Suzanne from Solio stopped by for a visit today. She brought with her 1 of the 4 Solio H1000s available until the panels are released to retail shops in a week. I did a bit of a photo shoot with a Wheelgirl mug and my Chrome Dually backpack, so you could get a sense of the size of the panel.
The H1000 can be clipped to a backpack or bag, and you can charge your iPod, phone, camera, GPS while you are riding around. The cord that attaches the panel to you device is attached to the panel, so you don't really have anything extra to carry. It weighs 5.6 ounces (156 grams),which is about two candy bars. If you hang it off the back of your pack, you don't even notice it. It has been developed for search and rescue off-the-grid recharging. But it is expected to work just fine for those who are never more than 2 miles from a latte. I should be riding around with one soon.
I will carry Solio chargers in the shop as soon as they are available. The MSRP is $79.95. According to the Solio ad, the internal battery stores power for up to a year. If it is not sunny, you can charge it by plugging it into the wall. One fully charged H1000 will charge your cell phone or give you 10 hours of mp3 listening happiness. One hour of decent sun exposure give you 15 minutes of talk time or 40 minutes of mp3 music.
I like the idea of cyclists using solar instead of throwing away dumptrucks of Ikea, Duracell, or energizer batteries. I know it is cheaper to buy batteries, right now. And you can go to Costco or Walgreens and buy rechargeable batteries and a charger for $30 something. But with a solar panel that works with rechargeable batteries, you won't have to remember to pack your swim suit and your museum-quality portable electronics cord collection, and you will never have to climb, at least in California, without music again.(Hate that, really hate that.)
I talked with Suzanne about a case she plans to design to hold the H1000. The front will have a cut out for the panel and some small pockets in the back to hold the device you are charging, cell phone, iPod, camera, GPS. I expressed my wish that the back pockets to hold a couple of recharageable batteries with a charger that works with the panel while I am riding around aimlessly. (I know that there are several solar battery chargers on the market, Brunton makes one, but I want a slim, light, shatterproof, cool-looking one.)
Interesting facts: Since the Solio H1000 panel was tested by an engineer in England, and the English are not allowed to bear arms, the panel's polycarbonate face was deemed shatterproof by shooting at it with a BB gun. The panel is covered by same family of plastic Oakley puts in sunglasses, so if a rock flys up from a truck wheel, you can live to talk about it. Suzanne said that they have whacked it on desks and dropped it on the floor as much as possible. She demonstrated by whacking it on the handle bars of her bike, a green Shimano 105 Soma Smoothie.
The H1000 carabiner works fine for attaching the panel to your pack. (You wouldn't want to hang off a cliff face from it.) Solio will have a gazillion connector tips for the device, so you will be able to power whatever you want as long as the device can work with these specs:
Rechargeable battery 3.7V 1000mAh (Lithium ion)
Rated output 1.5 to 5 watts
DC input charge range 5-6 volts at 400 mA
Solar panel max output 0.6 watts
Dimensions 198 x 68 x 18mm
Weight: 156 gms
* Solio is releasing a Solio Mg Edition, a solar charger with a magnesium alloy shell for our friends who adventure and drop and smack everything against cliffs, trees, and ice. I will give you the skinny on that one when Suzanne visits again. It has a max. output rating of 8 watts, so it is basically good for not 1 but 2 cell phone charges or 20 hours of music.
I currently am using a Freeloader solar charger. I got it on Amazon for $70. It has a rechargeable li-ion battery, and it protectively stores the actual panels until you need them. You can charge it via USB or the sun. I got it because it comes with a tip that works with my older Samsung phone. There are some leds on it to show you when it is charging and charged. I haven't seen the green ones they talk about in the instructions. I've only seen red ones. But I charged my cell phone yesterday with the device, and I have some rechargeable USB batteries that I can use with it. The specs are as follows:
Mono/multi crystalline panel: 5.5V 120mA
Rechargeable li-ion battery: 3.7V 1000mAh
USB charging cable: 5V 500mA
DC output: 5.5V+/- 0.5% 500mA
Time required to charge a cell phone: 1 to 2 hours
Time required to charge the internal li-ion battery via USB cable: 2-3 hours
Time required to charge the internal li-ion battery via the solar panels: 5 to 6 hours
I like the design alot, but I can't smack it, drop it, or scratch it (according to the instructions). It is not suited to hanging on a backpack. It is suited to parking it somewhere out of harm's way. I once hung a camera on my backpack and smacked it again a Himalayan mountain. My advice: Don't do that.
On the same subject:
My goal this year is to get a bunch of people together and figure out if you can use a light-weight portable solar panel to recharge the li-ion batteries David of Fenix lights sells. I currently use a Fenix light with a CREE LED,the Fenix P1D light, as my bike commuter headlight. I love this teeny powerful light. I am talking crazy amounts of light in a shockproof package that is not as big as a lipstick, and I attach it to my bars with a hairband, no crazy specific mounting bracket. I never have to think twice as to whether I should take it; leave it on my bike; leave the charger at work; take a charger home. It is always in my pack. It weights 1.7 oz, not even half of a candy bar. Professor Philip at Cal told me about Fenix and this light (msrp $60.50) while we replaced most of his Colnago drivetrain with some sweet 2007 Campy Record Ultra-Torque componentry. But my great teeny light takes a small li-ion battery that can't be recharged. (The new P1DQ5 is out, and it is even more powerful than my P1D. But I will keep mine. I feel like I have a car headlight on my bike. I love the power of light.)
David has another light, the P3D msrp $61.50, that takes rechargeable li-ion batteries. So I want to use his light and rechargeables with one of the panels Solio will be releasing this year. I am going to write a post on Fenix soon. I am also going to have Fenix lights in the shop for the holiday season. Stay tuned.
