author's impression. (shoop by hun)
This project is awesome, and the video (posted below) is also great. It’s like your suburban handyman neighbor is hacking solar technology at a rave.
Plus, this is a truly useful idea. It is ridiculously easy to make a solar USB charger out of the solar cells found in those ubiquitous garden lights. The charger will power your iPod, phone and any other small device. It provided this guy with enough power to charge and run his phone, and it’s safe to carry in your pocket.
Cost: $10, probably. All you need is access to a soldering iron and a thrift store.
Here are the photos I used in the shoop:
my grandfather
solar lights
sempron 64 2600+
csc rave!
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YES! I’ve been carrying around a solar flood light that I found – broken – in the Trailer Park for a year now with the intent of turning it into one of these. I hadn’t had the time nor found instructions yet for this little project, but now I will make it happen!
Thanks for sharing this. what an awesome excellent post! Solar Panels are SO expensive and unwieldy but yet there’s TONS of these little panels all around due to the profit motive of gadget peddlers (do you have any idea how much money is made from having something like these garden lights made in China and then selling them to BILLIONS of consumers with a handsome 10 to 100% markup? Pity so many just end up in landfills or thrift stores due to our hunger for consuming cute products) – time we start re-purposing the detritus.
Give any suburban handyman an excuse to bust out the soldering iron and you have made a friend for life.
I want to do this.