Solar Battery Charger

[Chew]

Thinking for longer trips is it worth finding a solar charger to charge up batteries for GPS, Phone, etc. Looking for something that charges AA batteries.

Any good ones on the market, or is it easier to take enough spare batteries which offset the size/weight of the charger?

[Taylor]

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/gelert-sola ... ger-p99820

I suspect they weight of half a dozen aa's are a lot less than one of these though.

[Pyro]

Have a SolarMonkey that I got as a present, and it's worked fine for charging my phone, but I've only ever used it in bright Spanish sunshine. Am tempted to get the 'SolarNut' that goes with it, basically a mini battery that you charge whenever, wherever and then can use as an emergency power dump, rather than having to rely on being able to charge direct.

[Ian]

Not solar, but you could make your own, like this: http://ianbarrington.com/2010/03/21/portable-power/

[numplumz]

Again not solar but an AA battery power pack, easier than making one.
http://www.portablepowersupplies.co.uk/aausbbattery.htm

Have made my own before but now I have one of these and it's simple, light and cheap and does what it says hassle free, love it.
I run my Garmin on it on long trips and the extenal power lost warning comes up after about 5 hours using 2800mAh Nicads (only 1.2 v each) I then replace the batteries and repeat. saves the interal battery for when I run out of AA's.
It also works as emerg power/charger for my phone. Simples.
Normal AA batteries dont last as long and if your a weight weenie you can use the super Lithium AA batteries.

This looks similar, but cant comment on use.
http://www.solartechnology.co.uk/shop/scotty-pro.htm