Originally Posted by
JohnJ80
...
With the solar panels, I think it’s best to have a battery that charges at the voltage output of the panel instead through the USB interface that they all have that is going to drive the efficiency down.
I tried a smaller solar panel a couple years ago on a kayak trip, trip was two weeks with no access to anything to plug into. And a dynohub on a kayak trip, .. that ain't going to happen. I decided not bringing solar again. If your new panel is that great, I might re-consider.
But, I would prefer a USB port. There are smart battery chargers that are designed to shut off the charge when the battery is charged. I have a couple USB powered AA/AAA chargers and a couple Li Ion chargers. I would rather have a charger that has some smarts in it.
In the photo I have two Eneloop USB powered AA NiMH chargers that can handle two AA batteries, they are the white things hanging from the outlet, and one Li Ion charger that looks like a clamp that is holding one of my camera batteries.
And in this photo, there are four AAA NiMH batteries in the black box which I think is called a Power Chimp, the green light means that that battery is charged, the other three are still charging.
The black box opened up, disregard the white rectangle, that is a piece of foam that I put in the box when riding to keep the AAA batteries from rattling, the box is sized for AA or AAA batteries:
