Solar Power Cells, Hot Water, Energy, Collectors

SolLight Solicharger-SP Solar Charger/Speaker Case Review

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Charging the case is easy enough, and you can charge the case while still using the speaker functions. You can use either the 22″ USB cable to plug into a powered USB port, or the short ‘reverse’ USB adapter so you can plug another USB cable into it, such as an AC/USB plug. The maker says it will take about 3-4 hours to charge fully. A blue LED indicates that it is charging, but there is no visible signal that the case is fully charged.

Charging the case with the rather small solar panel takes 20-24 hours of light, depending on the light quality. Even a small amount of light from the window is enough to trickle charge the battery.  If the internal batteries are fully depleted, it may not charge with the sun and would need to be hooked up to another source for about 15 minutes to get the charging process started. Also note that using the sun alone can generally only charge it about 90% of the way.

A fully-charged case should give your device a complete charge, but it may take over an hour to do so depending on several factors. The solar charger is not quite powerful enough to keep your unit charged when playing music.  You will eventually use juice faster than the solar panel can recharge it, but the cases batteries and solar panel will certainly extend your device’s battery life significantly! In my decidedly non-scientific trials, I got less than half my smartphone’s usual battery drain when I used this case to play music (without the amplified speakers). With the amplified speakers also using the battery pack, I still got about a 25% or so boost in battery life.

Source: The Gadgeteer