Solar battery chargers....

[JackAysJake]

This is my plan:

I would like to be able to charge my batteries with a solar panel. One flashlight uses a streamlight battery stick. The battery stick charges in the streamlight flashlight charger with the flashlight. This charger came with a 12 volt car charger plug and a 110 volt plug.

The other charger is for a c123a battery charger which also comes with a car charger plug and a 110volt plug.

What kind of solar panel would I need for charging these either one at a time or both at a time? I do have a 400 watt power inverter which would utilize the 110 volt plug, but what kind of solar panel would I have to get for this?

[JackAysJake]

This is basically what Im looking for. This has the 12 volt plug I need that is solar powered, but a lot of other stuff that I dont need.

[avking]

The Brunton Solar Panel is hands down the best portable unit you can get today. The have the flexible that can be rolled up and the foldable that is folded. Both easily fit in a pack and are not heavy. The nice feature is that you can grow them later because they can be daisy chained. You can also add the battery pack for night time power. We use it to power a 45Q Engel Cooler. The panel has enough power to power the cooler and charge the battery during the day and the battery holds enough charge to run the cooler overnight.

The Brunton panels are popular in the sand box right now.

[JackAysJake]

I really dont think that Ill need much. I would prefer to stick witht he 12 volt car charger. What is the brunton vehicle cable? If Im not mistaken, it is a cable that runs from the solar panel to plug into the cigar lighter of the vehicle to keep the battery charged instead of using battery clamps. If so, I might be able to cut the end off and install a female plug instead of the male plug. For what I need, do you think this would work? http://www.shoptics.com/bt-bt-solflat.html

[avking]

The Brunton comes with several different output connectors. It's primary use is not as a car battery charger, at least not the two models I am referring to. It comes with a small adapter that allows it to directly charge many different AC or DC products. Check out the Brunton site for the specs on the output.

http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=420

http://www.amazon.com/Brunton-Watt-Foldable-Solar-Array/dp/B000GEFFBO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1270219554&sr=8-2

[hikinmike]

I will need to depend on certain electronic aids when the poo-poo hits the propeller. Gonna start now with small-scale solar chargers. Anybody ever use those solar panel collectors advertised in those hardware fliers that come with most Sunday newspapers? I've bought some tools from those outlets and had acceptable results from most. Wonder if their solar panels could be a worthwhile investment.