Lessons in Solar and Electronics

Thanks for the feedback on using 2 watts. It seems many here go for at least 5 watts.

My experience is that solar is not very useful without a battery pack.

Yes, a 5 watt would be much better, and a battery pack would make a solar panel twice as useful. My goal was just to have SOME power at a very light weight.

Basically, if you NEED power, get an appropriately large battery pack and maybe supplement it with solar, but don’t bet on the sun. The sun doesn’t care about your camera battery. But if you think solar is a neat idea and are very flexible with your power requirements, direct charging with solar can be pretty cool.

Also i should clarify that i have been incredibly spoiled when it comes to sunlight. I used the panel in 3 states 1) April/May  in high desert Nevada, with clear skies and blazing sun. 2) June/July in Alaska with as much as 18 hours of usable sunlight. 3) Aug-Nov framing houses in Utah, fixed to my fall protection harness to charge my speaker all day.
If i had tried to use the panel last winter in Olympia, WA, i might have a different opinion of how useful it is.

And finally, a shameless plug. Voltaic has a slick modular approach to solar and high quality, durable and lightweight products at a reasonable price. You pick the size of panel, the battery pack, the cords and tips to fit ANYTHING, and the mounting options. The Neodymium Magnets are a brilliant mounting solution. My 2w panel is invincible and weighs under 4oz. Its totally waterproof, and if you somehow scratch the coating on the panel, it actually heals itself in a good hot sunlight.

Thanks for the pointer to Voltaic. How do they compare to the GoalZero products? Their lower-wattage kits seem heavier, but that’s probably just because the GoalZero ones are more minimalist.

I think goal zero is mickey mouse REI stuff. Like batteries with built in led lights and single-purpose solar flashlights. Maybe its just the Ryobi color scheme that throws me off. Looks to me that voltaic is still lighter. Idk, its close enough. My panel is invincible though, i could frisbee it across a parking lot and not sweat too much. It’s a quarter inch thick sandwich of Aluminum/Plastic/Aluminum with the solar panel laminated on one side and the clear coat poured over. Some day i will try to talk them into making me a panel with a honeycomb carbon laminate body at 1/3 the weight. ;) I’m sure the actual solar cells and electronics are no more than .5oz of the 3.7oz total weight of my panel…..which makes me sad.

I took a look at the magnet mounts. How did you use them? Did they securely hold the panel in place even when backpacking over tough terrain?

Are you mounting a Voltaic panel? With the built in studs? I had initially just melted holes in the lid of my pack and bolted the panel on directly. So since i already had the holes, i bolted steel washers on the outside of the pack. I put washers on both sides and glued it together. And i sewed a little headphone port in the lid for the cable. It would probably hold even with the washers glued to the inside.
Doing it that way was far too complicated, i should have just glued little metal discs (like metal junction box knockouts) to the outside. I’m quite sure that would hold.
The magnets hold plenty well for the little panel. Even if i jump and my pack kinda snaps/whips one way or the other. On a big jolt i can hear the connections jump and click back in place, but i have never had the panel fly off and if it did it would be ok even if it bounced down a cliff into a creek.

I can plug my phone into the panel and hang both from a single corner on a nail head in a telephone pole (gently, but it does work). They are strong. I was worried more about the magnets destroying electronics…..but they have not, yet. I don’t want to thoroughly test that out.

Voltaic also sells plastic corner tie-outs that bolt directly to the panel.