Car / Solar Charging?

[antisol]

Hi,

I'm planning on taking my pandora on a camping trip, and I want to be able to recharge it on the go.

I remember reading somewhere (user manual?) that I should only use the openpandora supplied charger, but is there anything special about it? will another power supply with the same plug and voltage do the trick?

I'm not particularly interested in charging from USB because I want to use the USB port to run a hard drive and I want to be able to have the pandora charging while running the hard drive in order to maximise battery life. Also my understanding is that USB charging takes longer.

I'm also planning on getting a fairly large solar unit with a battery to run various things including the pandora. It has occurred to me that maybe the easiest way to charge from this is to get a car charger and a solar unit with a car cigarette lighter socket, but it also occurs to me that this might not be the most efficient way to charge from a solar unit. Any thoughts on my ideas would be appreciated.

So I guess my two main questions are:

1. Is there an off-the-shelf car charger I can buy that will work with the openpandora? Note that I don't want a USB charger.

2. What are the voltage requirements for the power plug? Will any old off-the-shelf power pack do, or is the openpandora power pack doing something special? If it is doing something special, what?

Thanks for your time!

 

[NoeleyC]

I've always used charge and data cables for PSP's as they have both a compatible power lead and USB connection. I'd imagine a PSP car charger should work...

 

[WizardStan]

I remember reading somewhere (user manual?) that I should only use the openpandora supplied charger, but is there anything special about it? will another power supply with the same plug and voltage do the trick?

Yes, you can use a PSP standard charger, or any USB charger, or if you want to cobble something together just make sure it outputs 5v/2a DC.Telling you to only used the supplied charger is just a standard protection clause that all manufacturers use so that if you buy a cheap knock-off charger that over-volts the system and makes it explode they're not held accountable for any potential injury or damage.

edit: and just because I always mention this every time someone says they are making a solar charger, don't leave the Pandora itself in the sun: it'll heat it up to extreme temperatures and may cause irreversible damage. Just keep it in the shade and it'll be fine.

 

[antisol]

Thanks, that's all I need to know! I figured it probably only says that in the manual for liability reasons, but I thought I'd make sure.

Double thanks for the warning about leaving it in the sun - I probably would have done just that.

 

[Grench]

For car charging - I've used an old miniUSB blackberry car charger with good success.  It isn't fast though - it can take 5-6 hours of driving to charge the Pandora that way.

For charging while backpack/remote camping, BioLite makes a backpacking stove that could work.  Kind of heavy for backpacking, but functional in theory.  I don't own one.

Solar is a big bucket full of pain in the ...

-only works during daylight, when you're more likely to be moving on to the next campsite.

-a solar panel that makes enough juice to recharge the Pandora is going to have current capacity beyond the Pandora's peak charging capabilities during the brightest times and less than threshold on even a cloudy day.  A secondary battery as a power sump and voltage regulation equipment would be needed as well.

-The solar solution is going to wind up weighing 3+ times as much as a Pandora.

-Setup and tear down isn't going to be fun.