Brunton Explorer Folding Solar Panel Charger Test, Equip 2 Endure
by admin on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 | 25 Comments
While testing the Brunton Explorer we found out that charging smartphones may or may not work, but we were successful with normal cell phones and our Ipod. I want to take this out for more field tests but as of right now with the price tag of $60 – $80, this seems to be a great piece of gear. – Adam
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@IzzyJG99 use some powerbanks to charge, these solar power things do not make a lot of power, at least not very much. not always! you have many many many products these days. i looked up at the internet. there are truly hundreds of solar chargers! even for laptops etc, and very big ones for charging or using 230 volts electronic devices. so,,, look far and a lot to many sites!
I do a lot with electronics in the woods and on the mission field, and I do have a USB solar charger, and USB/AA battery charger or 2. HOWEVER I have found that it is better to get a 12v solar panel and then use a cigarette lighter to USB adapter. USB is only 5 volts and most 12v to usb adapters will start giving you power with anything between 5 volts and 18 volts. this allows you to get a charge even in indirect light, and you can run more than one adapter and gang em together for more amps.
do you get you hands on a HTC desire HD?
If it can charge that.I’ll get one of these…
I’d say that this panel is too small to power USB devices. I’d guess the total cell rating is about 8W, tops. That is on a summer day at noon. USB needs at least 2.5W. Now, the problem is that these are polycrystalline cells. They are quite efficient, but only in full sunlight. So you’d have to have the panel aimed directly at the sun at all times to get useful power. For mobile applications, thin film cells are better, because they deliver power even if partially or completely shaded.
I’ve got one of these and have good luck with my HTC Evo 4G. I also have a two cell AA/AAA USB nimh battery charger that works well. I’ve noticed the reviews available for this online are skewed because of an incompatibility with the stock cable that comes with some iPods. I’ve found it works with nearly everything I have.
Nice piece of kit! I’m also gonna second the recommendation to pick up an auxiliary battery pack to go with it.
@Equip2Endure No prob. You may want to check out the Just Mobile Gum Pro as an external pack. Your Brunton has a claimed output of 1,000 mA/5-volt so it should charge the pack. Advice: Don’t go cheap on your battery pack. Good battery packs will cost $50-60. If you go cheap, you will get something that won’t hold a charge long or won’t have many recharge cycles. Go with a known dealer and company to make sure you aren’t getting a knock-off. Great topic for a vid!!!
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@mrmonkeyman50 , 10-4 thanks for the information.
- Adam
@mrmonkeyman50 My bad, the APC pack is no longer in production. May take a while to find a replacement universal battery pack manufacturer, but the conops is the same. CHEERS!!
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Adam,
In my view you want to rethink your conops about this piece of kit. The solar panel should be used to charge up a universal battery pack (such as one made by APC) and then the battery pack can POWER your device. This is the key part. In an emergency you will want POWER not charging capability. A battery pack will allow you to operate phone, USB flashlight, etc. The solar device will not have the amps to do so necessarily. And it may be dark. CHEERS!!!
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looking to use this with a vhf hand held in my b.o.b. what you think?… later
That is a cool sounding bird in the background.
Im pretty sure your supposed to turn off your phone..Most smart phone are still running apps in the background. The gps and the email app,twitter and updates still send signals out even when the screen is off.
@Equip2Endure
Hi great video, but i Have a question, i know that some disagree but I always questioned if in the event of EMP what happens to electronic devices? they survive, no? solar panels and fry, or survive? I know that questions about EMP are boring and there is much difference but it was good to hear your opineao.
So this is the future huh?…… could be worse. If you use this everyday to power up your phones and gadgets, you’ll save a lot on your energybills over the years. Greate for outdoorsmen… Music in the woods, all day, every day
i liked it
Great vid! always wondered if these actually worked or not. Can’t wait for the rest of the review! Keep it up!
Great video Adam(like always
) and you did it correctly most people forget that the best way to catch more Rays on an angle . Also great idea of bringing your old cellphone if they have a GPS
It is best to use this to charge a battery then run the a device off of the battery. I use a PowerFilm 4 AA Charger as all my gear runs off of AA Batteries including my cellphone charger..
um ya.. interesting. def need to let phone get on a low bat and turn off then see how long it takes to charge. Thanks for sharing bud!
I always wondered about those things….cool vid!
Will it work for iphones
Better to use the panel with a external battery , and charge devices using the battery
Camping without all the electronic gizmos is way more fun
looks like great product. also its still winter so i think in summer times one can get much better mileage out of it. Im a big sucker for solar power so keep my hopes up for them to finally come out with something really efficient. good work adam, thanks for sharing
What kind of birds are making that noise? some kind of duck?
Thanks for the video!
I was just researching this product a few days ago, and here you are with a field test. Looks like this works great for smaller devices, but a more powerful system or the battery pack/ solar charger combo is the way to go.