Solar or AA/AAA battery USB chargers

[stuza]

Hi Guys
Im going to download festival in a week and need some extra juice and I was wondering if anyone any experience of any of the AA/AAA/Solar power usb chargers? Are they any good? How long will they take to charge a phone battery (in my case 1500mah)? Will one set of AA/AAA batteries charge a phone fully and how quick?

Example Ebay Items[/URL]

Thanks!

[Bassey]

Hi Stuza. No experience of those but I have used one of these for a year or more now and it is excellent. It will re-charge an average device 1 1/2 times, so should be enough for a long weekend. It is also incredibly slim and light.

I think WaveyDavey has used one of the solar ones and was quite impressed, although I've heard less enthusiastic reviews from others. Probably depends on the weather!

For battery power you should be able to figure it out. For example, if the battery in your device is 1000mAh and you get a charger that takes 4XAA batteries at 2200mAh then you should get, roughly, 8 full charges from it. Obviously, it will never quite work out like that but it should be a rough enough calculation to give you an idea.

[stuza]

Hi, the device only carries 2000mah so not enough, only 1 charge+some extra for me

However this information:

Originally Posted by Bassey

....For battery power you should be able to figure it out. For example, if the battery in your device is 1000mAh and you get a charger that takes 4XAA batteries at 2200mAh then you should get, roughly, 8 full charges from it. ....

is very usefull! Thanks for that I know now that the AA battery power devices are exactly what i need. Cheers mate!

[Bassey]

Glad to be of help. Make sure the AA Batteries you get are rate at the mAh you need! Not all AA batteries are created equal. Some are rated at 800, 1100, 1500 etc. I paid a few pounds more for a pack of 10 re-chargeables each rated at 2200mAh, but it was well worth the investment, IMO.

[stuza]

oh .... so i cant just buy a pack of duracell for example?

[boz]

I use one of these here you will not run out of charge then, and it isn't too big.

I also have a charger that takes 4 AA batteries but will only give you around 1.5 charges out of a set of Duracells.

[Michael_Mcr]

I have used a power monkey explorer kit for about a year and it is very good (bought it on a whim from duty-free...you know how it is when you have your holiday head on...

The power monkey explorer rechargable battery is 2200mh capacity and outputs 4.5 / 5.5v @ upto 700mah, it seems to charge my Orbit2 at about the same speed as the Orbits official mains charger.

The power monkey solar charger outputs 5v @ upto 200mah, but will charge the Orbit2 or recharge the power monkey explorer rechargable battery in modest sunlight (wont do both at the sametime tho - even in V strong sunlight).

The power monkey explorer kit is very impressive all round.

[kakarothusain]

I think that they take more time to charge our phone since they have to utilize solar energy and convert it to electrical energy to charge our phone.