Frag Out! Magazine

Battery might be charged with additional network charger with four regional adapters or through the solar charger. The solar panel is foldable. When folded the dimensions are 170 x 91 x 18 mm and it weights 214 g. after unfolding, its thickness decrees twice but his length increases twice. Its cover is made with the same material like batteries and it is also compatible with IP 67 standard. Unfolded, it reveals photovoltaics located at the both internal sides of the cover and measuring 77 x 127 mm. They are made in mPPT (maximum Power Point Tracker) technology to incre- ase effectiveness. In the lower part of the panel there is a USB slot with signalization light. When it is green, illumination level is adequate to use the cell. Unfortunately there is no gradation of this indication, so there is no knowledge about real cell status. Green light – the cell is loading, how efficient – that user will recognize only during the charging. The cell has capabilities to power devices plugged through USB (or battery set char- ging) and has maximum output power 3 W. in use GENErally WE may Say ThaT ThE maNUFaCTUrEr DoES NoT lIE IN ITS CommErCIalS. Declared charging time through solar panels of 18 – 22 hours with favorable circumstances is close to reality. of course, a lot de- pends on weather, more sunlight, less cloud cover – faster charging. yet one cannot count on one day worth of sunlight to be enough to charge a whole battery set with this relatively small photovoltaics surface – it shouldn't be and it isn't a surprise. Charging from the power grid will take 5 hours, so significantly shorter but on the other hand you can add panel to your rucksack and charge during the march. For free, without access to electricity, but ultimately a little bit long. obviously, charging device might be plugged in directly to the panel. We have tested this mode using a Samsung Galaxy SII cellphone. The handset with active navigation, hi- ghlighted display, Bluetooth, plugged to the charger did not charge up, but energy consumption has decreased markedly. In case of cell phone in stand-by mode solar charger will charge it up, but it takes significantly longer than from power grid. The panel is mountable to the rucksack with flat elastic Velcro tape – it works with most equipment. We have found the battery kit to be effec- tive. The manufacturer's declaration of the battery kit being capable of 4-6 smartphone charging is compatible with what we have experienced in our testing. This performance is of course dependable on battery capa- city of the charged device. The test performed using Samsung SII, iPhone 5S and lG E610 phones have shown we were able to charge those devices 4 – 6 times, depending on battery level (normally it was 10-20 %) and whether we have used or not the phone during charging. The time to full charge has been from 2 to 3 hours. Similar effects were found with char- ging old PDa Pocket looX used as a navigation tool. So if somebody's focus is on quick charging - we suggest the use of the power bank, it will be faster and more solid than solar panel. The latter one should be used mostly to charge the power bank itself and this is most efficient use of this set. Sometimes power pack was little bit fussy but to plug it out and in couple of times helps to resolve the hiccup. www.fragoutmag.com

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