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Hello Again!
I just wanted to give you a short update on my solar charged kindle.
Short version: I haven't charged my kindle since 6-26-12 (other than by its own solar power)
Longer version: The little circut I presented above is doing a pretty good job. I haven't changed anything and it does exactly what I wanted. The summer wasn't a problem at all, since we had a lot of sun. The heat problem turned out to be not that big. It was just during this extremely hot week with no wind and on a tin roof that I couldn't turn my kindle on when it had been sitting in the sun for a couple of hours. As soon as there is a little wind, it always will turn on.
Now with the winter begining, I was afraid that there wouldn't be enough sunlight, but even with two weeks without direct sunlight (heavy clouds) I had no problems.
It turned out that "random sunlight" (that hits your kindle if you just put it somewhere randomly, the solar cell facing upwards) is not enough. Windows seem to block a significant amount of energy, so in-house solar charging just does not work. Now I just put it outside on sunny afternoons about once a week and that is enough...
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