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Originally Posted by CO'Neil
Yes, indeed. But which Solar USB charger? I bought the mysolidus.com charger for my PRS-500, but am not sure it will safely charge without killing the reader over the long term.
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That looks pretty cool. I'd be really tempted to just try it an see what happens - I expect that the 5V USB input gets regulated by the Sony to charge a 3.7V lithium battery so it really shouldn't matter if the voltage is a little high.
What I've done when I've been relying on solar is use a 12V SLA as an intermediate step. So I use a 12V solar panel with regulator to charge a 12V lead-acid battery, then run a 12V charger (car cigarette lighter one) off that. Charging any lithium battery off an intermittent supply is problematic, because you really want to watch the change in voltage over time as you charge the battery. That's hard to do when the power cuts out every time the panel moves.
My use for this is when cycle touring. I run a digital SLR, laptop, bike lights, head torch, flash, PHD and so on off the 12V SLA which charges off the solar panel. My setup is bigger than most people use because I'm usually touring schools and community centres talking about renewable energy. So I have a 20W panel, 18AH SLA and more gizmos than most people want or need when touring.
You could reduce that to a 1W panel and 2AH battery for a total weight of about 1kg if you had good sunlight most of the time.