We continually make minor tweaks to the USB output of our batteries to make sure we charge as many devices as possible. We pay particular attention to Apple products and now, with the introduction of the iPad,...
If you've always thought, "I can build that!", now you can. The whip-smart crew at Adafruit has built an open hardware solar charger kit that has been thoroughly vetted. We're pretty excited that this is...
We met Chris Jefferies a few weeks back at Maker Faire. Turns out he is using our small solar panels to power wireless sensor networks. Chris is using open source software and hardware that could be used in...
John Seefeldt is designing and implementing public installations that run on renewable resources. His first project has three of our small solar panels embedded in the roof of a street vendor's cart in...
After two trips to Home Depot and a few more hours than expected, we completed our booth for the Bay Area Maker Faire. In the spirit of DIY, we assembled a wall from Voltaic shipping boxes. In addition to...
We shot a quick video of the DIY Dynamo charging our external battery that we covered in a previous post. It is connected up to a dual multimeter test box that Phillip worked up. Note that the dynamo is...
The New York Times had an article about the increase in use of wireless sensors to monitor infrastructure like bridges and buildings. Not surprisingly, many of them are using small solar panels to power the...
John in Arkansas is doing some experimentation using capacitors to store power for LED lighting. He's connecting one of our small solar panels (6Volt, 2 Watt) to a variety of capacitors and using those...
A group of engineering students at University of Michigan designed their own solar charger using our 2 Watt solar panels. They have a couple ideas in here that we like. The first is to mount...
When we found a stash of 10Volt panels in our warehouse move, we made them available at a pretty good price (2 for $18) hoping folks would find a good use for them. Well, Josh Brown from Action Santa Cruz did....
We believe LEDs are going to be one of the most transformative technologies of the next twenty years. In the developed world, they will eventually replace fluorescent and incandescant lights. In the developing...
Many motorcycles do not have a cigarette lighter adapter which leaves a lot of riders without power for their phone or other electronic devices. Lief Ellis mounted our 2 Watt solar panel on the back seat...
We are often asked why we use monocrystalline cells instead of some of the newer technologies including amorphous silicon, CIGS and dye-based photovoltaics. The primary answer is that we're interested in...
We met Joel Murphy of Rachel's electronics at Maker Faire New York and liked his use of a tiny solar cell to power a sensor and robotics platform called the Solarduino (Beta). We think remote sensors are...
Our new 2 Watt solar panels have small, embedded screws in each of the four corners and four super-light and low-profile plastic nuts. These allow you to attach them securely to your own...
If you're curious about whether the our small solar panels can take a beating, watch this video of our 2 Watt solar panel below. We use industrial materials for the backing of each panel and...
Smallbean is down in Tanzania kicking off its' Citizen Archivist Project and it seems that our Generator solar panels are working well to charge their electronics. Smallbean trains participants to document...
Adafruit created this tutorial on how to make a charger that will work with iPhone 4, 3GS and others so that you don't get "CHARGING IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THIS ACCESSORY." They also released a new...
