Originally Posted by
travelinhobo
... I'm interested in finding a solar charger for my stupid phone only so I don't have to waste time at the library every day. I live on my bike, ....
You really need to assess which is better for you, dynohub with charger or solar panel.
Dynohub. Dynohub and charger can cost a few hundred or more if you are upgrading because that means you likely are buing a new wheel plus charger. I assume you already knew that because you asked about solar only. The hub option is best if you are building up a new bike because then you are only having to pay for the hub and charger, minus the cost of teh non-dyno hub that you would otherwise have bought.
Solar. Some phones (especially Apple) can be very picky about the power supply. Some people have had to use a charger to charge up their power bank, then use the powerbank to charge the phone. I showed a photo of my solar charger above in post number 9, that would likely charge my phone if I had bright sun all day and stayed in the campsite where I could periodically re-aim the panel towards the sun. But my phone is not an Apple, it is not very finicky about the charger, it will readily accept a charge from a low voltage/low current source.
But there are a lot of other factors:
- Are you camping where you get a lot of sun or a lot of clouds?
- Do you have your phone on all day, or only part of the day?
- Do you use your phone for other things like GPS tracking?
- Do you do a lot of data downloading?
- Do you make a lot of calls?
- Is your battery reasonably new?
- A phone if it is near a cell tower uses less power than if it is often searching for signal, are you always near a good signal?
Since you have not responded to any comments yet, I have no clue if you are even watching this or not, so I am going to quit here.