Solar Charging Phone

[Cherryb1510]

I was thinking about buying a solar or wind up phone charger as I am coming this year without my husband and want to make sure he can get hold of me.

I know last year they had the free Orange charge tent but don't really fancy having to sit in there for ages.

Do the Solar chargers actually work or are they a waste of money?

Edited April 27, 2010 by Cherryb1510

[psychology]

I was thinking about buying a solar or wind up phone charger as I am coming this year without my husband and want to make sure he can get hold of me.

I know last year they had the free Orange charge tent but don't really fancy having to sit in there for ages.

Do the Solar chargers actually work or are they a waste of money?

[Rhyscot]

Other than that suggestion ^, trying picking up a couple of batteries for your phone. Last year I went onto ebay and managed to get three extra batteries for a top of range phone for £7. I think it was £1.50 a battery. Then postage etc. Then charge them up and away you go

[LusciousLucy]

Solar chargers are good but what a lot of people dont realise is you are supposed to charge up the charger fully first then plug the phone in for the actual phone charging. You are not supposed to have the phone plugged in while the charger is sucking up sun. You dont get the right results.

Up in the Greenfields is a mega solar phone charger sale point. They sell extra booster cells as well as sets and spare parts for the chargers.

I personally favour the wee battery powered chargers. if you pack a reasonable stash of AAs you can keep your regular phone going nicely throughout the weekend.

Beware of cheap batteries on fleabay btw, they can be dangerous for your phone.

[r0cky]

Do the Solar chargers actually work or are they a waste of money?

Edited April 28, 2010 by r0cky

[ar1]

Having tried the solar panel think a couple of years back, I was caught out by buying one of ebay for £6 and thinking that it'd be the solution to all my phone charging issues - took ages to juice up and drew all the charge to the phone in about 10 mins.

My advice go for a reasonably expensive one or a couple of extra phone batteries.

[Ponyegg]

We did lots of experimenting with solar charges last year. Here's our findings NB: I was charging an Android G1 phone with a double capacity battery.

Firstly some rules if you're running a smartphone during the festival.

1] Turn off Bluetooth when not using that function

2] Turn off GPS when not using that function

3] Turn off 3G when not using that function

4] Turn off WIFI discovery

Seriously, the above will save you LOADS of power trust me, GPS & Bluetooth alone is a massive drain. OK, on to the field trials.

Freeloader (approx £30). 5/10

I charged this at home via the mains before we left, once at the site it gave my phone ONE full charge. I would then take any opportunity to charge the thing back up via solar but even with the sun last year it never managed to get past about 50%. The device is quite clunky and has lots of bits that you could easily lose I feel. it's also heavy (ell, heavier than anything else I tried)In my view it's a waste of money, you could probably buy 2-3 spare batteries for your phone (unless it's an iPhone in which case consider one of the external battery extenders). Don;t get me wrong, it did the business from the intiial charge BUT it was a pig to recharge.

Single AA Emergency charger (approx £5): 5.5/10

(similar to http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Emergency-Mobile-Pho...#ht_1203wt_940)

This is a simple device, plug a single (or in some cases two) AA battery into the unit, then use a connector to connect to your phone. In our tests this managed to keep the battery charged at the level it was, that is it didn't reduce the current charge in the phone's battery even when we used the phone to call or for internet/GPS etc. Only downside was it east batteries, upside is it's not bulky like the Freeloader, also much cheaper, but, again, consider buying spare batteries for the phone itself.

Solar Panel only (£5-£10): 7/10

Similar to http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/405mA-USB-Solar-Pane...item3cac959bf7)

I was really impressed with this device, I couldn't find the exact oner I bought on eBay but it was very similar to the link above. It weighs very little and you simply plug a USB cable from it directly into the phone. I would secure this to the back of my rucksack and lead the cable into a pocket then connect the phone to that. So when out and about the panel was always charging. It kept the phones battery from discharging, that is the power levels never dropped and if it wasn't being used would increase, though it would take approx 6-8hrs for a full 15%->100% charge (which is still better than anything else I've used). I'd say this gave consistently the best results, it was easy to use (strapped on outside of rucksack, stuck on side of tent or on dashboard of van) it was light, it was cheap (although one downside the USB connector on the panel could be better reinforced, I put some gaffer tape over it to protect it) and most of all it worked s advertised.

If there is one thing I would suggest though is to take a spare battery and use an extended capacity battery if possible (although this may require a different back to your phone). Also one downside is that each person would need one of these as you seem to spend your time with the phone constantly plugged into to it

This year we have decided to do things 'properly'. After my girlfriend had some issues with her car I bought one of these car jump-starter things: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/part...UMP-STARTER.htm

it has a 240v inverter & USB output on it. I charged my Blackberry from 0%-100% last night in 2hrs via USB and it used <5% (if not less) of the power-pack charge. We're taking this this year as we'll all (11 of us) be able to charge our phones with a USB hub up to about 4 at a time, it also comes with a pneumatic pump, so that's the inflatable beds sorted for everyone. With the 240v inverter we can also charge people's batteries and we're thinking about some little luxuries we can use the rest of the power with as well (offer to charge our neighbour's phones for free.., pass on the love and all that).

Hope that helps.

Edited May 4, 2010 by Ponyegg

[Cherryb1510]

Thanks everyone

[Madyokel]

Really good comparson there Ponyegg.

I'm a renewable (Battery power) engineer.

As you say Freeloader is good for 1 phone recharge..

This year I'm taking a smallish (12v7Ah) 1kilo battery..

Heavy you may think.. but this will blow up airbeds and recharge phones..

AAbatteries, fairylights all sorts..

Last years queue for the chill and charge tent was really tragic.

[guinevere]

I was thinking about buying a solar or wind up phone charger as I am coming this year without my husband and want to make sure he can get hold of me.

I know last year they had the free Orange charge tent but don't really fancy having to sit in there for ages.

Do the Solar chargers actually work or are they a waste of money?

[Lucanesque]

I've just bought one of these from Amazon, it's wind up, comes with a LED light (good enough to find your way around your tent!), good FM and AM reception, and as a random extra has a Nokia charging cable for charging your phone. Obviously relies on you having a Nokia!