AA cell Solar Charger - any idea ??????????????

[magnolia]

Hi
Has any one any experience of using any solar charger to recharge AA cells ( specially eneloop ) ?
Please inform me which charger do you use , which cell ( mAh ? ) , time needed to charge etc .
Regards .

[Mark]

I have a small one for AA's but it does not do an acceptable job charging in my opinion. It takes all day and if you get clouds during part of the day it stops charging.
What I have had satisfactory results with is a larger panel made for keeping car batteries charged, and plugging that in to a 12 volt charger.




This is what my solar charger looks like:


But I won't ever purchase one of them again unless I need something small compared to something a little bit bigger but works faster and more reliably.

[magnolia]

Thank you for your reply .
Would you please inform me how the 12 v charger work ( I no nothing how a solar panel works and what things equired to recharge eneloops ) ? .
Any brand do you recommend ?
Regards .

[Mark]

Hi Magnolia,

I am in the USA so I do not know what is available locally for you, perhaps another member here can provide some guidance.

However, the small solar panel that I use was sold for the purpose of keeping car batteries charged, but really most any solar panel advertised for 12 volt operation should work for you.

Likewise for the battery charger, just find one that can charge the batteries from a cigarette lighter socket and connect the two together.

[Mark]

Also, I did some reading on the eneloop batteries and they can be charged from any modern battery charger that handles AA "NiMH" rechargeable batteries. So the item to look for would be labelled "12 volt charger for AA NiMH batteries"

[magnolia]

Thank you .