I’ve been looking for a solar power solution to power a photon and rather than building something am thinking of using a solar battery pack such as those used to recharge mobile phones. Here are a couple examples:
Some Pros as I see them:
- No need to buy a solar panel, battery, or battery shield
- No need for a voltage regulator
- If needed, could hook up a separate solar panel to help recharge the battery
Cons:
- Solar panels are pretty small
Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Paul
Hi There,
Did you go forward with this? I ask because that seems like a good solution for a project I am considering, but curious if you had done it and what kind of results you had.
Thanks,
-Nicholas
I’ve done some research and haven’t found a battery pack solution that meets all my requirements.
On the positive side:
- It was really easy to plug the photon USB power directly into the battery pack and power the photon.
- The voltage regulator on the battery packed worked perfectly.
The issues:
- When the photon goes into low power mode, the battery pack turns off thinking there’s nothing attached.
- Without lots of sun, the solar panel on the battery pack isn’t large enough to keep the battery charged when powering the photon for an extended period.
- The battery pack won’t supply electricity to the photon and charge from an external source simultaneously, so attaching a larger solar panel doesn’t work.
That’s it for now, going to keep looking…
any update? I’m wanting to do the same thing.