If any of you are interested in the Brunton 26W Foldable Solar Array, you need to be aware of a few things:
1) This is an excellent Solar Array of excellent quality. It is foldable to compact size and lightweight. Read the reviews here
http://www.amazon.com/Brunton-Watt-Fold ... Descending
2) It is a general purpose Solar Array so the short instruction that came with it is very useless and does not show you how to charge your specific item.
3) In order to use it, you need to have some basic understand of Solar Array usage. The instruction of the Brunton 26W does not tell you that , in order to charge your laptop, you will need a
12V a battery pack, a Solar Controller, and a car - plug adapter that is specificaly designed for your laptop.
In general, a solar pannel by itself is basically useless. It is not a battery storage device like a battery. It is only a source of current. The voltage and current of a Solar Array will vary wildly
all over so you need a battery pack to store the energy. Typically you need a 12V battery pack (I would make my own using 12 rechargeable D cell ). The solar array will be use to charge
the battery with the help of the Solar Conntroller to avoid overcharging it. Then you connect the battery to your laptop using the car-plug adapter.
If you naively you connect the Brunton 26W Solar Array directly to your laptop without the battery pack and the solar controller, it may appear fine but it is not safe to operate in this way.
The voltage of the Solar Array is not constant and can go up as high as 25Voltage. This may not be good for your laptop. It need a constant source of voltage. I would never power up my
laptop while it is connected directly to the Solar Array in this way.
Note: If you plan to power up your laptop for a long time 8 to 12 hours, you may need two Brunton 26W Solar Array. Because 26W may not be enough to power a big laptop. To sum up here is what you need:
1) 1 or 2 Brunton Solar Array ---- Cost: 340 usd a piece
2) 1 12 battery pack ---- Cost 100 usd (if you make yourself) 230usd (if you buy one from Brunton) link here
http://www.amazon.com/Brunton-Impel-145 ... C3G2SFYYI6
3) 1 Solar Controller Cost: 42usd (Note: If you buy the battery pack from Brunton then you do not need this item-- but it is a small saving)
http://www.amazon.com/SunSaver-Charge-C ... 166&sr=8-1
4) 1 Car plug adapter for your laptop Cost: about 30 usd depending on your laptop
Total Cost: about 600 usd if you use 1 Solar Array or 940 usd if you use 2 Solar Array
The good news is with this Solar Array, and good sun light, you do not need to worry about charging your laptop. You can power it up where ever you are.
Note: If your purpose is to charge smart phones, MP3 player, cammera battery, AAA batteries, Kindle reader, do not waste your money on this Solar Array.
A much smaller array will do.
If you need to power up a tablet PC or a smaller notebook PC, you only need one Brunton 26W Solar Array.
If you do not need to power up your big power hungry laptop and you can live with just charging the laptop battery, then remember you only need
about 12W to 24W. In this case you can use the Brunton 26W or get a smaller Solar Array and an External Laptop Battery Charger, depending on how fast you want to do it.