2dumb4gears
07-26-2007, 06:20 PM
About 3 weeks ago, I picked up one of these units, which charges my GPS, cell phone, iPod, etc. The device takes around 10 hrs to fully charge its included internal battery from the sun (or can be fully charged at the wall in about 4). Once charged, the device holds a charge for up to 1 year, and once your device is plugged in, it trickle-charges at about the same rate as plugging the device into the wall. The internal battery holds enough juice to fully charge nearly 2 cell phones or iPods.
This is probably the slickest spend of $90 I've made in a while. It works simply and elegantly, and even allows you to directly charge your device w/out charging the battery first (about 1 hr of sun buys you 25 mins of talk time or 1 hr of music on your iPod). With the included suction cup mount for my kitchen window, all of my personal devices have been working "off the grid" since the time of purchase. Included are multiple wall adaptors for international travel, device chargers for mini-usb and common cell phones, a USB-to-charger adaptor, and a final adaptor that allows you to use and DC (car) charger for your device to the charger. And, the device itself is 100% recycleable.
This kind of technology only gets better with time, and with early adopters voting with their dollars to keep the technology going. Between this device and my shimano dynamo hub, it's been a lot of fun to try to reduce my carbon footprint.
This is probably the slickest spend of $90 I've made in a while. It works simply and elegantly, and even allows you to directly charge your device w/out charging the battery first (about 1 hr of sun buys you 25 mins of talk time or 1 hr of music on your iPod). With the included suction cup mount for my kitchen window, all of my personal devices have been working "off the grid" since the time of purchase. Included are multiple wall adaptors for international travel, device chargers for mini-usb and common cell phones, a USB-to-charger adaptor, and a final adaptor that allows you to use and DC (car) charger for your device to the charger. And, the device itself is 100% recycleable.
This kind of technology only gets better with time, and with early adopters voting with their dollars to keep the technology going. Between this device and my shimano dynamo hub, it's been a lot of fun to try to reduce my carbon footprint.