Solar chargers for Lithium batteries

[mcgus]

Can anyone, preferably by pointing me to a UK website, suggest a portable solution for a solar charger that will allow me to recharge the Lithium Ion battery in my Canon 20D? And secondly, does anyone have any experience of how effective they are?

I am going to be climbing in Nepal, at altitude, in winter. I will be away from power supplies for about 3 weeks. Previous trips I have managed to get away with it but this time we will be truly isolated!

The alternative seems to be to buy in a couple of additional batteries and make sure they are fully charged before I leave.

thanks for any suggestions.

[davidd]

mcgus said:

Can anyone, preferably by pointing me to a UK website, suggest a portable solution for a solar charger that will allow me to recharge the Lithium Ion battery in my Canon 20D? And secondly, does anyone have any experience of how effective they are?

I am going to be climbing in Nepal, at altitude, in winter. I will be away from power supplies for about 3 weeks. Previous trips I have managed to get away with it but this time we will be truly isolated!

The alternative seems to be to buy in a couple of additional batteries and make sure they are fully charged before I leave.

thanks for any suggestions.

I cannot comment on the charger bit, however you could always get a few of..

www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=100915

As they are cheap as chips. I have two arriving for my 350d in the next few days I'll let you know how they perform.

D

Edited by davidd on Friday 25th August 13:47

[mcgus]

Cheers David, have ordered a couple anyway! In answer to my own query see these guys www.solio.com/v2/ - just spoke with them, very helpful. Might try it out.

Edited by mcgus on Saturday 26th August 19:16

[jez-m]

Hi there

I have just done a similar trip to Nepal and took one of these (a Silva Solar Charger 2):
www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/Cat/116977?history=search%20results

It takes any charger that you would ordinarily stick into a car fag lighter. I took one of these (Hahnel PowerStation Ultima):
www.ukdigital.co.uk/accs/hahnel_ultima_charger_olympus.htm

It worked just fine. It needs full on sun to work best and it was hard to get a full charge, but it kep my batteries topped up for three weeks no problem. I tended to stick mine in the sun while we having lunch and that was generally fine.

One other tip - take extra batteries (I had three and used them all) - and keep them warm. I slept with mine. Some of the guys on our trip didn't and the cold killed them completely.

If you want any more tips, happy to help.

Cheers
Jez

[joust]

The copy batteries often need cutting down to fit properly.

If you look at this picture



The you often need to make the 'lugs' at the side narrower by shaving down the top side (the side that points downwards in that image) of them.

Apart from that they seem to work fine.

J

[UKBob]

jez-m said:

One other tip - take extra batteries (I had three and used them all) - and keep them warm. I slept with mine. Some of the guys on our trip didn't and the cold killed them completely.

Its an interesting thread. I didnt realise the cold would kill a battery completely, I thought the power reserve would just deplete at an astonishingly fast rate. Take Jez's advice to be sure (although dont get any funny ideas)

[jez-m]

When I say it killed it completely, I may have been exaggerating slightly! But the cold certainly did cause them to deplete very quickly.

Sleeping with four camera batteries (I had a p&s with me as well), an ipod, a head torch and a portable hard drive is fine until you roll over.

[UKBob]

jez-m said:

When I say it killed it completely, I may have been exaggerating slightly! But the cold certainly did cause them to deplete very quickly.

Sleeping with four camera batteries (I had a p&s with me as well), an ipod, a head torch and a portable hard drive is fine until you roll over.

Ouch. I suppose you'd also want to be careful you didnt ruin them by having a wet dream either. I love the idea of solar power, and hope at the very least to get all my hot water and heating one day.

There is a light on my solar charger which comes on when in use, and the brightness of the light varies, depending on the strength of the sun and cloud coverage. Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT need direct rays from the sun to benefit. Lots of light (through cloud) can be nearly as effective

[poah]

if you don;t want to buy canons own then I recomend energizers BP511a equivelent. lasts longer I recon too unlike the cheap ones which have a crap life span. you'll also notice that cheap ones loose their charge much quicker too.

[joust]

The 7dayshop ones I have last just as long as my offical Canon ones (of which I now have 4)

J