I recently bought this from a place called Jaycar Electronics for about $34 on sale. This is Australia’s equivalent of Radio Shack. It is a 500 mA solar powered USB charger with a nice large solar panel and lots of options for strapping it onto your backpack.
In full sunlight this solar panel charges my cell phone quite rapidly. It has four LEDs to show its charging status right on the front of the panel.
The solar panel comes with a package in the back with webbing which holds it. The package has all the charging ends you need for most common cell phones. It also has a standard USB output so you can use your own existing cable for the device you want to charge.
This will charge anything you throw at it as long as it can take 500 mA charging current max.
There is a long strap on the solar panel with a bunch of snaps for connecting it to your backpack. There are also some reinforced ring holes to fasten it with rope or string.
So far in my testing it seems to be rugged enough. I have used it for a day trip to the city and kept my cell phone connected to it as I walked. The solar panel survived 10 hours of jostling and running around through people, attractions and traffic.
I will keep testing this panel in the coming days and weeks. But it looks like its going to make it on my bug out bag when I get back to the US.
For those who are interested this is a Powertech Plus MB-3593 outdoor solar panel charger.
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Post time: May-23-2017