Solar cells for cellphones

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
4,627
129
101
Ive been interested lately in solar cells. I've looked some on amazon. I'm thinking it would be cool to have a little setup on my car dash and have that recharge a power bank.

Anyone use one? Recommend one? Like, how can you tell what is a cheap no-good solar cell and what is a good quality solar cell? Anyone DIY it by like manual soldering solar panels to USB connectors?
 

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,503
136
I don't use one, but I'm interested as well. I'll probably use the panel indirectly, to keep a power bank or two topped up. Solar panels have gotten a lot more efficient and cheaper since the days I played as a kid with the little ones you could get at RadioShack (RIP :p).
 

lxskllr

No Lifer
Nov 30, 2004
60,629
10,985
126
I always look at the panels at harborfreight, but I just can't justify getting one. I'm a fan of "free" power of all kinds; human, solar, wind, water... Anything I can implement myself so I'm not reliant on anyone.
 
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Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
71,008
13,952
126
www.anyf.ca
I built a portable system for camping, though it's probably bigger than you want, and it's mostly all prebuilt parts wired together in a package with a battery. There's also a micro controller that displays the battery voltage and has a few other features like low voltage shut down. I can also serial into it with a laptop to change thresholds and calibrate the display and stuff. Why? Because I'm a nerd. :p

This is before I was fully done painting as I only added the top after. The bar in the middle used to be the handle but I didn't like the idea of it being fully open. It's still not watertight, but at least if a bit of drizzle got on it, it would probably be ok.





foldable 60w panel: (2 30w in parallel)






For something smaller you'd probably need something that can boost the voltage from a few cells (about 0.5v each) to a nice clean 5 volts. A typical charge controller assumes there is a battery and it will vary the voltage to charge it at a specific current rate. You don't want to do this with a phone as it has a charger built into it, it wants a nice clean 5 volts no more no less. (well there's always some tolerance).

Easiest thing to do is probably something like this:

Solar cells (let's just say 1 volt typical output) -> MPPT charge controller that can handle very low voltages and then output a decent voltage range -> 5 volt DC-DC converter that will take the controller's voltage and smooth it out to 5 volts.

You may be able to simply find a 5v DC-DC chip that also can do MPPT. If this is strictly for a phone no need for a separate battery so the only purpose the charge controller really serves is MPPT function. If you don't care about efficiency you could probably just have the cells go straight to a DC-DC boost converter but your mileage may vary.


Very simple but possibly risky is to aim for close to 5v VMP rating of cells, and connect straight to the phone. I would not personally recommend this route unless someone who knows more about electronics than me can say it's safe.
 

JoeBleed

Golden Member
Jun 27, 2000
1,408
30
91
I always look at the panels at harborfreight, but I just can't justify getting one. I'm a fan of "free" power of all kinds; human, solar, wind, water... Anything I can implement myself so I'm not reliant on anyone.

i would say stay away from the harborfreight panels. every video i've seen says they're not efficient and price /watt is expensive in comparison.

I've been reading about solar again. seems like everytime i start to look at making a custom UPS i end up going down this route but i never follow through. inverters with chargers and transfer switches are a lot more common now. it would be fairly easy to do now. batteries are still the expensive part. well, wouldn't be as expensive if i'd just do a simple 12v setup, but i'd rather do 48v. Things i'd like to run on my custom UPS would be my computers, refrigerator, and water/well pump. At this point, it's technically a grid-tie with battery backup system. i can't seem to do simple things. :-/
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,939
18,098
126
Why not just a powerbank? Solar will only trickle charge.

And if you are on the car, just charge the powerbank from cig lighter port
 
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Darwin333

Lifer
Dec 11, 2006
19,946
2,330
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i would say stay away from the harborfreight panels. every video i've seen says they're not efficient and price /watt is expensive in comparison.

I've been reading about solar again. seems like everytime i start to look at making a custom UPS i end up going down this route but i never follow through. inverters with chargers and transfer switches are a lot more common now. it would be fairly easy to do now. batteries are still the expensive part. well, wouldn't be as expensive if i'd just do a simple 12v setup, but i'd rather do 48v. Things i'd like to run on my custom UPS would be my computers, refrigerator, and water/well pump. At this point, it's technically a grid-tie with battery backup system. i can't seem to do simple things. :-/

I am an expert at designing solar power systems and at least today it's almost always more economical to install a simple grid tied system and then get a conventional generator for emergency power. This is especially true if you have natural gas.
 

desura

Diamond Member
Mar 22, 2013
4,627
129
101
Why not just a powerbank? Solar will only trickle charge.

And if you are on the car, just charge the powerbank from cig lighter port

I already have a power bank. I just think it would be neat to keep it charged with solar power. So I don't have to remember to charge it.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,939
18,098
126
I already have a power bank. I just think it would be neat to keep it charged with solar power. So I don't have to remember to charge it.
Unless you get a big enough panel, it will just trickle charge.