Hi Zaphod,
I\'m no electronics expert, but I\'ve successfully used non-certified power supplies to charge up my Zaurus. I noticed that the rear of the Zaurus SL5500 states battery 3.7V 2.5W, and mains 5.0V 6.2W (for use with mains adapter EA-70 5V DC, 2A). This tends to suggest to me that the Zaurus will \'cope\' with voltages up to 5V (or slightly more) and ampages of up to 2 Amps (or slightly more).
A couple of months ago I bought a Compaq Ipaq car charger and chopped off the Compaq connector, then soldered on a small mains plug to fit the Zaurus power socket. This has been working fine for me to date.
Recently, I noticed a company selling a more professional serial port/usb/car charger on Ebay (their website is
http://www.pdaaddons.com/ ). So I\'ve ditched my home-made affair and adopted their one. This new cable sucks power from the pc\'s usb port (or car cigarette lighter socket) and has worked okay with my Zaurus.
I shouldn\'t really recommend non-official devices, but they have worked for me. Please be aware that you may be risking breakage of your Zaurus by using the solar charger, and if you are not willing to accept the consequences (e.g. a broken Zaurus) then don\'t experiment. For me, I keep all my data and recent backups synced onto pc, and held on an sd card in the Zaurus. I know a shop selling a couple of second hand Zaurii, so I can get back into action if all goes to pot, with the purchase of a replacement unit.
Regards,
edo.
