So, I got bored today. Couldn't be climbing towers or pouring concrete, so I started on a few little solar projects that I've been planning and collecting for.

1. Portable solar electronics charging box.
A couple weeks ago, we had a power outage, and my wife called me while sitting in her car to charge the phone. So, I built this as a first round of a portable solar solution. I still need to add the 12VDC to 5VDC USB charging port, but that's on the way via Amazon.

I also have some supercaps coming from china, and I will play with using them and a buck/boost converter to replace the batteries. Supercaps can be drained to zero and brought back many thousands/millions of times, so they will will always work. They can't be killed by draining them too far. They also allow me to eliminate the solar controller, which makes it all the better. Once they all show up, I'll update this project to show what I'm planning.

This is a 10W 12VDC panel, and 2x 7.5AH 12VDC batteries with a Morningstar Sunsaver PWM controller.

0517171909 by ARNEWB, on Flickr