SolarJolla
 

http://oi44.tinypic.com/2i1h17m.jpg

This will happen. Charging your phone is a thing of the past.

Stay tuned for more.....

Re: SolarJolla
 

great. So this is community spirit. :)
I don't know in which state this is, but I hope that panel will somehow be more integrated (blended) in TOH, I would like to se TOH flat as it is now.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Some calculations.

-From this post I found that the phone will run for two days with everything turned off. The shortest day in Holland is 8 hours, so for two days I have 16 hours of sunlight.

The phone has a 2100mAh, 3.8V, 7.98Wh battery, which holds 28728 Joules. This amount of energy has to be restored in 16 hours. The solar-charger thus has to have at least 0.5 Watts of power.

The panel I have in mind right now has 0.935 Watts of power. This panel has to be hooked up to a voltage regulator to ensure a steady 5 volts.

With an input of 5.5 volts from the projected panel, the step-up/down dc-dc regulator has a measured efficiency of +- 93%, which leaves a comfortable .87 watts for the phone.

This is about 175ma @ 5 volts. Your regular laptop usb2.0 does 500ma, so its about 1/3rd of that.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Don't forget the power for the tracking device that will keep the solar panel constantly turned perpendicular to the sunlight.

Re: SolarJolla
 

The panel is 3mm thick, as well as the voltage regulator. So, I project the phone will we around 3mm thicker and will have slightly round back, like N9.

Re: SolarJolla
 

I would love if the other halves were stackable. Otherwise there will be constant switching, that is tiresome and I guess also wears out the mechanism that fits the halves to the back.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Solarpanel mixed with keyboard and NFC would be great ;).

Re: SolarJolla
 

I like the enthousiasm, but you do realise this will result in an enormous phone??

"And add a battery!" "And add a drink dispenser!"

1 step at a time.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Great project, but be careful with the panel's power rating. It is given for an incident light intensity of 1000W/m2, which is reached on a sunny day in central Europe around noon, with the panel facing the sun directly. As rule of thumby, a fixed panel installed at the optimal angle and direction gives the equivalent of 1000 full-intensity hours per year, a little bit less than 3 per day in average. It's more in summer, but less in winter, and depends strongly on the cloud conditions. So I guess your assumptions are a bit too optimistic.

To not sound that destructive: a nice addition would be an app that tells you the optimal angle based on time and GPS-location, using compas and acclerometer :)

Re: SolarJolla
 

Yeah, I thought about that, and I'm ok with it. I'd personally use an enormous (what is enourmous? 2cm thick?) phone most of the time, and swap the other half with a skinny one if I'm going out for drinks or something. This is where TOH is really powerful, and loads of good things could come out of it.

Re: SolarJolla
 

I don't mind the thickness, but I would like flat TOH. I don't know what is your plan for this, make them and sell them or just provide us with schematics. THX in both cases. And if it is the later I suppose that panel is just glued on original TOH. And in that case I hope for some 3D printed covers that will be a bit thicker in top area with a space to glue the panel. But that raises another question, how thick TOH can be without making negative impact on camera.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Pre-ordering the solar-oh will start in 2014.

Re: SolarJolla
 

You still have to learn a lot. We don't say "2014" or any such thing. We say "soon". :D

Re: SolarJolla
 

Sorry, pre-ordering will 'probably' start 'soon' for 'everyone'

Re: SolarJolla
 

NFC, seems to me like a patch sized antenna (looks to the other half of 808)
it's not thicker than 1 or 2mm maximum.

Despite the undeniable coolness of the Sollar OH I may drop it in favor of an attractive keyboard other half.

At that point I don't see myself swap my keyboard for the Sollar OH unless I am somewhere in the dessert.

What about stackable other halves? Can this I2C connector be passed through to another attached 2nd other third?

Re: SolarJolla
 

How fast can it charge?

Re: SolarJolla
 

is it so difficult to read thread with ~ 15 replys Polluter999 :confused:
it's all in #3

Re: SolarJolla
 

Search for "i2c nfc". These parts are larger than 2mm and the design problems are primarily software. Also, offtopic.

This is the whole idea of the Other Halves.

Yes, this is the whole idea of I2C, also: google.

Stackable OH's is the worst idea ever, get over it. Yes it is possible, just as possible as gluing you phone to a rock and throwing it in the sea. Still, terrible idea. And offtopic.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Sweet! :)

Re: SolarJolla
 

dude!

sry, can't resist to this one :p

Re: SolarJolla
 

Trying to remain constructive -before you glue somebody's idea to a rock an throw it in the sea - would you care to explain how swapping a camera / keyboard / battery other half for the Sollar other half is more practical than hooking up to a solar USB charger or just a wall outlet?

Apart from that I like the Sollar OH idea, only , it will gather dust when more interesting OH come around.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Just some back-of-the envelope calculations to check feasability: up-to date light intensity data can be found here (for Germany, but the Netherlands should be close to northern Germany in terms of "sunniness"). It's given in kWh/month/m2. To obtain the total energy harvesting of your module, multiply this figure by it's power rating (as they are rated for 1kW/m2 incoming radiation power)*. So for a 1Wp (Watt peak) panel that you leave outside in the sun during the whole daylight time, you can expect ~50Wh per month to be produced in October, ~180Wh in June, and maybe ~15Wh in December. A full charge is 8Wh, plus about 20% charging losses (rough estimate) you need 10Wh to charge your battery. This means in December you can charge your mobile ~1.5 times during the month, leaving it in the sun the whole day every day. And this does not cover self discharge losses and the reduced efficiency at low light intensities.

So, a solar back might be nice for outdoor trips in summer, but it definitely
does not make charging a thing of the past. And most of us do not have transparent trouser pockets, in south direction... As cool as this project is in itself, IMHO an external panel with a buffer battery and usb charger is the much more sensible alternative.


* actually, most cell types' light conversion efficiency is significantly worse at low light intensities.

Re: SolarJolla
 

This is a very strange calculation. Can you elaborate? At which step did you include the surface area?

Re: SolarJolla
 

The surface area is included in the rating of your panel. An 1Wp-panel gives 1W at 1kW/m2 sun intensity, this can be reached by a bigger panel with low efficiency or a smaller one with higher \eta. So for 1kWh/m2 of irradiation energy your panel gives 1Wh, which means for 50kWh/m2 a month it gives 50Wh.

Is this more clear?

EDIT: As said before, efficiency is in reality not independent of light density, and also the sun spectrum changes during the day which has different effects on different cell types (depends mainly on the band gap), so this is a simplification assuming constant light conversion efficiency.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Yes, this totally makes sense now.

So, during the winter you have +-2 free charges. In the summer however, with 200kWh/m2 per month, charging is no longer necessary.

This is more convienient, as in the winter most people are inside and in the summer outside. The beach does not have a lot of power sockets!

Re: SolarJolla
 

All these calculations are above my head and I feel no motivation to become an expert here...

... BUT:

My main use case for a solar panel would not be to use it instead of regular charging. Instead, I would want it to produce just enough juice that I can use the phone a little longer while outdoors. In other words: I would be perfectly happy if such a panel could make the phone "discharge at a slower rate" (if this is technically possible at all)

Is this a realistic expectation?

Re: SolarJolla
 

I would say yes, 2h in direct summer sunlight should be enough to charge 20% with such a panel (2Wh minus losses). The pitfall is that you have to direct it at least roughly to the sun's direction, and maybe that your phone does not like getting hot.

Could make sense btw. to combine it with an extra battery to make charging without the phone possible.

EDIT: And it's dirt cheap, this 1W-panel for example is just $3.50 in single quantity.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Quite pointless calculations, as no one sits full day outside holding phone in the way that it is facing always directly the sun. However, idea might seem to be interesting, but as I have used in the past Nokia 1610 with original solar battery (BBT-1L: http://www.nokiaport.de/content/de/a...pic/bbt-1l.png), I already know that we should not have very high expectations for such solution to actually significantly increase battery life of the Jolla...

Sorry to be bit pessimistic.

Re: SolarJolla
 

It would make sense to me for it to have it's own battery so that you can leave it somewhere with sun (while you use the phone) and pop it on when you run out of juice.

I would also be less afraid to leave it under direct sunlight than the whole phone.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Well, I am happy to tell you that effiency of solar cells has increased almost the same proportion that prices have decreased :)
The BBT-1L is ancient stone-age technology :D

Re: SolarJolla
 

That is my N900 summer travel setup (or if I travel in warm climates). I have to say I understand the pessimism, solar battery charging has it's drawbacks, especially since from my experience they tend to mess up the battery quite quickly. Also, I hope the Jolla has good charging software/communication... My first setup was a solar charger directly connected to the beast, but it usually just worsened the charge (software?) and confused the phone.
I still fully support the idea (and tech keeps improving). Remember, most of the population of the world live in warm/tropical climates, where this is useful all year long.
Good luck.

Re: SolarJolla
 

Would it be possible to add a solar OTH that also has E-link?

http://www.meetearl.com/

Re: SolarJolla
 

Hmm.. sure.. but where do you want to put the panel? The earl has it on it's back...

(Semi-)Transparent panels to exist, but are expensive and efficiency is very low.

Re: SolarJolla
 

I guess (as it does not show on the pictures) that the solar cell is on the backside of the Earl device, so where'd you put it on the OH if you are going to have large-as-possible E-Ink display on it? :p

---- edit ----
damn, @Oblomow beat me to it by seconds :)

Re: SolarJolla
 

I was more thinking It would be in the same screen. Or connect a solar case that could cover the main screen to the phone that you could open and close and charge it via nfc?

Re: SolarJolla
 

ROFL 10char

Re: SolarJolla
 

Fine, I will add keyboard, NFC, e-ink, solar panel and 5000 mah battery. Does anyone has a large bucket of glue for me?

Re: SolarJolla
 

In fact it should be possibly in the same screen panel. The biggest issue would be the cost. But at least we don't have to pay for glue...

Re: SolarJolla
 

http://oi43.tinypic.com/2lsi03l.jpg

solar cell and voltage-regulator are in!

this is a step-up-step-down regulator. quite efficient and very small!

When I find my solder iron I will hook it up to my N9 and see what happens in terms of milliamps!

Re: SolarJolla
 

cool , good luck.