Solar Gorilla

[smith4188]

I entertain some vague fantasy of spending several months pootling around Europe while continuing with my Open University courses via a netbook and submitting assignments when in internet cafes or in a WiFi'ed bar. (All their course books are also available in PDF format.)

If wild camping the problem would be maintaining power to the netbook, but I've just seen a review of the Powertraveller Solar gorilla, a portable solar panel to run a laptop directly (about 140 quid) with additional battery pack for storing the charge to use, say, at night (another 150 quid). Has anyone ever used one or anything else like this? Any good? Too heavy? Rugged enough to survive a tour?

Cheers,
Steven

 

[dragon72]

I have a power monkey, which is the small version solar charger.
In my experience, solar chargers need long exposure (ie all day on a midsummer day) to strong, non overcast, direct sunlight. If they get that, you can rely on them. If they don't, you can't.

 

[andym]

The solargorilla is more powerful than my Silva II. The spec quotes its output at 500mAh (I'm a bit confused about what this means but anyway) as compared to the Silva which has an output of 350mAh or 4.75 watts. So it's output in watts is maybe 6 watts. Pretty respectable for a solar charger but to get it in perspective, a quick Google suggests that a netbook's power consumption is of the order of 12-14 watts.

(Hopefully someone who understands these things better then me - aka andrew_s - will be along)

My experience is that on a good day in northern France with the Silva I could maybe charge up a couple of pairs of 2700 rechargeable mAh batteries. So the solargorilla might be OK for keeping in touch via brief email sessions, but nor really a way to power a netbook for extended periods (especially if you're using WiFi). At nearly 1.5kg for the combined set up that's quite a bit of weight. I think you'd be better off trying to blag the use of a socket in Wifi -enabled bars/cafes, or simply hole up in a hostel/pensione when you have a TMA to do (yes I know you have a vision of sitting under a tree in the middle of nowhere working on your netbook powered by your solar charger).

The powergorilla looks like an interesting product - as something you could leave in a campsite bathroom to recharge.

Good luck with the OU course and wandering.

 

[mike1026]

Have a look at this article from CGOAB Victor kept his laptop charged over several months by solar charging.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzOr&doc_id=1158&v=dg

 

[mike1026]

Have a look at this article from CGOAB Victor kept his laptop charged over several months by solar charging.
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzOr&doc_id=1158&v=dg

 

[ufkacbln]

If you have lots of sun - these are brilliant, if not then there is no power (or little) power to store.

One of the things I like about my Power Monkey though is that it can be powered via the mains... is this the same with the Gorilla. If so there are lots of ioptions to chage. I have charged mine (wit and without consent) in pubs and restaurants as well as hooking up to a friendly caravan and in one case on a train.

It is workable with a little thought

The other suggestion is to compromise on the NetBook. Lower performance processors require less power and less cooling which can extend battery life

 

[andym]

If you have lots of sun - these are brilliant, if not then there is no power (or little) power to store.

One of the things I like about my Power Monkey though is that it can be powered via the mains... is this the same with the Gorilla. If so there are lots of ioptions to chage. I have charged mine (wit and without consent) in pubs and restaurants as well as hooking up to a friendly caravan and in one case on a train.

It is workable with a little thought

I have the PowerChimp which is the PowerMonkey minus the solar charger and I find it really useful. The PowerGorilla is a bigger version - so you can buy the Power Gorilla and the SolarGorilla, or just the PowerGorilla. I think the PowerGorilla unit might well be a worthwhile investment even if you don't go down the solar route.

 

[Arch]

I'm not very au fait with the niceties of electrics, but if solar is going to be dodgy, there is always the dynamo option, with something like....

http://www.tout-terrain.de/2/products/components/the-plug/h-bar.html?start=2

As I say, I have no idea if that would cope with a laptop, as it seems to be for phones and the like, but other similar products are available. Might be a good back up, but assumes you have a dynamo fitted of course.

 

[andrew_s]

My Samsung N110 netbook has a 6-cell 11V 5200mAh battery, and claims up to 9 hours. That implies a power consumption of 6.5W (ish) under light use. If you allow for making the thing work a bit harder and for charge/discharge losses in the battery, the 20V 500mA = 10W that a Solar Gorilla claims should be enough to keep pace with use (1h charge gives 1h use).

However, the claimed output is likely to be attained only under ideal conditions - clear sky, not too far north, close to noon, and with the panel square on to the sun.
In real life you are unlikely to meet these conditions. If you have the panel on the bike it's pointing any which way, charging after you have stopped riding for the day means the sun is too low in the sky, it may be cloudy etc etc.
I wouldn't expect to be able to average more than a couple of hours use per day even in Spain or Italy, and I wouldn't want to rely on much use at all beyond the original charge in the UK.

Hub dynamo options at least have the advantage that you are generating power for considerable chunks of the day, and all you've got to do is capture it. However most are USB supplies which is limited to 5V, 500mA, and AFAIK there aren't any netbooks that will charge off so little. The B+M E-Werk will give enough to make a car battery charging option at least worth trying, even if it's not up to the 19V than most laptop mains chargers give.

 

[andym]

The B+M E-Werk will give enough to make a car battery charging option at least worth trying, even if it's not up to the 19V than most laptop mains chargers give.

A while ago I contacted powertraveller about the minigorilla. According to their tech support people the input voltage is 9v. The e-werk output can be adjusted in increments of 0.7 which means it should output 9.1 volts. Which presumably would be close enough (but worth checking before buying).

The Powergorilla has a car charger socket - so presumably would be compatible with the e-werk's 12.6 volt output option.

I've managed to bungee my solar charger to the back (on top of the rear rack), so it's possible to run it while you're riding - although obviously the orientation is unlikely to be ideal.