solar chargers again...

[Wombat]

My old Freeloader has died as the battery itself won't hold charge.  Now, as I have the "supercharger" for it (just a much bigger PV panel in a nice green case) I'd prefer not to throw it away. Could I just remove the battery and replace it with a much bigger capacity (same voltage) one?  I think its a lli-ion jobby of some sort.  Its purpose would be to sustain a smartphone whilst wandering about NZ.  Obviously it wouldn't fit back in its case with a bigger batery, but a bit of box-fettling doesn't worry me.  Electronics, thats another matter.

Should I have prefaced this post "Dear Kim"?

Now what the hell was that big phone charging battery thingy that someone here pointed out?  I can't seem to find the reference...  I will have acess to a campervan most of the time, so 12v charging is (mostly) available.  That, however, will also have to keep the Tomtom charged, as I'm not navigating my way all round NZ without it.

[Kim]

If you ensure that the voltage and chemistry (Li-ion,Li-Poly or whatever) match, it'll probably work.  It will take proportionally longer to charge, of course.

[Butterfly]

Did you mean the Trent phone charging thingy? I have no idea if that would work. I'd be interested to know though.

[Wombat]

Thanks Kim, I'll give it a go, and test charge it with clever charger from a safe distance...  I know what happens to mis-charged Li-ion cells!  I do radio controlled models, so am fairly O.K with chargers...

Butterfly, I'm not sure that was the one, but it certainly seems to fit the bill.  I'll check it out.  Many thanks.

[andrewc]

I recently bought that Trent and used it on a recent 2 week tour to keep and iPhone & Kindle running.   

It worked well for that but unlike my smaller Veho Pebble power pack you can't recharge it via a USB connection. It only come with a mains adaptor outputting 5V / 2000mA.

I was fairly disappointed with my solar panel, it never got the Pebble above 1 bar of charge and AA's that were charged via it didn't seem to last very long, despite the Extreme 500 charger giving them a green light.  I was just leaving it horizontal though, I'd probably have got better results if I'd have moved it around during the day.