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Welcome to the summer of solar! Why not soak up some free power from the sun? You can build
a solar charger for your phone and other gadgets, and then attach it to any handbag or backpack!
Practical enough for every day, and really handy for camping or trips to the beach.
Use Adafruit's solar lipoly charger kit to charge up a beefy battery, then hook up the
output to an assembled Minty Boost, our popular pocket gadget charger.
When you're out in the sun (or as long as your bag is), the battery charges up. You
can simultaneously charge your phone when the sun is bright, and the battery will keep
supplying juice long after the sun goes down.
Assemble your kits with flatness in mind: bend all your tall components over before
soldering. Pack everything carefully into an Altoids tin after making cutouts for the
plugs with tin snips.
Replace the plug on the solar panel with a 2.1mm barrel jack-- I just cut the alligator
clips off of this adapter.
Alligator clip: "save me for another project!"
Velcro tape comes in handy for affixing the solar panel to any handbag or backpack. We
have waterproof solar panels in a few different sizes in the Adafruit store.
As long as the sun shines, I can power my phone or mobile hotspot, and even use some
of that energy to cool off a little.
And don't forget, it's the summer of solar! Share your projects with us on our weekly
show and tell on Google+, and subscribe to the Adafruit YouTube channel for another wearable
electronics project every Wednesday.