Building a Solar Charger for my Icon V-8, help

[E-542]

Well, come June, I'll be camping out for two days in Morrow Mountain Park, and I want a solar charger for my HT. Easy, buy one...Nah. I wanna make it, be alot cheaper probably too! Where to get started? How many solar panels of what size should I use? Resistors? Diodes for voltage control? What about a system somehow to regulate the input voltage so I don't blow the pack from too much un-checked electricity from the solar cells? Never built anything like this before, nor using solar cells, so this'll be a first for me.

Stats on my battery is:
7.2V 1700mAh Ni-MH Battery

So, what should I do?

[E-542]

Bah and as for the title, I meant ICOM V-8 not ICON.

[LtDoc]

The best suggestion I can think of is to take a look at a few charging systems to see how 'they' do it, then duplicate the one you think will fit your needs.
I'm not trying to talk you out of it, but unless you have a source of fairly cheap solar panels, it get's expensive real quick. For as much as I use an HT, a few extra batteries is cheaper. I listen a lot but don't transmit very often. So, the batteries were a better 'deal'. If this would be for only an 'occasional' use, get the batteries. If you plan to use it for a regular method of powering your radio, then it may 'pay' for it's self over time.
Good luck.
- 'Doc

[E-542]

Well, this would be primarily as it stands for A: This upcoming camping trip, and B: Part of my ARES Emergency To-Go kit as well. From what I've seen, RS's solar panel kits ain't TOO bad, I'm just also looking for advice as well on how to do it overall. I'm new into making circuits and such, and haven't done it before.

For example, a primary question I have, is, would I need a resistor or somethin' to limit the power to the battery? So it doesn't over-charge or get overloaded? If so, what resistor type? How should it be wired? Series(I think)? Etc.

Like I said, VERY very new to this, but it's for times when mains power isn't available such as a disaster, power grid failure, ARES training scenarios, and camping trips where I should have abundant sunlight, but no grid-power. I've got till June so.

[LtDoc]

I don't have the addresses of them but there are several solar cell sites on the internet that can give you the information you need. There are controller/charger devices available, unfortunately they are not all that simple. You're right in thinking that there has to be some 'control' or charging batteries can get very 'iffy' and destructive. I don't know enough about it to be able to explain it so won't even try.
Good luck.
- 'Doc

[Squad10]

uplog » » Solar charging a Nokia N95

[E-542]

Thanks for the help LtDoc, least I know I've got the concept right, haha.

Squad10: That looks interesting... Wondering if through some trial and error I could replicate that for my HT battery, hm. I'll keep looking around before settling on one sole thing though.

[rapidcharger]

I think your bigger problem is fingding enough sunlight at mmsp. Heavily wooded (shaded)