Solar Cell Phone Charger

[dwatson636]

I am thinking about adding some sort of solar usb charger for our cell phone and ipod on the bike. I know I could just do a connection to the battery and all would be well. But with the solar, It could be charging even when we were not riding with no drag off the battery. Anyone ever do this or have any thoughts?

Dave

[BigLenny]

Haven't, but that sounds like a really good idea!

 

Is there a product for that out there somewhere?

[dwatson636]

Just started doing some research. There are some portable solar cell units on the web. Not sure of the ruggedness for the bike. I would like it to be permanently mounted somewhere. And I want to be able to charge the iPod, cell phone and my Nolan helmet comm system.

That's why I threw this out to the crowd to see if any one had any ideas.

Dave

[dogman]

I bought one this past summer at Costco here in Canada. I kept it till almost Christmas and then returned it. I only used it a few times. I'm sorry I cant remember the name of it. It was a compact foldable solar panel advertised for back packers. $100 and what came with it was the solar panel, cables, 4 pack rechargable AA batteries and charger that pluged into the solar panel, not to a wall outlet. (this could be used to charge the phone when no sun was out and run a led light that came with it. One of the plugs also was a 12 volt connecter.

 

It worked well but I didn't use it like I thought I would and the battery charger only charged when hooked up to the solar panel which does take alot of hours to charge.

 

A great idea on a bike trip to charge phone or so I thought. I went on a bike trip this summer for a week and camped along the way. I never used it once. There was always electricity at the camp ground. Even when I camped in the Walmart parking lot I used there washroom late at night and charged my phone when I was getting ready for bed.

 

I still can't find the name of it from Costco, as it was a travelling show (seller) that was at a single Costco up north.

 

Good luck in your search

[Guest tx2sturgis]

If you plan on camping in the boonies for a week or more, this might work well. You would have all day to let the solar charger attempt to charge the phone.

 

The motorcycle battery has enough capacity to charge the cellphone dozens of times before it would be depleted, even if you didnt start and run the bike every day. So a wired-in connection is really the way to do this.

 

 

 

[zoey04]

hey guys just put in a USB double port charger on my 1988 venture it works great and hooks directly to battery. i put it on mainly for my gopro so i dont have to keep changing the damn batteries. cost me about $ 40.00 up here in Canada

[dwatson636]

I decided to go with the straight usb charger plug. I found a nice place right on the plastic behind my right butt cheek under the seat flap. Right by the battery and close enough to run a cable into the saddlebag to put the phone in side to charge.