Soldius1 Solar Phone Charger
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 06.15.05
If this gizmo works as well as the promo blurb says, then Soldius, of the Netherlands, are on to a good thing. Applying a mysterious, unexplained technology called Maximum Solar Power Tracking (MSPT), the Soldius1 is apparently capable of charging a mobile phone in just 2 to 3 hours. This is much faster than the previously reviewed Solio. As of April '05, it was said to be compatible with a host of phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and most 3G models. Currently it appears not to handle iPods and Palms but anticipating such demand the company proffer this: “Soldius is presently involved in Solar Charging developments with leading manufacturers of Laptops/notebooks, PDA's, MP3 players, cameras and almost all other portable devices.” Forgoing an internal battery, as offered in the Solio, it weighs in at mere 85 gms (3 oz). Oh, and for those curious sparkies it has an output of 6.58V- 320mA. Seems that Vodafone are field trialling it in Australia. ::Soldius
Simply brilliant. I want one. And when will they start using solar power to run airconditioning. If it's hot enough to waist stakes of money and energy on aircon then it's likely to be sunny enough to generate it from solar power. Saving precious energy. I realise george W doesn't care about such things but the rest of the world does. Funny that!
“Applying a mysterious, unexplained technology called Maximum Solar Power Tracking (MSPT)....”
I am guessing this is some form of MPPT (Max. Power Point Tracking). This optimizes the performance of solar panels by adjusting the V and I of the solar panels output.
Usually this is built into the charge controller or inverter on large solar systems. The fact that they have built it into a small panel seems significant to me.
This looks great, but when and where can I buy one?
Not sure on the 'where and when' Rob. It would appear they are new start-up company and it was hard enough locating the info in the first place. When we become aware of product available for sale, we'll update the post. (PS. Thanks to PT for attempting to unravel the MSPT. Ain't acronyms just lovely!)
Hi Guys,
Thanks for the nice review of our Vodafone Soldius1. But it works fine with the Apple iPod, BlackBerry and more.
More products will be launched this summer.
At this stage we are looking for US Distributors.
Soon Vodafone will launch an international webshop where they will sell our product.
Other Solar based products, like displayed on our website http://www.soldius.com will be marketed by International companies, we just develope and design for them. We will keep you all posted.
Seems to be 40 Euros, according to this link
Hm, the link was lost. Better in plain text: http://www.portablegear.be/nieuws-detail.htm?NID=2624
ew! ew! I want one!!!!!
Soldius1 Solar Phone Charger.
Where can i get one of this charger and for how much?
If anyone is interested, my company is distributing the Soldius1 charger/powerplants. Feel free to go straight to my website and go to the "manufacturer" drop down bar. Scroll down to Soldius and view the models available. Feel free to contact me:mhackley@computergiants.com
marcus
These "direct solar chargers" have one problem: They work only at full or almost full sunshine. That means if you walk around with such a charger or there is only a small shadow the charging process is often stopped - and even a discharging may occur since the charging electronics of some PDAs, mobile phones etc. needs more power than the charger supplies! So this simple kind of chargers is not very useful in real practice, their energy should always be buffered by an internal battery. Regarding the "MPPT" advantage: you may find the same kind of solutions in other products as well, e.g. in the e.GO! charger series from Solarc. This might be the reason why they make such a "mystery" from this well known feature...