Joshua Zimmerman has come up with a cheap solar battery charger with a USB plug that is much much cheaper than normal solar powered chargers. The new charger that he has created would cost only $30 or less to make.
To create this solar USB charger, Zimmerman has used a piece of good old Altoids tin, a solar panel of 4V or higher, AA battery holders, a USB charging circuit, two AA batteries & some wires among other things. The USP of this device that Zimmerman has created is its cost effectiveness. While normal solar powered chargers available in the market costs $60 or more, the “Altoids” charger would only cost $30. It will cost as low as $10 if the things required to make this device are bought in bulk.
According to Zimmerman the brain of this device is the DC to USB converter circuit which takes power from the AA batteries & changes it into 5Vs needed for charging USBs. This can easily be done with the help of a Lady Ada’s Minty Boost Kit or by buying one from e-bay or by taking one out from an USB charger.
It should take just a little more than two hours to build one of these devices from scratch.
The charger is said to be capable of charging every gadget currently being used by people including the latest Apple products. Zimmerman is known for creating cheap but efficient electronic devices. Earlier he came up with a solar powered emergency radio the cost of which was only $3.
Source: Treehugger
