makebright

[Imagine a giant disclaimer here that says I speak for RIM about BlackBerry officially only on matters of product security. Everything else, like this post, is just me as an independent maker, messing around on my own time, in absolutely no official/approved way.]

Before I headed out for a week of no-electrical-service camping at my super-fave, The Pinery, I picked up a project that had been sitting on the bench since last year: a solar USB charger.  My goals were to be able to charge my awesome bike lights (front and back) from MEC as well as my BlackBerry 9790.

The result, shown above, is my sub-$50 solution: a flat-pack, 1” aluminum angle frame (fabbed with dumpster-recovered stock), four $10 12V solar panels from Canadian Tire, and some USB car chargers.  In short: it works!

Before you click through for a few more build details, let me point out the solar aiming mechanism in the middle of this rig.  It’s just a 2” piece of aluminum plate with a piece of white duct tape on it and a 1.5” #10-32 machine screw driven through it.  The idea is to position the overall frame until the screw casts no shadow on the plate, at which point you can assume you’re more or less aligned to the sun and grabbing the most power in.  To prop the frame in place after positioning, I’m using a 36”x1”x1/8” piece of aluminum bar stock and a spring clamp, visible at the top of the frame.  Low-tech, but very flexible.

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