy. We just need to find the right catalyst. (also china needs to stop hoarding rare earth metals) A 10% hydrogen recovery rate and non reusable catalysts, just won't cut it.
Sent from my Nook Color using Tapatalk pro

Dj-Gutz said:
I was also thinking about solar powering
but in the more cheap side of things
I'm actually installing this in a car ( rear deck probably )
so I don't care about weight and even size much
What do you think about this ?
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/0...boost-a-solar-power-charger-for-your-gadgets/
Could this work? Maybe 2 panels connected in parallel?
I live in Israel and we get 10+ good sun hours a day here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not an electrical engineer and only took a basic electronics class way back in high school (I have forgot most of it) so some of the things I say may not be completely accurate.
The thing with solar panels is that you have to match the panel output to the device you want to charge. There are lots of nice looking small solar chargers on the market, but if you read the small print the charge times can become ridiculously long.
I have seen small cheap china made solar battery chargers that state 3v at 200ma (if this is even accurate). This would be fine for directly running a small portable radio, but for charging 2 AA batteries it would take a very long time. The new generation of low self-discharge nickel-metal hydride AA batteries have capacities of up to 2500 mah. Using this cheap charger would take over 12 hours for just 2 these batteries.
I am estimating that the sunlinq (rated output 800ma, but I have measured close to 1a) should charge a NC (4000 mah battery) in about 5 hours.
The device in the article you mentioned I think could only be used to trickle charge a NC but only to about 25% capacity.
It would be great if someone with more electronics knowledge could add his opinions here.

Cheap solar power for my phone
So actually I figured out how to charge my vibrant with solar power on the cheap. I think solar cells with integrated batteries are a waste since the device being charged already has a battery, so why waste money/current?
The solar panel cost $25. I thought the specs were too good to be true, but solar panels are better than they used to be. The panel turned out to be exactly as advertised.
Assuming the Nook can charge with 400-700mA of current, this should work for the nook too: http://taras-log.blogspot.com/2011/05/cheap-solar-power-for-my-phone.html
These panels are about the size of a small tablet, apparently one can also cut them down to size. I hack that I want to see is where someone replaces the tablet backcover with a solar panel. Imagine a nook that never has to charge while outside . I would love to have my Nook Simple Touch modified this way, but I'm afraid that's beyond my machining abilities

Imbroglio said:
I am not an electrical engineer and only took a basic electronics class way back in high school (I have forgot most of it) so some of the things I say may not be completely accurate.
The thing with solar panels is that you have to match the panel output to the device you want to charge. There are lots of nice looking small solar chargers on the market, but if you read the small print the charge times can become ridiculously long.
I have seen small cheap china made solar battery chargers that state 3v at 200ma (if this is even accurate). This would be fine for directly running a small portable radio, but for charging 2 AA batteries it would take a very long time. The new generation of low self-discharge nickel-metal hydride AA batteries have capacities of up to 2500 mah. Using this cheap charger would take over 12 hours for just 2 these batteries.
I am estimating that the sunlinq (rated output 800ma, but I have measured close to 1a) should charge a NC (4000 mah battery) in about 5 hours.
The device in the article you mentioned I think could only be used to trickle charge a NC but only to about 25% capacity.
It would be great if someone with more electronics knowledge could add his opinions here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My nook will be in deep sleep as long as the car not running ( I drive about 0.5-1 hour a day , maybe more on weekends but it shouldn't matter much )
And when the car is running it will be charging via 2A charger
What I'm hoping is to eliminate the need for the charger when I can ( it will be left plugged in for shady days etc of course )
So it doesn't have to charge it @ full current , 5 hours is probably perfect...
But it's pricey for me..
toolong said:
So actually I figured out how to charge my vibrant with solar power on the cheap. I think solar cells with integrated batteries are a waste since the device being charged already has a battery, so why waste money/current?
The solar panel cost $25. I thought the specs were too good to be true, but solar panels are better than they used to be. The panel turned out to be exactly as advertised.
Assuming the Nook can charge with 400-700mA of current, this should work for the nook too: http://taras-log.blogspot.com/2011/0...-my-phone.html
These panels are about the size of a small tablet, apparently one can also cut them down to size. I hack that I want to see is where someone replaces the tablet backcover with a solar panel. Imagine a nook that never has to charge while outside . I would love to have my Nook Simple Touch modified this way, but I'm afraid that's beyond my machining abilities
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I actually looked at that solar panel before , good to know that it's as described , Ill defiantly consider it so thanks
What happens when the battery is full and it's connected? Does it drain it?
Looks like the setup in the link I posted earlier got some kind of circuit to keep it from draining the battery - Or does it only happen because of the charger battery? ( seems so electricity wise but I don't have any experience with solar panels and I don't know if they can draw power as well )
Also , can I hook 2 of these in parallel to achieve more current?
Thanks ( Sorry for "taking over" this thread Imbroglio , Let me know if you want me to open a separate thread for my setup )
Edit :
I just saw the "update" on the link you posted , Looks like it's draining the battery in the shade
I'll be following his thread to see if there is any progress on this issue
Quick link : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=15413618#post15413618
If it doesn't resolve using software maybe we can just see how to incorporate the circuit from the setup I posted with this panel ( My guess it shouldn't be hard )

I'm in the process of making a solar panel for my gadgets (not enough for NC yet, but for my G1, camera, etc, it does the trick). You need some diodes to ensure the current doesn't go the other way.
Also, if you want some regulation of voltage and power to the device (in case you are doing it all on your own with panels off ebay, etc), you should get a voltage regulator and toss some resistors in their for the right current.

I found this tool in android modaco forums :
http://android.modaco.com/topic/333406-usb-charging-commander/
github : https://github.com/t0mm13b/USBChargeCommander
On my HD2 CM7 it doesn't work , please check it on the NC CM7 if you can
I don't have my nook yet
If it works it should take care of that issue
If not , maybe we can go through the source and make it work on the nook
*Side Note : on CM7 - the charging animation should still be showing , but spare parts should say on the battery info discharging

So as far as i can tell the diode that the cell comes with is sufficient to prevent drawing current from the phone. Problem is the circuitry in the phone is stupid and doesn't shut off when it sees insufficient current. I suspect that since the phone thinks it's charging, it is turning on extra circuitry which itself consumes power. Thus the power drain.
Solar cell provides a stable 5V whether it's providing 0 or 600mA, so you don't need a voltage regulator... And you can't use a voltage-based regulator to build a circuit to shut off charging when the current gets too low.
I don't see why you wouldn't be able to hook these up in parallel. Should work fine.
I looked at the source code for the Vibrant battery driver. It can certainly turn off charging in software. Just need a slight kernel mod to expose that via /sys. Looks like zte blade already does it. I dont see why the nook can't do the same. I don't know if the Nook can report the current level.

On the xda thread the guy says he can see the current in /sys/devices/platform/jupiter-battery/power_supply/battery/batt_chg_current
On my hd2 this is the path for example /sys/devices/platform/htc_battery/power_supply/battery/batt_current
so just look for similar path names
can you check this on your nook?
you can use root explorer , just long click on the file and open in text editor
Edit :
I actually noticed I'm not getting the charging current on the HD2 , but the current the device uses in general which I don't think can determine whether it should stop the charging based on that value alone
any thoughts?

I finally got a chance to test everything out.
The first test was yesterday with the NC at 72%. Time was 6 pm pst. No overcast sun was at about 40-45 degrees on the horizon. Charging indicator was on and I let it sit for 20 minutes and when I brought the NC out of sleep mode, it was responding erratically. Battery Spy would lock up completely. Everything was fine after reboot, but no increase in battery %. The same thing happened after allowing another 10 minutes of charge time. My multi-meter is not working so I could not get a reading of how much the solar panel was putting out. My guess is that the problem was due panel being used too late in the day and the car adapter wanting to put out 2.1 amps made for an unhappy NC.
Today I tried out the setup at 1:00 pm pst. No overcast sun directly overhead. Charging indicator was on and Battery Spy or the NC did not exhibit the same problems as yesterday. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to let it sit and charge and was just testing the NC while it was plugged in. It appears that the car charger/NC combination has to be used during the sun's peak hours, probably from 11-4 pm.
More testing is needed. If the problems persist, I may have to change to a 1 amp car charger or resort to charging an external battery.

Why not use a solar charger with an integrated battery?

Got some free time...
So, I finally got some time today to wire mine up all proper-like. A few things to note (so I do not get 1000's of "you're an idiot/should have done it this way/etc").
I did not want to carry any more extra stuff, so external battery (maybe later)
This will mostly be used for my cell phone/camera/etc, so 5V/.5A was the goal for output
I'm going to try and find a cheap case today to put it all in
This will not charge an NC while on. Only off, and at a very slow rate. See second comment.
To make work well with the NC, just add more in parallel/get a larger panel.
Anywho, I bought 2x solar panels from ebay (each at 300 mA, 6V). Tossed them into parallel (for 6V, 600 mA), then dug out some resistors and got a few LM317T voltage regulators. Since most devices have (or hopefully have) a circuit that cuts off at a certain voltage, I needed to control the output voltage to ensure I would have a charging device regardless of brightness (The panels ended up putting over 7V out).
The LM tends to have a volt or so drop through it, so I targeted 6V out (using this).
Soldered some stuff, wired it together, testing it without load with a multimeter, and finally plugged in the NC (after testing it with my G1).
I know you can't see **** with the pictures (the N glowing orange or the charging lightning bolt, but it was there).
Woohoo!
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ace7196 said:
So, I finally got some time today to wire mine up all proper-like. A few things to note (so I do not get 1000's of "you're an idiot/should have done it this way/etc").
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very cool setup. It looks like those panels are about the right size to attach to a rigid backing and onto the side of a notebook case.
I came across a video on youtube where a guy is reviewing an solar charger with battery setup called PowerMonkey eXplorer.
https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/primatepower/powermonkey-explorer/
Much of the company's product line is meant to be used outdoors and exposed to the elements. The eXplorer has a 2200mah battery and the solar panel outputs 200ma so you are looking at around 11 hours in direct sunlight. Given that the NC has a 4000mah battery it would only give about a 50% charge.
The PowerMonkey eXtreme looks alot more suitable for the NC.
https://powertraveller.com/iwantsome/primatepower/powermonkeyextreme/
9000mah battery and 2.1 amp output! The drawback is that it appears the solar panel is just a bit more larger than with the eXplorer unit. If it puts our say 400ma it is still going to take around 24 hours of direct sunlight to get a full recharge.
I am still going to stick with what I have right now though and maybe look into getting an external battery to charge instead of trying to run the solar panel directly to the NC.

External Battery Pack

For those that want to be sure they can make long trips without running down their battery, try this battery pack. Packs with only about 10% of this capacity sell at this price. 30000mah for less than $25. Notice that that is 30000 and not just 3000.
I won't guarantee their stated capacity, but I'm still trying to run down the one I got last week. Once I succeed in getting it discharged to the point where the internal N7 battery takes over, I'll post the result.

It's from China, I doubt very much that the actual rating is even close to the 30000mAh stated.
Also I see from the label that they say 5v input and 5v out?? it's not possible to fully charge a 5v battery with a 5v charger, the input voltage needs to be higher.
Looking at the sellers negative/neutral feedback most of the complaints seem to be about cheap and shoddy items which doesn't bode well for what you'd get.

Troute said:
It's from China, I doubt very much that the actual rating is even close to the 30000mAh stated.
Also I see from the label that they say 5v input and 5v out?? it's not possible to fully charge a 5v battery with a 5v charger, the input voltage needs to be higher.
Looking at the sellers negative/neutral feedback most of the complaints seem to be about cheap and shoddy items which doesn't bode well for what you'd get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ipads are made in China. So what? 5v in and out is done all the time via internal switching PS. If you buy one and test it, then your opinion of "shoddy items" might count. As it is, I am testing it and so far the results are quite impressive.

To give you some real world data to work with, I have a 10,000mAh battery pack which will charge the N7 from about 30% to full twice with a bit left over, it's an Anker Astro 3 and quite big which it needs to be to pack in 10 Amps. Once you've had a chance to test yours maybe you can post the results here.

Troute said:
To give you some real world data to work with, I have a 10,000mAh battery pack which will charge the N7 from about 30% to full twice with a bit left over, it's an Anker Astro 3 and quite big which it needs to be to pack in 10 Amps. Once you've had a chance to test yours maybe you can post the results here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds about right for a 10A pack. I'm still testing mine but I only use it when I'm out. So far, active reading time only amounts to about 4 hours. The tablet has been on for several days but most of the time in sleep mode. So far the battery pack still only has the first of the four LEDs blinking. I'll be using it for several hours today and I'll see what that shows.
As I said, I use it primarily for reading when I'm out but during that time wifi, MagicJack and Groov IP are all running and I do some browsing.
edit: Update. So far the N7 has been on for about a week with about 16hrs of actual use. The battery pack LEDs indicate it still has half charge. I'm quite happy with it.

Hi,that seems to be a cool pack,any new feedback?