6wattkit – Voltaic Systems Blog

Waterproof Solar with Dry Bag

Jeff — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 18:00:44 +0000

We hacked a smartphone dry bag to make it a solar dry bag. In this example, we use a 6 Watt Kit, 4 foot extension cable and dry bag (try searching for “dry audio case”) to make a waterproof solar charger.

Here’s what the case looks like pre-surgery.

We cut the extension cable in two, stripped the ends and threaded it through the audio port. A bit of soap on the cable makes this task easier.

Here’s what the cable looks like passing through the dry bag.

Finally, we heat shrink tubing on the cable, soldered the wires back together and heated the tubing. Ready for some wet adventures!

Climber Science in Costa Rica

admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 16:34:54 +0000

From December 15th to January 15th while we were complaining about the cold and snow up here in New York, the Climber Science team was making their way across Costa Rica by kayak, mountain bike and their own two feet. This was the first ever Central American Coast to Coast Environmental Transect. Along the way, they took high quality video and sound recordings for Costa Rican Ministry of the Environment and their National Park Service including bird and frog calls. They also collected samples of black carbon in water, cloud particles and water quality samples at every major waterway.

It was a very intense and physically demanding trip and one of the key pieces of gear were their Delorme and Garmin GPS systems. They used our 6 Watt and 16 Watt Solar Chargers to keep them powered up.

Next up, the Climber Science team is headed to Lhotse and Everest.

Plan out your next adventure by visiting our Solar For Hiking, Camping, and Climbing Guide.

First Winner – Automated Solar Garden

Jeff — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 15:25:26 +0000

We’ve selected our first winner in our Solar Power Your Project Contest. Logan is building an automated garden powered by an Arduino.

The system is designed to sense water level moisture. When water level moisture is too low, the system will open a valve on the rain barrel and water the soil. For extra credit, the Arduino will transmit information on moisture level and rain barrel levels back to Logan’s computer. Voltaic’s V15 battery in “always on” mode will power the Arduino and valve as needed. Our 6 Watt panel will keep the V15 charged.

We can’t wait to see pictures and results. For more in automated gardening, see the Growerbot by Luke Iseman, one of the first to use Arduinos for gardening. If you have a technical project using an Arduino, microcontroller, or sensor, enter into our Solar Power Your Project Contest.

Solar Power My Project Contest

Jeff — Mon, 16 Sep 2013 19:37:08 +0000

To celebrate the launch of our new 6 Watt solar panel, we are announcing a new contest. We are giving away five 6 Watt kits to DIY-ers looking to take their Arduino, remote sensor or any technical project off grid. Go to the contest page to read the rules and enter.