Solar powered charger for Samsung S8?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Solar powered charger for Samsung S8?

silverbirch

275 posts

Ultimate Geek

#289830 1-Oct-2021 22:23

I'm likely to be away for several days in November, including being away from electricity.

I have read about these solar powered chargers and wondering if they're any good?

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/8000mah-weatherproof-power-bank-with-solar-recharging/p/MB3791?pos=3&queryId=a72fb1c8f153e8c8dbaab9c2b7b9575f&sort=relevance

Thanks

Rose

"Dance among the moonbeams, feel the magic in the air".

Registered Linux user #386597 http://counter.li.org/

timmmay

20574 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2787940 2-Oct-2021 05:46

You could just take advantage of the opportunity to reset yourself and get away from technology :)

I always thought a solar panel right on top of a battery is a bad idea. Charging warm batteries reduces their capacity quite quickly, and probably has some risk. But put it outside someone and don't expect it to last too long and it'll be fine. I ended up buying an 80W solar panel (which is too large to be portable) and some AGM batteries (heavy) for emergency use, but it's not at all portable.

I'd probably just buy a large battery pack without a solar panel and charge it occasionally. A 12,000MAh battery would charge your phone 2 or 3 times, and if you're away from civilization you probably won't use it much so just turn it off.

silverbirch

275 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2787943 2-Oct-2021 06:13

Thanks.

Yes did think about going off line for the time :-)

I might pop in to jaycar and ask what they recommend.

"Dance among the moonbeams, feel the magic in the air".

Registered Linux user #386597 http://counter.li.org/

timmmay

20574 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2787944 2-Oct-2021 06:20

The S8 has a 3000mah battery. A 20,000mah power bank like this one for $99 would charge it up 5+ times, and could be a useful backup for your house for emergencies. You shouldn't take LiIon batteries too low though, 30% would be my minimum - I charge my phone to 80% most of the time, and charge it when it hits 40%, after 16 months of use the battery is saying it's still 99% of rated capacity. That link is just to a random pack at Jaycar, I'm not saying that one in particular, but Jaycar stuff is usually fine :) It's different to order that kind of thing from overseas now, shipping batteries is risky.

Handle9

11386 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2787945 2-Oct-2021 06:22

That solar panel is rated for 160mA. If it was able to produce that for 8 hours a day, which it probably won’t, it would take 8.25 days to recharge the 8000mAh battery.

TLDR - total waste of time. Just buy a couple of batteries.

silverbirch

275 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2788679 3-Oct-2021 17:28

Thanks for the replies. I'll look into the jaycar thing, but we've missed out on the place we wanted to stay at unfortunately. I suspect we might be in for power cuts in the future so a solar back up would be good.

"Dance among the moonbeams, feel the magic in the air".

Registered Linux user #386597 http://counter.li.org/