A large-enough, efficient-enough solar panel could power just about anything.
Advances in hobbyist solar technology allow ordinary people to create incredibly useful solar energy devices from home, including the latest trend, the "Solar Bag." An ordinary messenger bag with a solar panel affixed to it, the Solar Bag takes the place of a wall outlet, will charge your laptop while you're out and about, as long as it's getting sunlight.
It's nice and simple to make, too, requiring only a few materials and some basic tools.
Instructions
1. Strip a half-inch of insulation from the ends of the wires.
2. Flip the solar panel upside-down, and lay one end of the red wire against the panel's positive terminal, and the black one against its negative terminal. Solder the stripped wire ends to their respective terminals, and cover the cooled solder with a layer of vinyl tape.
3. Cut a hole in your bag corresponding to the size of the "active" portion of your solar panel, or the part of the panel covered with solar cells. There will be a translucent, nonactive border around the active part of the solar panel, which should be larger than the hole you cut out of the bag.
4. Turn the bag inside out, and place the solar panel over the cut-out hole, with the active side facing what will be the outside of the bag (once it's right-side-out again). The panel should be just slightly larger than the hole that's been cut, because of the nonactive border.
5. Squeeze a line of super glue around the nonactive border of the solar panel, and position the solar panel at the hole. Press the panel's nonactive border down against the bag's fabric firmly to secure the adhesive's connection.
6. Cut the laptop's adapter off near the tip that gets inserted into the wall. Strip about two inches of outer insulation from the wires inside, and then a half-inch of insulation from each of the interior wires.
7. Put the solar panel in bright sunlight, plug your laptop's adapter into the laptop, and test combinations of wires until the laptop registers an incoming charge. Solder the wires in this order, and tuck the laptop's adapter into the bag's interior.
8. Plug your laptop's adapter into the computer's power input, and put the computer inside the bag. Whenever sunlight hits the solar panel, the laptop will receive a charge.
Tags: solar panel, laptop adapter, nonactive border, adapter into, insulation from
