Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger

Pulse

oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, January 8, 2008, 11:19

Today we use a lot of mobile electronic equipments like, cellular phones, GPS systems, music players etc... All these equipments are to be charged from an electric output to keep them working continuously. But what if you are at a place where no electric outputs are available just like in a forest or in a desert? The only option left before you is to use the available power source, that is the solar power. The Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger is designed to solar-charge your electronic equipments anywhere at anytime. Solio is Carbon Neutral and made from recycled and recyclable materials. Now almost any mundane gadget can harness the power of the sun to power itself. Winner of the Mac World best of show 2005 the Solio Universal Hybrid Charger recharges any hand-held device that you would normally plug into an outlet. Besides the normal cables included in the box, they also throw in different tips which can be used to power a wide variety of cell phone brands. The battery holds energy for up to a year and can be recharged by the sun or wall outlet. The Solio Hybrid Solar Charger is a truly unique device for keeping your mobile devices charged and ready for use wherever you're at. Aiming the solar panels at the brightest sun light the Solio will fully charge your devices in 8 to 10 hours.

The internal battery of the Solio is a 3.6 volt battery with 1600 mAh of power that will work very well for many devices. The Solio will charge from 4 volt to 12 volt devices by doubling or tripling the power output using the adapters. There are four contacts in the adapter tip system cable and to get up to the higher 12 volts it just uses three of these outputs at 3.6 volts to get the 10.8 volts for these higher voltage charges. The fourth contact would be your negative contact for your circuit.

The Solio has three blades that are connected at the center with a plastic clip that you can place a pencil or other long thin object in to prop it up for a good angle pointing at the sun. The one side of the three blades is a rubber coated plastic and the area around the solar cells are about a 16th inch taller than the cells. This protects the cells from scratches and the entire Solio charger is pretty light but very rugged. There are two connectors on the body of the charger, one for the power adapter and the other for the adapter tip system cable. There is a rubber cover that you can close over these connections and you should only have one of these cables plugged in at any time. There is an indicator light for when your charging the internal battery or other devices and you just have to see the light blinking or red for its indication.

The compact design fits in your pocket or handbag then folds out like a fan to set it in the sun to charge. It also charges from a wall outlet with the included 115V AC adapter. The built-in lithium-ion battery stores the energy until you want to charge your device. The Solio Hybrid Solar Charger is a really neat way to charge many hand-held and portable devices on the go and when you're not near wall outlets and power lines. For true outdoor use the Solio is great, as long as it's at least partly sunny.