Solar Charging C860 Or 3000

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Has anyone set up a solar charger for the Zaurus. Most of the out of the box charges produce 5v at 500ma (OK for palms I believe). What would the impact of using a lower current on battery life/charging time be? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[V-Man]

As far as I know, the lower current would just take longer to charge.  The problem would occur if you are trying to use your Z at the same time as you are trying to charge it.  It would not get enough current to power it and charge it at the same time.  The charging circuit could become confused and cause the Z to either lockup or let the internal battery exhaust completely causing you to have to either soft or hard reset.

V-Man

[bluedevils]

hmmm...Someone can correct me, but two solar panels connected in parallel should be able to handle the load (1 amp).  You would have to put some SCRs in to prevent reverse flow from one panel to the next.

[jamesannan]

If the external power supply gives up and the internal battery is also exhausted, the Z can crash suddenly. Other than that, there is no problem from low power supplies - I have used 4xAA NiMH or solar charger with no problems (but not a great deal). Using the solar charger to fill up the AA cell is inefficient on power but can be more convenient.

James

[waalkman]

hmmm...Someone can correct me, but two solar panels connected in parallel should be able to handle the load (1 amp).  You would have to put some SCRs in to prevent reverse flow from one panel to the next.
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Yup, parallel and/or series is fine. You either increase the voltage (series) or increase the current (parallel). Or any combination of the two.

I think you mean diodes, not SCR's. And you really just need one so the you don't reverse bias the solar cell in the dark.


This is cute, all it takes is a small solar cell, a water cooler, and a large fresnel lense

[a href=\"http://www.spectrolab.com/DataSheets/TerCel/PV_Concentrator_Module.pdf]http://www.spectrolab.com/DataSheets/TerCe...ator_Module.pdf[/url]

[omega]

Smaller cells won't take longer. I have tried this setup in the past. The problem is that no load the regulated output from my panels was 5 volts. However when the charger switched in the output dropped. This results in a on-off-on-off blinking of the charger light which is not a good solution.

Using 4 NIMHs as an energy store over time for the panels is probably the best way to go with smaller panels, unless you have a panel which will do 5 volts (make sure you regulate it!) at 1amp.  BTW switching regulators are recommended...   Can turn 12volt 500mA into 5volts 1Amp.... good luck.