Solar-powered Clip

I’m wondering if it would be feasible to use one of those cheap Chinese-made solar chargers with the Clip. I’ve seen a few selling for around $10 that are said to produce 5v @ 80ma. I’m assuming this is in best of conditions (full sunlight) and I’m also assuming that this rating is exaggerated. So let’s say one of these little gadgets can produce 50ma in full sunlight and 5-10ma in regular daylight. If I were to pin it to my backpack and have it always plugged into the Sansa, I might hope to get 10 hours a day at an average of 10ma, which makes 100mAh or 0.5Wh. It would obviously take a very long time to charge a fully depleted battery, but this gadget could at least reduce the frequency of charging. My concerns are the following:

  • Does the Clip need a minimum current to start charging?

  • I’ve read that the Clip needs to be turned on in order to charge. If that’s the case, then there’s no way to trickle charge it using 10ma, since just leaving it on will draw much more current.

The clip does have to be turrned on to charge.  I doubt your method would be effective.  I have a freeloader charger which works with the clip.  You do charge the freeloader battery first, then charge the clip from the freeloader.  Takes a while, not really that useful.

Conclusion: The Clip (along with most other mp3 players) is pretty much useless if you’re going to be away from a USB port for more than a couple of days. It seems like a stupid decision by Sandisk to require the Clip to be turned on to charge. Almost as stupid as not being able to exchange batteries on the fly so you can carry spares.

I think it is a matter of what you want to use the Clip for.  There are lots of players out there that use plain old AA batteries.  I don’t think anyone manufactures a player this small that you can change out the batteries on but I did have a small one that used just one AAA battery and wasn’t much bigger than the battery…It was a crappy player but it would give you music while you camped.  There are plenty of adaptors out there to charge the Clip in a car or by plugging into an AC outlet overnight at a campground, so you don’t actually have to have a computer with you.  If it is just the adaptor issue, search the forum because there have been lots of posts about inexpensive chargers.  I like your idea about a solar charger but realisticly, unless you are planning to abandon all technology for weeks at a time you should be able to use the clip with one of the alternative charging systems.  And if you really are planning to abandon electricity for that long isn’t an MP3 player cheating???  If not, invest in one of the inexpensive players that uses regular batteries for your trip and save your Clip for civilization.  Either way, I don’t think inability to solar power the clip is a major design flaw in this  awesome little player.  Just my thoughts.

@baloc wrote:

Conclusion: The Clip (along with most other mp3 players) is pretty much useless if you’re going to be away from a USB port for more than a couple of days. It seems like a stupid decision by Sandisk to require the Clip to be turned on to charge. Almost as stupid as not being able to exchange batteries on the fly so you can carry spares.

Few small players use removable batteries, as you probably have seen; where would you fit an AA or AAA battery in the Clip?  (I guess one could use button batteries, although those can be expensive.)  And you don’t need a USB port:  an AC socket is just fine, used with a readily available AC USB adapter (I have a small one from DLO, called the Power Bug–great for traveling around).

@delfsmith wrote:
I think it is a matter of what you want to use the Clip for.  There are lots of players out there that use plain old AA batteries.  I don’t think anyone manufactures a player this small that you can change out the batteries on but I did have a small one that used just one AAA battery and wasn’t much bigger than the battery…It was a crappy player but it would give you music while you camped.  There are plenty of adaptors out there to charge the Clip in a car or by plugging into an AC outlet overnight at a campground, so you don’t actually have to have a computer with you.  If it is just the adaptor issue, search the forum because there have been lots of posts about inexpensive chargers.  I like your idea about a solar charger but realisticly, unless you are planning to abandon all technology for weeks at a time you should be able to use the clip with one of the alternative charging systems.  And if you really are planning to abandon electricity for that long isn’t an MP3 player cheating???  If not, invest in one of the inexpensive players that uses regular batteries for your trip and save your Clip for civilization.  Either way, I don’t think inability to solar power the clip is a major design flaw in this  awesome little player.  Just my thoughts.

You bring up some great points here, which I’ll expand on a little bit.

  1. You don’t need a USB port to charge your Clip. I never charge my Clips or Fuze with the computer…in fact, you’re better off not using the computer to charge a Clip, because with an AC charger, your screen will go to sleep after you preset backlight time elapses, as opposed to with the computer, the screen stays on for a whole freaking hour. :wink:

2.The car charger…if you’re going away from civilization, are you driving to get there? Then charge your player in your car.

  1. If you really are away from electricity for long periods of time, but must still have your music, the Slotmusic player runs off a AAA battery, and microsdhc cards can be had pretty cheaply to use with it. 8GB card is less than $20, add a bunch of music to it, and plug it into the Slotmusic player, and away you go. I would suggest rechargable batteries though…even if you have to wait till you return to civilization to recharge them. :stuck_out_tongue:

@baloc wrote:

@I’m wondering if it would be feasible to use one of those cheap Chinese-made solar chargers with the Clip. I’ve seen a few selling for around $10 that are said to produce 5v @ 80ma. I’m assuming this is in best of conditions (full sunlight) and I’m also assuming that this rating is exaggerated. So let’s say one of these little gadgets can produce 50ma in full sunlight and 5-10ma in regular daylight. If I were to pin it to my backpack and have it always plugged into the Sansa, I might hope to get 10 hours a day at an average of 10ma, which makes 100mAh or 0.5Wh. It would obviously take a very long time to charge a fully depleted battery, but this gadget could at least reduce the frequency of charging. My concerns are the following:

  • Does the Clip need a minimum current to start charging?
  • I’ve read that the Clip needs to be turned on in order to charge. If that’s the case, then there’s no way to trickle charge it using 10ma, since just leaving it on will draw much more current.

The Clip does need a minimum current to start charging, this is why there are people who cant get it to charge when they use the front ports on their computers.

Using a charger that is not your computer does allow the clip to “Sleep” while it charges, so you could trickle charge it, assuming the Solar charger would produce the minimal current the player needs.

What I would do is for $10 I would get a charger and try it and see what happens before you need it, that way if it doesnt work you could return the solar panel, and try to find something else to charge the clip.

If it works please post It would be interesting to know. 

IIRC standard USB ports are 5v @ 500mA. The low powered ones are probably 200-300mA and have trouble charging. You’ll need 500mA or more in a charger. Looks to me like the solar charger won’t come close and probably will be a waste of time.

@14124all wrote:
@IIRC standard USB ports are 5v @ 500mA. The low powered ones are probably 200-300mA and have trouble charging. You’ll need 500mA or more in a charger. Looks to me like the solar charger won’t come close and probably will be a waste of time.

That would be my assumption as well. 50 mA is hideously low.

@miikerman wrote:
Few small players use removable batteries, as you probably have seen; where would you fit an AA or AAA battery in the Clip?  (I guess one could use button batteries, although those can be expensive.)  And you don’t need a USB port:  an AC socket is just fine, used with a readily available AC USB adapter (I have a small one from DLO, called the Power Bug–great for traveling around).

I’ve shopped around a lot and I’ve concluded that all current players that use AA or AAA batteries are junk. The only good one I’ve ever had was the Rio Forge. I went through two of them and now they’re getting very rare and expensive. The Forge was the perfect player: Small form factor, SD-card expandable, AAA battery, FM radio, bookmarking , stopwatch, and other software features. Sorry for getting nostalgic.

There are solar chargers out there that output 500mA @ 5V … how about this one?

http://www.leathermanstore.com/brunton51.html

@baloc wrote:

 

I’ve shopped around a lot and I’ve concluded that all current players that use AA or AAA batteries are junk. The only good one I’ve ever had was the Rio Forge. I went through two of them and now they’re getting very rare and expensive. The Forge was the perfect player: Small form factor, SD-card expandable, AAA battery, FM radio, bookmarking , stopwatch, and other software features. Sorry for getting nostalgic.

I just never get how the industry goes 2 steps forward and then 1 back with features.  Features people want often get dropped over time.  Why not just “do up a list” of all the great features and then make a line of players with them?  It’s not as if the features people want are secret–just troll through forums for a day.

@promisedplanet wrote:

@There are solar chargers out there that output 500mA @ 5V … how about this one?

 

http://www.leathermanstore.com/brunton51.html

Nice but it coasts 10x what the one in the OP cost. 

From what I see, the Brunton solar cells are also available in the higher efficiency types, hence their increased price.

The most cost effective way to charge with solar cells is to combine a battery pack with the solar array, allowing the use of lower cost (and lower output) solar cells.

Hmm… I’d love to sample the latest from the guys at Boeing…  Designing solar cells to work in a hard vacuum, within the extremes of space, now that’s a challenge most never think about.

Bob  :smileyvery-happy:

@conversionbox wrote:


@promisedplanet wrote:

@There are solar chargers out there that output 500mA @ 5V … how about this one?

 

http://www.leathermanstore.com/brunton51.html


Nice but it coasts 10x what the one in the OP cost. 

True, but the one mentioned by the OP probably wouldn’t work.  :wink:

 

I was just pointing out that there are solar chargers out there that would supply sufficient amperage.  I happened to provide a link to the first one I saw.

@promisedplanet wrote:


@conversionbox wrote:


@promisedplanet wrote:

@There are solar chargers out there that output 500mA @ 5V … how about this one?

 

http://www.leathermanstore.com/brunton51.html


Nice but it coasts 10x what the one in the OP cost. 


True, but the one mentioned by the OP probably wouldn’t work.  :wink:

 

I was just pointing out that there are solar chargers out there that would supply sufficient amperage.  I happened to provide a link to the first one I saw.

 

I may still try that one… I am just interested to see if it would work. 

The freeloader charger I mentioned is a solar charger (hence the name) with an internal battery that, when full, you use to charge whatever device you want.  Works with the clip like I said, but charging the internal battery on the charger via solar power is a long drawn out affair (thankfully you can charge it by usb too).  £20 in the UK. 

@summerlove wrote:
The freeloader charger I mentioned is a solar charger (hence the name) with an internal battery that, when full, you use to charge whatever device you want.  Works with the clip like I said, but charging the internal battery on the charger via solar power is a long drawn out affair (thankfully you can charge it by usb too).  £20 in the UK. 

Seems inefficient to charge a battery from another battery. If the player’s circuitry would allow it, it would make more sense to charge its battery directly.

@miikerman wrote:


@baloc wrote:

 

I’ve shopped around a lot and I’ve concluded that all current players that use AA or AAA batteries are junk. The only good one I’ve ever had was the Rio Forge. I went through two of them and now they’re getting very rare and expensive. The Forge was the perfect player: Small form factor, SD-card expandable, AAA battery, FM radio, bookmarking , stopwatch, and other software features. Sorry for getting nostalgic.


I just never get how the industry goes 2 steps forward and then 1 back with features.  Features people want often get dropped over time.  Why not just “do up a list” of all the great features and then make a line of players with them?  It’s not as if the features people want are secret–just troll through forums for a day.

I think the reason for this is simple: Apple Ipods. One company sets the standard and everyone else imitates. A company could offer a superior player with tons of features for the same price as the Ipod, and I guarantee that people will still prefer the Ipod. The only way you’ll get them to buy your player en masse is by imitating the Ipod.

@baloc wrote:

The only way you’ll get them to buy your player en masse is by imitating the Ipod.

 

Hey, check out eBay, there are Chinese companies already doing that.

 

:wink: