DIY solar powerbank kit.

Be careful what you rub on that solar cell. A solar genie might pop up and ask how many mAh you would like!

It is glossy photo paper. Just a general purpose type though.

Big Clive

The tricky bit is finding a phone style battery that fits. If you got a perfectly sized bare pouch cell with protection then you could squeeze in more.

Big Clive

also a solar panel with bad connections will quickly murder itself.

That's from inside light though, any solar panel will only do like 5% normal output under artificial light because sun light has massively larger energy output.

Clive after a shot of a pleasantly orange-y orange tequila liquor and a beer and watching this video, I'd call it a case solar cell seconds. While this COULD be used for modern smartphones, it's far from optimal. Maybe for use with a really large cell and a really low load like an LED string or something? Maybe powering the core of an LED flame effect lamp? I've been using those quit a bit in my lamps of late.

Michael Thompson

30mA short circuit is almost useless, though. Even in Australia you'd get a theoretical maximum of 10 hours at (being generous) 20mA into a 4V battery. 200mAh/day is barely going to keep an old school candybar phone charged. I have a 5W panel with a reasonable USB output on it (no battery) and that's about 20cm x 30cm. Which tells you the main problem with that toy...

Moz in Oz

I was going to dive straight into this, but I've since gained control of myself and I'm going to go grab a goodly beverage first. (comments to follow)

Michael Thompson

Clive "..5200mah - I think that's close to the maximum you could fit on there.." - sounds like a challenge ;-)

Gordo

I wonder what you end up with if you peel off the laminate over the solar panel? If it's blocking much light, it might increase the output, although you made it sound like it's part of the circuit, so maybe not.

Daddy Bearcat

I'm guessing it's not weather-tight?

Daddy Bearcat

I've previously lost various external hard drive enclosures with the same book profile aluminum extrusions enclosures, good to see the tooling being re-purposed. Your print quality is fantastic I have to say - looks like you're using proper photo quality paper and not just the standard stock.