On the water charger

When I went to BAM in NorCal I found a problem w/ roadtrip yakfishing, there's things that need to be recharged but not always a place to charge them at when camping. I found this solar charger at REI and wish I had bought it a long time ago.

I think it'd be a great thing to put on the dash of your car so it stays nice and juicy and then throw in your tackle box or clip it on the deck when you go out on the water. That way if anything like your GPS or cell crap out on you, you'll have always have some backup juice.

Z

Specs are a bit hard to read, but I don't think that thing puts out enough juice to be practical for a fishfinder battery pack.  The internal battery is 3.7V 1000 mAh.  Your minimum FF battery is 12V at 2-3000 mAh.

I've actually been thinking about looking for solar options for FF battery recharging.  Or go to the new school batter supply and be able to charge 8-10 AA batteries in one day while fishing with another set.   Swap every day.

Anyone have any pointers?

-Allen

I actually meant for it to be a recharger for pretty much everything except the FF. Like a GPS, cell phone or something. The FF would be great but like you said, nothing really affordable puts out the power a FF needs.

Z

Sure there are affordable 12V solar chargers out there.

Here's a 300 mA 12V charger for $40.  In 10 hours you can charge a 12V enough for at least a days worth of use.

http://factorylawnandgarden.com/product/551242/B000CPC3RQ/Coleman_Solar_4_5_Watt_12_Volt_Deep_Cycl/

Quick research led me to find out this works fine for gel cell, although it's not really very weatherproof as claimed.  But I'm sure there are other affordable alternatives that would fit the bill.

-Allen

I think it was an REI site ,I saw a solar panel that you could drape over your back pack and collect energy all day to be used at night when needed.MMMMM......

If you were going to go the NiMH AA route, you could probably make a 2200mAhr(@12V nominal) with a series string of 10 batteries. A series string of C size NiMH would get you up to 3700-4000 mAhrs. Then you would need a charge controller designed specifically for NiMH batteries.

You could also go the Lithium Polymer route with a smaller, lighter battery pack. Then again you would need a charge controller specifically designed for LiPo. The RC car and plane hobby centers have chargers for NiCd, NiMH and LiPo set-ups. Some are designed to handle all three and can even connect to your vehicles 12V battery or alternatively a solar panel of sufficient size. Keep in mind that a non-regulated "12V" solar panel can have an open circuit voltage of around 20V, so any connected electronics need to be able to handle this.

A sealed lead acid motorcycle battery (which I guess you guys are using now) is probably still the most bang for the buck IMHO.


-Bill-

These are cool, but if you are car camping (or camping near your car), also consider a cheap power inverter.  I have a Black and Decker 300 watt inverter stashed under the seat of my Jeep... plugs into the cigarette lighter plug and works great.  Had to charge AA's for a digital camera last weekend... just plugged my battery charger into the inverter, turned it on, and let the batteries charge while I drove to the next spot.