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Solar Charging for Backpackers


Alex Wierbinski's picture

By Alex Wierbinski - Posted on 28 September 2011

Having just received the GoPro Hero 960 I am left with having to make it useful for very long backpacking trips. The GoPro uses a cell-phone style 3.7V 1100 mAh Lithium Ion battery. 

This means that battery replacement at the resupply points down the trail is out. I must devise a solar charging set up to keep the GoPro charged up. I need to devise or buy a solar charger capable of charging the Li-Ion battery for the GoPro, as well as the AA batteries for my camera and headlamp.

It's about time. Digital photography and video shooting are battery-intensive activities. The ability to easily cycle batteries through the device and charger on the trail is far superior to carrying many heavy batteries on the trail. Carrying sufficient back-up batteries on the trail requires that you pick-up a new load of fresh batteries at every resupply point.

I have started collecting basic information and resources about what it takes to build a solar battery charger suitable for backpacking, but I have not started to figure out what this information means or how to actually build a solar battery charger for backpackers.

As I figure this out I will post my notes, instructions, and solar charger resources.

In the meantime, help me out!

If you have constructed your own backpacker solar charger, post up your notes, instructions and resources. 

Or, if you have purchased a solar charger suitable for backpacking, tell me about your store-bought solar charger. 

So far here's what I've got:

A possible Solar Kit: Adafruit Industries

Solar Panels:  Adafruit Industries

Parts: Adafruit Industries

Charger Construction Information: Instructables

Charger Construction Information: Sparkfun  

 

Commercial Solar Charger

Xsories Universal Solar Charger, from POV Cameras

 

This is information I've collected so far, to begin to inform myself about how to make a solar charger, and availability of parts.

If you have more information, please share it here, or post up your own forum topic here in this Gear>Camera section about chargers.

 

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