Homemade Solar Laptop charger

KMS Woodworks
by KMS Woodworks
My homemade solar laptop charging station was posted on a discovery channel website the other day...They include a link back to my blog page about it...but Also posted my video.
I noticed a spike in my blog traffic and found this article.
http://dsc.discovery.com/gear-gadgets/how-to-build-a-diy-solar-laptop-charger.html
My idea for this project evolved from our many road trips to remote and isolated places. I started to bring my laptop along for writing journal post etc. I have used the car adapter to charge the netbook while actually traveling but once we hit camp it seemed a bit wasteful to fire up the truck to charge things.
This charging station uses a 10 watt solar panel, a compact sealed gel battery and mini charge controller. The charge controller ensures that the panels output is regulated to match the demand in the battery. This allows for longer battery life. I did some basic modifications to allow me to add additional panels or batteries, via some banana plug ports. These ports also allow me to monitor voltages in various configurations.
We did some camping in Zion National park a couple of years ago and camped in the "generator free" section of the campground....That was Gasoline powered noisy generators....my solar unit was just the ticket. I used it every day to recharge the batteries for my digital camera...which is now its primary use on many of our trips.
power on the go
some of the internals
nearest wall plug?....about 30 mile north
KMS Woodworks
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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