Fishy-Fingers.co.uk (Flying Fisherman)

No mine neither, but it has been known to shine above us from time to time, in fact I think I saw it last week. Anyhow, this is just a tenuous link to what I have been messing about with for the last few months; solar power. Ever the optimist I got to thinking about solving a problem that more and more of us have these days when we go fishing, especially for those of us who spend a day or two, or much more on the bank. How to charge your phone, DS, radio etc.

 I have now got a solution in the form of the Power Bank, something that I and the manufacturer have refined and tweaked over six months. So what is it?

Charging a standard mobile using the P B

Basically it is a small but powerful battery pack that is rechargeable using various methods including the sun. Once charged it will keep its charge for up to a month and can deliver its charge to lots of different electronic gadgets including mobile phones. The battery pack (Power Bank) can also recharge AA and AAA batteries when used with the optional battery charging unit so no more flat batteries in your head torch at 2 o’clock in the morning.

Testing Other Chargers

I have spent months trying various other charging systems on the market and there are plenty to try; just have a look on EBay. The problem is that the phone chargers you will buy on there very often use substandard batteries and possibly worse still low capacity batteries. Also bear in mind that the tiny size of solar cell on the front of these would still struggle to charge the internal battery in the Sahara let alone an average spring or even summer day in the UK or Europe. Before buying any other solar charger check the specification; times of 15 hours to charge on a sunny day in China; how often do we get days like that in Northern Europe?

Even the standard solar charger for the Power Bank can kick out up to 2 watts of power whilst many of the ones on offer elsewhere will produce a quarter of that, this makes it possible to charge the Power Bank more than once in a day, let alone once in 20 hours (if you are lucky) when using one of the competition.

What makes the Power Bank system unique is the ability to add extra and if needed larger solar panels to increase the efficiency when conditions are not ideal.

3 times 2 watts, loads of power even on a dull day.

 That coupled with a quality 3000mah battery (most of the competition use less than half that) make this system useable rather than a waste of money, simply because it works! Check the battery in your phone, a smart phone like the Nokia N97 has a 1500mah battery so plugging a 1300mah battery into it isn’t going to result in a full charge.

By using standard USB socket to output power most modern phones can be plugged into the power bank using the cables supplied with them, or use the cable that is supplied with the Power Bank and one of the tips supplied or an optional tip to connect your phone.

So will it catch you more fish? Maybe. After all if your car is parked half a mile away and you want to plug your phone into the cig lighter to charge it up and you wind your rods in whilst your away then you are not fishing. Not to mention getting back to your bivvy and some scroat has ‘half inched’ your tackle, still at least your phone will be charged when you need to ring the police to report the theft!

Another little trick is the optional AA battery charger can also be used as a power supply should you need to, simply plug the Power Bank USB lead into the output socket, select the tip you need and plug your device in and as long as the batteries are charged they will transfer power to your device.

Charging AA Batteries

Do yourself a favour and get a Power Bank, for the price of a few kilograms of bait you can make your life on the bank a little bit more comfortable and when you catch your PB fish you will at least have a fully charged phone and camera.

For a very limited period the entire kit is on offer for £57, you can find it in our store.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 at 15:54 and is filed under Shop, Solar Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.