[ILUG] [OT] Solar Panels for laptop power supply

[Kae Verens]

Brendan Arthurs wrote:

>Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) using portable solar
>panels to charge and/or power a laptop? Any recommendations as to
>what's worth buying?
>
>I'm hoping to take my laptop (which is running linux) on a trip to
>South America which will involve spending several weeks in remote
>mountain locations without access to power. Carrying a diesel
>generator isn't really an option. 
>
>Since I'd only be using the laptop for an hour or so a day, the panels
>wouldn't neccesarily need to provide enough continual power to run
>directly from them, though that would be nice too. 
>
>I've googled around and there seem to be plenty available, though
>advice on a good supplier would also be welcome.
>  
>

I'm building a robot at the moment, so have been looking into this as well.

Komplett's shop has a handy car-battery charger going for about 129 euro 
(I drooled over it when I saw it in the shop over the weekend). I think 
it runs about 1.2A and 12V, so it's probably not enough to power a 
laptop straight out, but a charged car battery should keep a laptop 
going for about a week. You'll need to buy a voltage regulator, I think, 
which you can probably get at http://mini-box.com/

Kae