Anyone know of a compact solar generator that works – possibly to power a laptop during a stay on an island without electricity?
an article
You may want to read the article mentioned here:
http://wavelengthmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=136
I think it is written by someone who works for the company that makes the brands he sells, so you may not necessarily need the brands he is talking about. But it does seem to be good at describing the amount of power you would need for various applications.
charging lap battery
and AA batteries is not the same thing. Laptop batteries are much bigger. I think if you want to use solar power to charge a lap top figure on spending around $1000 for an hours use from a full days charging. I'm thinking of a durable/foldable 30watt charger and appropriate circutry. I don't know what the appropriate circuitry is but a solar panels output is variable and the DC input on laptops is somewhere around 15v-19v. I have no idea if that has to be constant or what happens if it drops below that regarding charging/running the lap top. The power packs featured in the above links appear to be 12v. I'm not sure but I don't think you can charge a laptop with 12v.
I'd google more for first person experience on this stuff.
this is interesting,,19v @ 500ma/hr You couldn't run a lap top with it but if you have a 7amp hr lap top battery then 15hrs of direct sunlight might do it. I'd take that to mean about three days of charging for one battery charge use,,1 1/2 hrs?
http://www.earthtechproducts.com/solargorilla-solar-charger.html
Brunton makes some panels
Brunton makes some effective and rugged panels.
Hope it helps
http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=256
Charger
What voltage is your charger?