I have been wanting a portable "pocket" solar panel for a while. Jarhead Journalist has a pretty decent setup and it made me look at the panels a little more.

I wanted a setup that would charge my commonly used electronics as well as AA and AAA batteries via a USB charger. The quicker the charge the better as far as I'm concerned. I also need it to be small enough to fit in a pack and strong enough to take reasonable abuse.

I came a cross a screaming deal on a panel. It seemed to good to be true for the price. 64 bucks. I thought I would give it a shot.

This is what I bought and here are their claims.

The "Pocket Panel" is a 6 Watt Portable Solar USB Charging Panel designed to Rapid Charge power hungry cell phones and other USB devices that can be charged via their USB port. This panel is rated to produce up to 1.2 Amps of power @ 5v via the standard USB charging output port and this allows rapid solar phone recharging in bright sunny conditions and this also allows quicker recharging in partly sunny conditions. The Mono Crystalline solar cells are 17-18% efficient at turning sunlight into electricity vs. the other folding solar panels that use ThinFilm solar cells that are only 8-9% efficient at turning sunlight into electricity.

Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 1.4 x 4.5 inches ; 13.3 ounces


I purchased this to throw in my pack to keep my phone and batteries charged.

Upon getting the panel I was impressed with the how well put together this was. I was expecting it to be far heavier and more fragile than it is. It folds up to a pretty compact package that doesn't weigh much at all. The solar panels are sunk into the material and are reasonably protected.

I charged my android phone on an overcast day. From half to full charge took roughly 1.5 hours. Thats really good for a solar panel this compact. I should be able to stay out for a few weeks and have no issues with charging headlamp batteries and my phone.

Bang for the buck this is a great deal. Performance wise I have been impressed so far. The only drawback is I think it will need to be protected a bit more than a flexible panel. I will probably keep it in a pelican case 1060 with cords batteries etc. It will keep it organized and protected from being crushed accidentally.

Here are a few pics from the day I charged the phone. As you can see its not exactly a bright and sunny day.



Size comparison with a Droid 3 phone.


This is the setup in overcast conditions.

So does it have a standard jack for any device to plug into? Looks like a great buy.

This one has a USB port. Thats how the majority of my electronics are set up. They have a plug for a USB and that usually plus into a wall cord as well. I would like to find or make a USB cord that has alligator clips on the other end.

that looks like a really good looking setup there the MB. haven't seen any camo...

a USB cable is really simple... positive, negative, and two wires inside. sometimes black and read and I thinking sometimes read and yellow (I think). diagrams on the web... I probably have 20 unused cables around and have cut a hand full to make variations. making an aligator setup should be very cheap and easy. for a clean setup I'm sure you can buy various adapter on fleabay for pretty cheap.

I've never seen any lifespan ratings on solar panels so I'm thinking over the years you will really get you money's worth out of a setup like that.

im thinking it should work fine for rechargeable batts... want to do a couple setups one for flash light batts, one for digital devices, and have one I can leave in the car. I use rechargeable batts in my computer keyboard and mouse and could just charge them from my window. also for my phones... there's been plenty of times I needed to charge a phone on the go but couldn't leave my car running or plug in anywhere. in emergency situations you may loose power and need to run a flash light for extended periods of time. being able to charge batts when the light isn't needed makes since.


good deal! great investment!

That style of Solar panel is reported to last 20-25 years. I started getting into solar setups around a year ago. I set up my travel trailer to recharge the batteries with a 20 watt solar panel. It worked out far better than I thought it would.

I want the USB and alligator clip setup just to be able to trickle charge the battery on an ATV or a vehicle if the need arises. If its just 2 wires inside a USB cord I will swing by radio shack and pick up some clips and be in business.

yup... should be four wires in the cable but some dedicated USB power cables only the two for +/-. just walked outside by i have a phone charger I rigged and one of the power cables it yellow. if you see a white and a green cable those are data an can be snipped. but this is from memory so you might want to look up a diagram before cutting wires.

Looks like a nice alternative to the Powerfilm F15-600 I have especially for $45 less. I am curious to see how it holds up. It looks well built and stored in a Pelican Case I figure it should last you a while.

I am conteplating moving up to the F15-1200 which is 20w compared to the 10w i have now. The 600 charges my tablet pc, but it is slow going. I figure doubling the wattage should help.

My only concern with your panel is the lack of a 12v car cigarette type connection. I use my battery charger to convert to the 5v USB style outlet. I guess if all your devices run on usb, it wouldnt be an issue for you though.

Thats a really nice little setup, whats the brand or where can you buy it? I assume it doesn't come with a storage battery?

I have two small panels and the little battery (can be charged from usb/panels and will charge usb) from voltaic systems, pretty nice setup, but takes up more space than yours.

I just remembered the Powerfilm usb array.



The down side of this one is that it needs to have 2 AA batteries installed and somewhat charged to work as a usb charger. The up side is that it has flexible panels and a built in charger for AA batteries and comes with 2 Eneloop batteries (the best rechargeables IMO). It will also charge a usb device from the batteries without the sun.

I will PM you so I dont violate TOS for Deal spotting

MonkeyBomb, thanks very much for the info! I had been looking at the following until I saw your post:

http://www.amazon.com/sCharger-5-Powerfu...6119079-9039313

That one you found looks like an incredible deal - at that price I'm gonna pick up two!