Charging the Batteries of High Tech Devices

Today high tech devices have become a way of life for many of us. All theses devices have one common problem and that is their batteries. The more that these devices are used the quicker the batteries become discharged. When living and working in an environment where there is a constant supply of electricity all around this does not present a problem, one only has to find an electrical outlet, plug in their power adapter and the problem is fixed. When you are out camping or even living in a motor home full time like ourselves there is not always a source of electricity available to plug into. This becomes a problem how to charge the batteries when there is no access to electricity?

Someone saw the problem and came up with a solution. The solution was an adapter that plugged into the cigarette lighter of the vehicle that converted the 12 volts to 110 volts so that the ac adapters of the electronic devices could plug in and charge their batteries. Another inventor came up with a less complicated adapter for the vehicle cigarette lighter. This system reduced the voltage from 12 volts down to 5 volts and using what is called a USB connection, common to almost all of the popular high tech devices in use today. This unit was less expensive to build and had less electronic components to give problems. I purchased mine for only $4.00 at a dollar store. This fixes this charging problem as long there was a vehicle around that you can plug in the adapter.

I was in an outdoor camping store a while back and came across a solar charging system that would charge all of the most popular high tech devices with the power from the sun. With this device people that need to take their high tech devices with them where ever the go, could charge their batteries. The solar charging system consisted of a small solar cell much like the ones that you can buy for charging the vehicle's battery at the local auto parts store. A box that converted the voltage from the solar cell to the 5 volts that most of the devices need to charge their batteries, and a hand full of adapters that would fit most of today's electronic devices. The unit came in a case that was designed to protect the solar cell and carry all the accessories. The price of the unit was under $170.00. That was not a bad price if you had a need for something like that.

I liked the solar charging system but really had no use for it myself. But being the experimenter that I am I had to try something out myself. We have a small solar cell mounted on the dash of the motor home that was hooked up to a three output adapter attached to the cigarette lighter on the dash. The solar cell was plugged into one output, the GPS into the second outlet, and my adapter that converted 12 volts down to 5 volts with its USB connection connected to the third output. I unplugged the three output adapter from the cigarette lighter on the dash and found that the led lights on the adapters continued  to burn brightly. I unplugged my GPS making sure that the battery from it was not keeping the adapter led lights on. There was no change to the brightness of the led so I could only assume that all the power was coming from the solar cell. Next I plugged my cel phone in and was surprised to find that it immediately started to charge.The only electricity was being produced by the solar cell on the dash. It took about 2 hours to bring the cel phone battery up to full charge. Not bad when you realize that the solar cell cost me $16.00 on sale, the three output adapter was $10.00 and the USB adapter was $4.00 for a total cost of $30.00 but I did not have a fancy case to carry it in.

Commercially available solar charging systems have been available for a few years now to power lights and equipment where there is no access to electricity. All you have to do is drive down almost any highway to see one of these charging systems in operation powering the lights warning drivers of possible danger ahead.

Until next time