Customer Reviews

Sunlinq Portable Solar Panel Charger 12W 12V

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I recently purchased this Sunlinq 12 foldable solar panel to charge up my Tekkeon MyPowerAll 3450 battery pack while out backpacking. When I connected this panel to my voltage meter I was getting about 15 volts and 900mA under full sun. This is plenty of power to juice up any of my gadgets that are able to charge via 12-volt cigarette adapter. It charges my Sony PSP, my daughters Nintendo DS, powers my GPS unit, cell phone, my MP3 player...just a great piece of kit to have in an emergency situation when there is NO electricity or hook-ups. The panel itself is very light and made of good quality and folds up nice and small. I recommend using this solar panel with the Tekkeon MyPowerAll 3450 battery (to store all your power) and make sure to also buy the Tekkeon Sunbooster adapter for the battery pack which allows the solar panel to charge the battery much faster and efficiently. Great product!

I have the Sunlinq 12W, plus a 12V power stabiliser, and a cheap 12V charger for the NP-FH50 accus (used by my Sony HX1 photo camera).

Initial tests at home showed that the charger was active only if the sun was extremely powerful and the angle close to 90 deg. With not enough sun, not only the amps are lower, but also the voltage, so I had to add the extra 12V stabiliser to bring voltage back to charger minimums.

Unfortunately, even with the stabiliser, with not enough sun, charging takes forever.

I tried to use the panel last year, in a one month trekking trip in Nepal, at high altitudes (3000-6000m), with clear skies, and all I could charge was my GPS.

For charging the camera accus, I had to borrow the bigger brother of this panel, the Sunlinq 25W, from a friend.

Conclusions:

- 12W are probably the maximum power, with extremely bright sun; in real conditions the power might be significantly lower
- the charger characteristics are of great importance; if it is a cheap auto model, it'll probably stop working at about 11V you need an extra stabiliser
- for real applications I would recommend the bigger Sunlinq 25W


Liviu Ionescu

this works good if you get in a bad situation. I have a Motorola smart phone and it took 3-4 hours to charge it to 30% in good day light. Camping and hiking for several days and have a way to use the GPS on your phone its a great thing to have.