il padrone wrote:Dragon wrote:For example there is no way the gorilla pannel will charge a net book. Also that product does not say anything about what voltage or wattage it produce. It did not give any
dimension of the pannel so I am extremely skeptical.
From their specifications PDF:
Output capacity
500mAh (AT) 20V
500mAh (AT) 5V
So, by my minimal knowledge of electricity, it seems to be about 10W output, with a 500mA limit. Also the dimensions are there too :
• Unit dimensions: 264 x 200 x 19mm
Doesn't state whether this is open or closed, but using proportions I'd say it's when closed, so the panel size must be about 200mm x 500mm.
il pdrone,
Thanks for posting those numbers. I was looking for them. The amazon site I was using did not list any of these.
From the numbers you listed, it says that when you put this pannel out in the sun, the output voltage will vary
between 5V and 20V depending on Sun condition; And the output will be around 0.5Amps. So the output power
is somewhere from 2.5Watts to 10Watts. From these number, I will say it will definitely Not power up even a net book.
It may not even charge net book directly (even when powered off). The best that you can do with this is to charge a
12V battery with the help of a solar controller and have the battery charge the net book powered off. But it is
more efficient to have the battery charge a net book or laptop battery externaly using an external laptop battery
charger. Note: at 500mAh, the rate of charge is rather slow (16 hours). Also you will reallize that you will need to buy a 12V battery
pack, a solar controller. It's getting to be quite expensive.
There are a lot of reviewers at Amazon, complaing about this product, and rightfully so. I own several solar
arrays so I had gone through the frustration and bad experience that some other people had. Solar products
are nortoriously missleading. They do not have good instruction and they do not tell you what you need to make
it work.
The dimension of this pannel look almost like you can attach it to one side of the bike, but it's still too
big. I was thinking, if you can find a flexible, foldable solar array of similiar size and Voltage and Amps
ratting, you can buy two of those and attach them to both sides of your bike (on second thought it's too big).
By connecting them in parallel, you can charge a laptop battery externally in 8 hours. It is quite an
expensive option. If you consider any expensive solar array product make sure you take a lot of time,
reading all the reviews, sending the reviewers email asking questions, searching youtube for demo of the
product, call the seller and ask how it work; ask if you need charge controller and battery pack. But on
second thought some times these people don't know !! BAN ME NOW FOR SWEARING !!. It is rather expensive and you don't want to buy it
and had to return it.
The bottom line is I would not buy this charger if I want to charge a net book.