[pct-l] Solar panels

[shane wohlken]

Craig,

I hiked the entire trail with Brunton's SolarPort
4.4 (you can find info here:
http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=280). This
may not be the best solution for those who are
ultra-lite backpacking, but I found the weight
reasonable and its operation perfect.  I always
had four rechargable batteries in my digital
camera, and four in the rapid charger and never
once had a moment with no juice.  Under canopy I
simply whipped out the panel during breaks, and
placed it in a sunny spot, but in wide open
spaces, I rigged the panel on the top of my
backpack.  If I was in sun all day, I could
charge all four batteries by the end of the day,
but if I was under canopy it might take up to a
week to finish up a charge (which was fine, since
my batteries in my camera lasted up to two weeks
or more, depending on use).

Hope this is helpful,

Shane
The Gimp '05

P.S. I did not carry any other electronics, so I
can't comment on GPS/cell phone/PDA/etc. useage.
_____________________________________________

Greetings!
	Next year I plan to carry a custom GPS unit and
a camera that takes  
AAs rather than 'camera batteries' so that I can
easily purchase new  
ones along the way. However the GPS unit lasts
only 16-20 hours on  
four AAs and I don't want to lug 3lb of batteries
with me the whole  
way so I'm looking to solar power for a solution.
I like the idea of  
the Solio iPod charger, because it has it's own
built in battery, so  
if it is gathering more energy than it is giving
out it can store  
some up for the times I'm in the shade or night
hiking. Butt it also  
looks like the cells are pretty small compared
the object size so I'm  
still looking for alternatives. Does anyone here
have a  
recommendation for fairly light solar cells that
could sit on top of  
a pack and make use of all those wonderful UV
rays?

Cheers,
	Craig


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com