Has anyone ever used the solar panels that are supposed to charge your electronics? I have been looking at them, my wife wants one to take camping. I think it's overkill, but she thinks we need it.
HikingGuy/ I have a Brunton solar array. To be quite honest about usage I only use mine on extended trips more than 2 weeks out. Today's batteries have come a long way.
I haven't seen any - but I don't think that would be "overkill". I am sure that they are good money-savers. You can't charge your batteries while you're in the wilderness, after all.
I have been thinking about getting one. I can see how it might be nice to have a solar charger to charge the cell phone. Still, the problem is that a lot of places I go do not have a signal anyway.
I have used this one Solar Panel battery minder for my cars while out on vacation as well as using it for my lawn tractors. It works just fine for that, though I'm sure an ingenuitive person could adapt it to power a cell phone charger or to charge a flash light.
Yes most places people camp dont have cell phone signals but you wouldnt want to have to walk out to a place to get a phone signal and find out you just walked 20 miles and your phone is dead. I can see the apeal to want to keep your cell phones charged even if you dont have a signal. I keep 3 ways of charging my phonewhen out. I have a usb adapter for the cigarette plug in my jeep so I could charge it that way plus the usb adapter can be hooked into my jump starter and charged that way. I also just got from AAA a hand crank radio that has a usb port that can charge a phone from cranking. Most places me and my wife camp are 30 to 40 miles from a signal but at least if we got that far we know are phone will be charged to make a call
I have a small solar panel that will charge a small battery, but I haven't figured out a way to charge anything else with it. Most of these you just lay the things on it and they charge. Seems simple enough.