Battery Power on the Fly: (AKA Battery Charge when the power's out"

ImpossibleBishop

ImpossibleBishop

Member
Hi All,
I was wondering and I have seen posts similar, but none that answer my question directly. I did a documentary on Katrina, and the one thing that kept getting in my way was how to charge batteries outside a car / generator. Because I was walking around all the time, and I had no access to any sort of outlet or power of any kind, I was wondering if anyone tried a solar panel option. I was thinking about doing this sort of project again if anything happens, and I was wondering if any of you guys had any ideas for a portable 1 man setup to charge batteries either by a handcrank gennie or a solar option.
Thanks
 
I do not even come close to answering your question directly, but in general a typical 7.2V battery has a huge amount of energy stored in it. Think of a 25W bulb, powered for 1-2 hours. In order to recharge it you need a really strong power source, which a solar panel is not (unless it is real big, mounted on a roof)
 
Well...

Well...

Do you know of any handcrank options then? Like those radios and flashlights? Is it even possible to generate that much power? I saw something on the web that is like a bicycle gear attached to a battery... but is there any oher way you could thnk of? Thanks
 
After reading your post, I remembered reading of solar chargers on a digital camera board.

Here are a couple links that might help you:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=18089178

http://store.sundancesolar.com/po5wafosobac.html
(looks like a decent solution)

maybe this:
http://www.solarcharger.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.62/it.A/id.64/.f


And here is the "solar charger" search response from the above boards in case you care to mine out other answers:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/search.asp?query=solar+charger&page=1

All the help I can be. Good luck.

-GageFX
 
I would estimate that to charge a video camera battery would be somewhat comparable to biking (using the special hand activated kind) for several hours as far as the amount of energy needed. Digital still cameras use much lesser capacity batteries, so it is more practical
 
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